Letters from the Spring, 2004 Issue

Discovery

By James May

It's odd how surprising, interesting and often rewarding discoveries are made in the midst of otherwise unpleasant events. Shortly after my father's death in 1996, I was going through some of his memorabilia where I came across 4 "V-Mail" letters from his brother Bud.

I knew that my father and his older brother had both enlisted in the Army in the early 1944, and they had both gone into the Air Corps together. Both had become aircrew gunners. After qualifications, my dad stayed at the school as an instructor while his brother went on to crew assignment. Their paths would never cross again. Bud became a ball turret gunner on B-17s. My dad finished his instructor assignment and was assigned as a tail gunner to a B-29 crew preparing for deployment to the Pacific. Then came word that Bud had been killed over Germany. My dad was reassigned and remained stateside for the remainder of WWII.

That was about the extent of my knowledge of Uncle Bud. There was a plaque in the local fire hall: a nice recognition of his sacrifice. Sometimes during family gatherings or picnics, the men would occasionally sit around and talk about their experiences during the war (they would actually only talk to each other - my cousins and I would eavesdrop on the stories). There were some pretty interesting stories. Uncle Joe P. was part of the 101^st Airborne Division, took part in D-Day and all of their campaigns through the end of the war. Uncle Joe L. (Joe must have been a pretty popular name in for boy's born in the '20's) was an Army photographer, rode on some BDA flights out of Africa and later followed the ground action through Italy. Uncle Stan was an 8^th AF ground crewman/mechanic in England. But there was no discussion about Uncle Bud.

Now, years latter, I had some of his letters home dated November 1944 through January 1945!

I decided to search the Internet for information on the unit identified in the return address: 568^th Sqn, 390^th BG (H). I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of 'hits' from the search. I was even more surprised to find that there was an entire website devoted to the 390^th Bomb Group. And I was absolutely stunned to find that the website was sponsored by a museum dedicated to the 390^th Bomb Group and supported by a very active Veterans Association!

I was able to gather a significant amount of information on Uncle Bud, his crew, and missions. I contacted the museum research department and asked for assistance in finding additional information. Carolyn Beaubien responded with a scanned photo of the crew and information from the MACR.

My thanks go to the research department (especially Carolyn) and the Museum Foundation for making it possible to discover the rest of Uncle Bud's story. And a special thank you to all of the 390th Veterans for having the wisdom and foresight to preserve their struggles and their memories for the rest of us.

Uncle Bud's full name: William L. May

Editors note:

William May was killed on his thirteenth mission to Derben, Germany, 14 January 1945.  The air war was winding down except for this one mission where the 390th Bomb Group suffered its highest death rate of the war.  45 combat crew men were killed on this one mission.  The Germans made a desperate attack in order to protect their dwindling  oil supplies stored underground. Nine of the 390th’s bombers were shot down.