Lt. Colonel Bill Bonelli, Combat Pilot, WWII (Full Interview)

our guest this week on Veterans chronicles is retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel William Benelli he is also a veteran of World War two he's a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor and he was a member of a b-17 bomber crew and we'll be talking about all of that in our conversation today colonel thank you very much for your time today thank you where were you born and raised sir Indiana Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh about 30 miles east in that area was there a history of military service in your family no no that I know of you joined the army the Army Air Corps prior to Pearl Harbor why did you join and why did you join the Army Air Corps goodness Hitler was in the news it was pretty obvious that we were going to be in a war that you couldn't get around that and at the time I would say there was a hell of a depression going on at that time and people wondered where they were going to get the next dollar was that bad and I thought it was time for me to hit the road how old were you when you joined sir yeah after walking after walking around she days with a dime in my pocket I walked into the recruiting office and I said to the sergeant I'll sign up if you can get me near airplanes he got on the phone spent about an hour more more and then he said to me there's no place in the stateside you'll have to go to Hawaii and I said I'll take it sure enough I was sworn in sworn and again in Harrisburg and was on a boat around through the Panama Canal for school and then Hawaii and things were very bad even in the military believe this or not I have to tell you my pay was $30 a month but they for the first four months they cut my pay to 21 the politicians of course looking for money cut my pay to $21 for the first four months and then I would got back to my $30 a month and I did my darndest to get into aircraft maintenance training to become an aircraft mechanic and that took a few months to get lined up to go to the aircraft maintenance course at in Hawaii finally I did in somewhere in 41 40 yes in 41 I'm now an aircraft mechanic and of course December 741 as you well know that changed things quite a bit do you want me to tell you of any incidents and oh absolutely let's absolutely let's start with the first instinct that you had something was very wrong I'm sorry please begin just by what you were doing that morning and and when you realize something was different well I would like to tell you what I was doing that night Saturday night December 6 downtown Honolulu was loaded with sailors first time I had ever seen it in over a year that I was already there so crowded the shore Patrol was thinking the inebriated back to the boats and I understand putting them in the Brig and after the brig was filled up they laid them out on the deck I heard that but I believe it I actually believe it that night I ended up on the north side of the island of Oahu Oh ahu and where we had a recreational facility it was a total flop we had barracks and a couple thousand mosquitoes but no messing facilities or anything like that but then we decided to spend the night there in early Monday morning Sunday morning go get breakfast at Hickam Field but the reason for me wanting to tell you this on the beach was a vehicle and I could see through the windows out over the sea two heads in the front and two heads in the back but before that I thought it was a lover's rendezvous I'm gonna go over there and get on a running board and rock the boat you know and then run away laughing and what-have-you but when I got within about 50 feet of that car and I noticed those four heads motionless I thought something was odd here and I'm now already backing up away from that four people I'm sure one of them what a grab me if I had got on that running board as I was backing away I noticed two antennas WIPP antennas on each corner of the rear bumper how high up they went I don't know but they did go up high and I felt something sinister you know so then I backed up real fast turn around and it ran as fast as I could to get away from there maybe four or five hundred feet and got behind a palm tree to see if anybody got out of the car nobody got out of the car so I guess they didn't see me now the reason I am want to mention that little incident is I learned maybe just five six seven years ago reading a book that General George C Marshall head of the chief of staff at the time sent a message to Kimmel Navy in short armor to anticipate activity but not pass this information to the lower ranking officers while here I'm an enlisted man I'm not an officer which by the way I would have to say exonerates the lieutenant in charge of the five radar stations when they were the one located at Diamond Head they radar operator was trying to tell the lieutenant what he was seeing coming that morning and the lieutenant ignored it because there were 12 I later learned 12 b-17 Flying Fortresses on their way to Honolulu and so that's what the lieutenant on the basis of that dismissed what the radar had operator had to say you get the picture yes and and I mention that is if if I had known about that communique I I think I would have been able put two and two together well okay so much for that that morning we were on our way an approaching wheeler field which is just a wee bit north of Pearl Harbor itself and Hickam Field I noticed three zeros overhead I didn't know they were Japanese I saw the red ball and I said to my buddies I said wonder who those airplanes long - I've never seen them before and and I said jokingly at least they thought so I said you know we might be a war and about four or five minutes later we sure were at war the Navy really took a hell of a beating there's no two ways about it though and they they just died bombed the heck out of the battleships parked around for the island inside of Pearl Harbor well I could go on and on oh I would want to say I feel I when I look back I do want to say that the reason for a lot of sailors downtown Saturday night was perhaps to show strength and maybe the top brass figured that him if there was any activity it would be from within instead of from without and here Yamamoto's fleet is about to 300 miles north of the island of Oahu it got the picture yes okay very good I could go on and on but I'll stop on Pearl Harbor right there and well let me let me back up just a minute just to fill in some details so first of all where were you standing with your buddy when he saw those zeros come through we were in the car and I'm looking up and there they go towards the wheeler field and then we're approaching wheeler field and so once you realized that was Japanese play oh yeah what did you do oh no I didn't realize who it was I did not know the red dot was Japanese oh I know but eventually he realized it was a Japanese attack yes oh yes oh it was an attack I thought what we do know and plus I want to mention the island by the way was 51% Japanese and I could see why they thought maybe it was from within and said up from without do you see but the point I want to get across right okay go ahead with your question sure so the word comes to you that there is an attack you find out somehow well no I see it you see it I'm in it right so you saw him you saw them actually bombed the battleships huh you saw them bombed the battleships oh yeah hell yes okay so then what do you do where did you go we oh okay we're I headed to the main gate God then went to the orderly room and this is Sunday now no duty but the accident was there and I asked the accident was about 3/4 of us was in the where do the rooms what shall we do and he said be damned if I know but anyhow I went to the supply to get a rifle to get a gun period well first I tried to go across the parade ground to the big barracks for protection which was a dumb thing on my part to do because they were trying to torpedo the large barracks I mean yes the bikes and I and and and that's one time I was fired on Iran in front of 1:0 strapping the barracks also and so I I lucked out he didn't he I turned around went back to my barracks I mean to the early room where the supply office was and to get the gun and what-have-you and here's a lineup already forming and that was another time that zero strapped a line and Cyril were hit but no fatalities and the supply sergeant says rank name and Syrian lover cyan't well after that strapping he says come and gentlemen so I ended up finally with a rifle and two belts of 30 caliber over my shoulders I guess I must look like Pancho Villa or something like that and and I got me a 45 pistol and my pocket full of 45 caliber shelves and what-have-you and I was ready for street to street corner to corner activity activity but here there was no activity I have to say this even though Yamamoto was very successful 100% successful in his attack but he gave it up in my opinion this is my opinion now by pulling all of his troops out back on board ship and left have I been Yamamoto I would have had about one or two shiploads of kamikaze type mentalities put him on the island and to round up the rest of us which they could have done and they would have had that island for they're ten years but here Yamamoto pulls all of his troops and heads back towards Japan I couldn't believe it he was successful but he gave up his victory didn't follow up on yeah yeah I'm glad you following me okay so much for that let me point out I wrote a brief if you put your my name William P dozen Patrick Benelli in your computer and then follow up with by four words my Pearl Harbor brief you will get a four page brief and that will fill you in as to what else I did and what else I thought and what better picture of my telling you so if you now hold on let's take a quick break right back with much more of the story of Lieutenant Colonel bill Benelli on Veterans Chronicles welcome back to veterans chronicles i'm greg caramba thanks so much for being with us our guest this week is Bill Benelli retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel veteran of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the b-17 bomber which we just found out in dramatic fashion you got reprimanded a little bit for making your the plane of choice three times on your form but once you explained it you got a thumbs up so now you're on your way to Hobbs New Mexico what happens next well Hobbs that's where I got my I was now a first pilot became my first pilot be on the b70 from there I was sent to Tampa Florida Park plant plant park and I was given a crew copilot Bombardier navigator and six Gunners I had then he'll let me tell you about my little Bombardier a very interesting they he was the first lieutenant the outrank me and I said what in the world they doing to me and then nice notice that he had a good gift of gab and I thought well well like that'll come in handy he can entertain the crew I concentrate on three things survival survival survival then I learned he was an instructor ba m'dear at no Deming New Mexico near the border look II can I get because he knew how to manipulate that Norden bombsight and so I was very thankful okay from there we went to Gulfport Mississippi combat crew training there were a few stories there but after I completed the combat training I was sent 200 field Georgia picked up a new b-17 and now I was on my way to Italy via Grenier New Hampshire gander Newfoundland and across the ocean to the Azores bunch islands just west of Lisbon Portugal and from Bezos down to Morocco North West Africa Marrakech and then from there to Tunis North Central Africa and then finally north about ten degrees north to Fuj Italy and what date is this what year what month this is oh I arrived Italy somewhere in September Oh 44 does that give you a absolutely well I I assume that uh we had cleaned out a lot of the peninsula if you were based there yeah so I arrived in foege Italy and I after four or five flights getting checked out the guy checking me out I had to check him out I think that had something to do later on and I was now with my own crew and after a couple of missions I was asked or I'm not quite sure whether I was asked or told to fly Squadron Leader so two flights of a checked out of Squadron Leader I said you're now a squadron lead and I thought it was rather early in the game but that was all right with me and the reason for saying that is I flew a total of 21 squadron lays in my last one a group lead 28 b-17 however I gotta tell you this about my second sortie as squadron lead Charlie squadron able Baker Charlie dog squadron four squadrons mostly I flew Charlie squadron about my second sortie I almost got blown out of the sky I didn't know whether or not I was gonna make it home and this is where being a mechanic on the b70 helped quite a bit by the way but anyhow I finally got back now I thought I lied awake at night something wrong here the position of Charlie squadron lead that's the third squadron in a row in inline squadrons in line to me was a pretty dumb maneuver it was without a doubt in my mind flying Baker Charlie dog lead kamikaze suicide no question about it once the Germans were darn good with that 88 millimeter they know how to use it they knew how to calibrate or adjust it or tunic to hit the squadron lead they knew they did know that the Norden bombsight was in the lead only in the lead aircraft lead squadron and once they picked up the lead able aircraft track to the target they now know pretty closely where the Baker lead and the Charlie lead and the dog lead aircraft would be it was that simple there it is and I was now going to say here take this squadron lead because I want to fly loose and jam it but after as I said lying awake at night from four or five nights I said to my moment here at breakfast Andy Fred Anderson let's go for a walk I got a question of course I already knew the answer to the question what I wanted to establish what I'm gonna do and what I've got to say keep it confidential just between the two of us emphasize that more than anything else so I said to have indeed will you have a problem if I extend my base leg before turning on to a a track other than the designated to the target in other words putting it in numbers let's say the digs of the daily course was as I use the numbers easy to understand zero three zero degrees well if I kept going on my base leg then turn I'd be coming in offset he follow me in other words here would be the designated track but I would go extend the base leg and come in on my track to the target did you see he picked that up right away and he knew why and he said I agree I agree I got you I got you if it hadn't been for that maneuver on my part I wouldn't be sitting here today and now how do I know this not once not twice not three times not four times I would say about 910 times that I witnessed it was more but what I witnessed when I'm on my final track to the target and I glanced take my eyes off my instruments and glanced to my right where I'm supposed to be or to the left where I'm supposed to me right wherein I was supposed to be three or four bursts they would have been direct hits now direct hits is what breaks you up and hits your tank the fuel explodes you're a ball of fire or break your spar your now in pieces you're now spinning in that's what would happen so I would have to say more than 9 or 10 times that I managed to avoid I was going to go to the Huayra headquarters and and say look I have a plan let's spread but I decided to keep my mouth shut because I might have gotten a different order that I didn't like would be prevent me from what I am already doing my dogs gardeners all according to my tail gunner is always following me so now I've got two squadrons out of the four squadrons off set and I stopped losing aircraft what more could you want I felt that there was [ __ ] on a part of the command top command not top but somewhere in the command my guts your blood that kind of an attitude let me give you an incident her own pronoun we were wrong final track and my vomit I said Benelli Benelli there's no bridge 400 foot bridge there's no bridge there I'm positive I I see their approach them from the banks and but there's no bridge what do you want me to do I said well which bank which side of the river has the largest buildings commercial buildings he says the left side I said put your crosshair London okay about a week and a half leader a colonel in the High Command so to speak came over to me and said if you had put your crosshairs in the middle of the river my score would have been higher now I grabbed your guts you see what I mean oh sure yeah I got 95% of the bombs which it was a good damn good within the thousand foot circle as measured from the river but I in this case had I had my Bombardier aim at the middle of the river with all 100 percent of the bombs they were pretty well balled up yes he would have gotten a little higher score but some of them were more concerned about their there are medals you get the point yes yeah I got to tell you that I'm angry about that if I if I sound angry I am angry because that's just the way it was yes indeed well so your instincts were correct not to ask for permission do ya do it your way yeah I bet your crew appreciated it though you know how did your crew react besides your Bombardier how did the rest of your crew react to to your strategy I'm not sure they knew I didn't like I said I kept it confidential just between the myself in the wall m'dear okay they didn't notice you were leaving formation oh no no that's that's a interesting point right there at 30,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 feet what you just thought out does not exist it's they're not concerned there they're in no way thinking of what the other guy is supposed to be doing they're trying to protect themselves it's altogether a different attitude as for anyone I'm never and in I certainly did at no time determine whether this guy should ever shouldn't have or where he was or wasn't even if he wasn't excessively loose so what am i answering yes yes absolutely you're doing your job they're doing their job that's right that's right that's what a boil down to it no time that I criticize anyone or found a difference sure we were loose at times many times I'm the only one that could put his wingtip in the other b-17s waste window I think that I did that when I was getting checked out in a big big inning of the game I was able to do that and and this pilot was supposed to be checking me out he was one of those like this he was passing so I remember one time passing through 17,000 feet he was sweating I mean I'm cold you know sitting over here in the copilot seat for this particular trip and and so he I tap him on the shoulder have a cigarette you know and I'll fly it and 17th I was a very little oxygen we finally got to turned on 100% oxygen to get the lighter lift and then finally got his cigarette lit and and then he dragged on that cigarette he needed that nicotine so badly and he inhale the ash was a red ass was that long he's sucking on that cigarettes you know and and I think that had something to do I was asked to be of a squadron commander because health except for landing takeoff for turbulence or so you only need two fingers to fly just keep it trimmed up you see it and I kind of stopped it so what were your most common targets was there some place you went oh I case yeah mostly marshalling yards railroad rail yards and some bridges now I have bombed oh well there was marshalling yard - I I was going to point out that I bombed at night a single aircraft using radar the lead aircraft had only the lead lead aircraft had the Norden bombsight and radar I did not have a ball turret gunner I lost him when I became a squadron lead pilot and I have to tell you I prefer that radar for navigation matter of fact I bombed the marshalling yard and being in thunderstorms and that bugged the hell out of me carrying bombs in a thunderstorm hell later they the brackets could break loose you know and hang up in the bomb bay that kind of stuff but I managed to do it using their radar it was a three-way conversation the radar gave me steers to the target and then he also told the bomb adir when I would be over a certain point physically over a certain point on the ground then the Obama dare with his judgment he would know how the how much greater distance it would be before the bomb hit the ground that kind of stuff it was so oh yes I know I was a little burned up about that one I said next morning I said to my immediate commander I said what did I accomplish last night he didn't answer me ten minutes later eyes I said what did I accomplish last night and he's become the commander and someone so wanted them to know we could bomb any damn time we wanted to my guts your blood that kind of stuff and well why do they even take six Gunners Messersmith don't fly at night and especially in weather conditions so why did I have six men in fear you know I want it known sure how many missions did you fly overall thirty four thirty thirty miss sorties yes sir mission in the 8th Air Force England you could have two missions for one sortie depending upon the severity of the trip and in the 15th Air Force at the time I was there it was an actual trip sortie so we use the word sortie in other words I made if they had been in England there might have been double I might have had sixty you see what I mean but I had made 30 trips sorties and once you reached that thirty what happened 3035 five more I would come home and you did Hitler blew his brains out and somewhere may made somewhere there my last flight was it wait a minute April May April May May somewhere there Oh my last flight was 23 April and that was my one group lead 28 b-17 and I think that was little I know there was a couple others just after there that's right that's right but not I don't think we went into May at all and I believe it was May somewhere there first part of May we were Hitler blue is not then the war was over may 8th is yeah VE Day so it's right around that time you're right I like to tell you another interesting story sure I asked to stay in Europe for about a month or two because I wanted to get see Europe from the ground but anyhow I didn't I I was allowed four Captains for squadron really we were allowed to take a b-17 on a trip recreational purposes you've never heard of that using government and it was signed by General twining that I was a no per diem though but I was allowed to take a b-17 to Israel and Cairo I got to walk up the steps Christ walked up and a few other things and in Egypt I got to inside that big pyramid that few people get the inside I had to almost crawl to get in there they picked all the samandar off trying to find a built-in entrance I couldn't find one so they cut a hole in so I almost had to crawl to get inside the pyramid and listen to this after I was in there for about cameras I wanted to get the hell out because the way that stones were stacked I thought was gonna collapse any minute listen sitting there for 5000 years but it sure didn't look like it to me [Laughter] mr. Bonelli it's been a true honor having you with us today lastly well you can also I know you want to add one more thing to what are you most proud of from your service well what am I most proud of yes sir I don't know if I can I'd have to think about that I I enjoyed it every bit of it and I'm glad I made the decision to stay in the service at the end of the war I had five years and I thought 15 more years I can retire I retired from the military at the age of 39 Wow yeah pretty nice but what I wanted to I was going to say there and I interrupted you trying to cut the story short I did a lot of other things I was not only a pilot I spent five years in Headquarters Training Command I had oversight of all any training for the Air Force and that she knew at Air Force space we went through the aircraft maintenance officer's course 32 weeks long equivalent to two weeks at Texas A&M and then I was an instructor in it and then I ran the course and then I went to this is why I ended up in Headquarters training command Scott Air Force Base and from there I had another five years before 20 I almost went to Korea but then I figured I had enough of that and one of my buddies in the Pentagon found me a slot in England I surely it was two years old they think at the time and so I could take my family with me I couldn't take family to Korea and so we went to England and stationed at Bentwaters and bacon ham and what have you this is now the Cold War I'm now in an organization with fighters jet fighters I'm already checked out in jet fighter as a matter of fact while I was at headquarters Training Command I sent myself to aircraft maintenance course two weeks long which I had established and then I called weeks later I sent myself to I think it was Hobbs to get checked out in the in the f-84f thunderstreak this aircraft delivers nuclear bomb tactical type small one fully loaded by the way they're number one Wayne tile on two hundred and thirty gallon tank and then a bomb under left wing also the small a bomb and then under the right wing 420 gallon tank almost as long as the fuselage of this fighter type fighter bomber it's a fighter aircraft used as a bomber and not another 230 gallon tank under number four pylon and what I want to explain this is all past history is no more and weed with missiles that changed the subject all the way around and the delivery of that a bomb was performing a loop over the target you drive right up to the target holding four G's and and you had another instrument keeping your links leveled in so you don't spiral out and and about a hundred and ten degrees up it releases the bottom releases and then on its way down and gives the pilot a chance to get out of there so he wouldn't get fried within the blast of the a bomb but that's all over with very interesting it's an amazing I enjoyed it career and social I was checked out in many aircraft aircraft maintenance also including helicopters I even went every chance I got there you do something like that I took advantage of it okay the most of those 20 years damn right I did yes sir well thank you for your service to our country and thank you so much for your time today we greatly appreciate it Lieutenant Colonel bill Benelli US Air Force retired veteran of World War two and also a b-17 pilot in the European theater I'm Greg corumbá this is Veterans Chronicles you

Channel: American Veterans Center

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Rating: 4.8804598 out of 5

Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, lt. colonel bill bonelli, lieutenant colonel william bonelli, fighter pilot wwii, pearl harbor survivor interview, wwii veteran interview, us army air corps wwii, distinguished flying cross wwii, B-17 Flying fortress wwii

Id: nlZgWL-t6-8

Length: 47min 14sec (2834 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 16 2019