WW2ONLINE.NL

My dad was a tail gunner on a B24 with 53 missions. On June 28th 1944 he was severely wounded on a mission over Bucharest Romania. His plane he was on "Flak Shak" was attacked by enemy fighters and took over 500 shots to it. He was wounded once but still managed to put a fire out on the plane and get back into his gunner position and shoot down a enemy fighter before he was shot in the head. 7 men had been wounded and the plane was in bad shape but the pilot managed to hold on and crash land in Bari Italy saving my fathers life. They were all split up after that and 2 were sent home but dad stayed and flew a couple more missions before returning to the states in dec 1944. He holds the Purple Heart, Silver Star. His men were all awarded the Silver Star for their bravery on this day plus his unit the 485th received the Presidential Unit Citation also.

by Linda Haley, daughter of Robert Hickman.

Captain Volney Wigg)ins crew-Original crew #66-(831^st Squadron

Front Row, Left to Right: Kenneth Leasure, navigator; Volney Wiggins, pilot; Matthew Hall, copilot. Back Row, Left to Right: Ed Hartupee, ballgunner; Virgil Anderson, top gunner; Francis Brittain Jr., nosegunner; Robert Hickman, tailgunner. (Missing from the photo are John P. Dempsey, bombardier; Martin J. Caine, radio operator, and Wilson B. Shimer, engineer.)

The assigned plane for this crew was “Flak Shak”. This crew was attacked by fighters on the 6/28/44 mission to Bucharest, Romania. Nearly everyone on the crew was wounded in the fighter attacks, but the pilots managed to fly the plane to Bari, Italy, where it was scrapped. The gunners were credited with shooting down 7 German fighters. The entire crew received the Silver Star for the mission. The above photo was taken after the medal ceremony. The missing crew members were still in the hospital from wounds. Matt Hall was later killed on the 9/13/44 mission to Oswiecim, Poland, flying with Captain Lawrence.

(Photo courtesy of Matt Rabe, grandson of Virgil Anderson. Identification of crew in photo by Linda Haley, daughter of Robert Hickman.)