Walt Haaser's B-17 Bailout

[Music] war is perhaps the most dramatic of human endeavors and that might be why the study war has become such a central focus for this study of history and while it's exciting to talk about campaigns and battles and generals and technology we sometimes forget that war is really a human experience a combination of the experience of millions of people who are caught up in larger events and that's why we so appreciate it here when a viewer shares with us the story of one of their relatives who help us to understand how large events affect individuals walter bray walt hauser was one of those millions of people who fought in the second world war a young man who enlisted as early as he could at just the age of 20 a bomber crew of 10 people depended upon him for survival grievously damaged they were forced to bail out over enemy territory one story of millions but a story that deserves to be remembered walt hauser was a 17 year old senior at weathersfield high school in connecticut his family had lived at weatherfield since he was three years old when the japanese attacked the u.s pacific base at pearl harbor on december 7th 1941 by law a 17 year old would be allowed to enlist with the consent of their parents and of course there are many stories of men lying about their age and enlisting at even a younger age but generally in the united states a man had to be 18 to enlist or be conscripted into the military walt had to wait until he was 18 to a list his official date of enlistment was december 15th 1942 the hartford current would later write that among the greater hartford applicants taking the cadet examination at the time his score was the highest he wasn't the only member of his family to enlist one brother spent 39 months fighting in the pacific another served as an army officer stateside while he was eligible for the draft walt hauser chose to enlist a decision which gave him relatively more freedom to choose his branch of service although it was no guarantee as the national world war ii museum explains if a man passed physical and psychiatric exams he was fingerprinted and asked which type of service he preferred though his assignment would be based on the military's needs when asked that question eighteen-year-old walt hauser wanted to join the united states army air force dr bruce ashcroft staff historian of the united states air force's air education and training command office of history and research explained in 2005 aviation cadet examining boards administered a three-part battery of tests in addition to a rigid physical examination to help identify those who might make the best pilots navigators and bombardiers men like walt hauser would undergo a battery of psychological and physical tests which would consolidate into a single score on a nine point scale ashcroft explains called a standard nine or stanine this composite score evaluated physical psychomotor and psychological attributes in an attempt to best match those entering the comprehensive training programs to the needs of the service you might imagine that pilots require the highest stanine scores but that's not the case navigators required the highest scores and a higher standard score did not mean you got to choose your position as croft continues because 97 of cadets wanted to be pilots the classification procedures first took in consideration the type of aircrew training needed by the service then the standing score and finally individual preferences it was through this process that the us army air force changed the trajectory of walt hauser's military service in a 2021 interview with house's wife margaret she explained he wanted to be a fighter pilot but his personality disposition check came back and he was not the type to be a fighter pilot however he was perfect to be a bomber pilot pilot training was a lengthy process all they've been somewhat streamlined in 1942 to meet growing demand although he enlisted in 1942 walt only qualified with his bomber crew from the training facility at gulfport army airfield in mississippi in january 1945. stale walt now in charge of a crew of 10 flying into combat was just 20 years old walt and his crew were assigned to the 353rd bombardment squadron part of the 301st bombardment group of the 15th air force the 353rd had flown from england with the 8th air force before being moved to north africa in november 1942 that supported the campaigns in tunisia and sicily and in november 1943 were signed to the 15th air force and moved to italy walt and the crew of his b-17g were assigned to lechera airfield some five miles from the city of lucera in the southern italian province of faja where the 300 first had been stationed since february 1944. from lucera the 353rd was involved in strategic bombing throughout the european theater including the german city of cologne margaret noted that walt never got over a bit of guilt of bombing cities with women and children on april 11th 1945 the 353rd was assigned to bomb a railroad bridge in the northern italian city of victopiano some 550 miles north of the base at luchira it was walt and his crew's seventh mission on board were ten crew in addition to walt a second lieutenant his co-pilot flight officer jack cole navigator second lieutenant gerald sparks toggler sergeant leonard king engineer sergeant robert forsch radio operator sergeant william brilliant ball current gunner sergeant andrew gordon photographer sergeant martin fishletter waste gunner sergeant george yates and tail gunner sergeant blaine gamble were aboard the weather was good described as c-a-v-u ceiling invisibility unlimited the planes attacked their target around 300 hours crew of another bomber noted that hauser's plane appeared to have a bad oil leak before even starting the bomb run while over the target the plane was struck by anti-aircraft fire when the plane returned to the formation rally point staff sergeant william kelly tail gutter on a nearby plane reported that hauser's number four engine had been shot out over the target and the plane was lagging behind the formation in addition a second engine kelly could not tell it was engine number one or number two was emitting black smoke another witness second lieutenant claude york co-pilot of another b-17 reported that hauser radioed that his plane had an engine out and was going to go to switzerland switzerland maintained a policy of armed neutrality during the war and attempted to strictly protect that neutrality both allied and axis planes frequently violated swiss airspace where they could be intercepted by aircraft of the swiss air force if a belligerent from either side entered switzerland they were by law interned for the duration of the war despite the neutrality the swiss could not be said to be friendly towards allied crews who landed in switzerland even when their planes had been severely damaged the website history net explains although officially neutral during the war switzerland was economically dependent on germany and totally surrounded by axis controlled nations a reality that colored the experiences of downed american airmen there since switzerland was a non-belligerent the men were called internees rather than prisoners of war but their treatment was in fact little different than that of a pow history that continues the entire country was under strict rationing hot water a luxury in wartime switzerland was turned on once every 10 days and then for only a few hours without cold heat their quarters and cold weather the men ate their skimpy meals of black bread potatoes and watery soup dressed in their flight suits and gloves they ate meat only once a week and it was awful usually blood sausage made from mountain goat still many allied air crews with damaged planes tried to make it to switzerland if their plane was too damaged to make it back to their base the general idea was that it was better to be interned in switzerland than it was to be captured by the axis while he was more than 500 miles from his base in lucera hauser was less than 200 miles of the alps from switzerland with one engine out and another smoking he apparently decided that switzerland was the best chance for him and his crew lieutenant york reported that they left our formation with a plane under control no shoots visible on the plane headed towards the swiss border at the time sergeant kelly said the plane had not lost much altitude lieutenant francis tinsler operations officer of the 301st bomb group listed the crew as battle casualties as opposed to non-battle casualties and noted that personnel were believed to have survived as the plane was last seen flying straight in level towards switzerland on april 27th the hartford current reported that second lieutenant walter hauser was missing in action in fact the german fire had badly damaged the plane eventually causing the loss of three of the four engines hauser would later write to his parents we tried to make it to switzerland but we couldn't make it over the alps the plane was ten thousand feet over a valley but the peaks were at our altitude and only 15 miles apart realizing that they wouldn't make it over the mountains the crew had a bailout of the valley as walt noted the bird was going down pretty fast with only one fan running the rule was that the pilot should be the last person to leave the plane walt was struggling to keep the plane level leaning between the pilot seats with his left hand on the pilot's wheel and his right on the co-pilots when he went to the bombay he had his flying jacket in his left hand and his shoes in his right realizing he would need a hand to pull the parachute's rip cord he asked co-pilot jack cole to attach his shoes to his harness at that time there were only three of the crew still in the plane the navigator lieutenant gerald sparks nicknamed sparky jumped then jack cole and then walt this was of course his first time bailing out of an aircraft crews were trained to wait until their forward momentum had slowed before opening their chute but walt wrote the ground was coming up like a bat out of wherever bats come from and so he wrote this i decided was an opportune time to see if the parachute was all that its admirers claimed it to be he noted that when the chute opened with a jolt by leg straps on the harness dealt the family jewels a mean blow still it could have been worse another one of the crew members pulled the rip cord and nothing happened forced him to go after the parachute himself although he did manage to get the parachute to deploy as he came down walt found himself in a bad spot falling through a high tension wire that scraped the skin off his throat from the atom's apple to the chin while the wires were not insulated luckily he wasn't grounded to anything and so was not electrocuted but he was still in enemy territory and he'd lost one of his shoes situation could have been dangerous walt didn't know it at the time but german troops from the nearby town of morbenyo what was unable to write the rest of the story in his letter saying that what took place after is a secret like many veterans he never talked much about the war but he did relate the rest of the story later to margaret who explained that walt was picked up by four or five men who identified themselves as the italian underground it's not surprising that walt was not allowed to write about being saved by the partisans german reprisals against partisan activity was brutal and could be carried out against innocent civilians as well as captured partisans the italian resistance movement played many roles throughout the war one of which was aiding allied air crews and escaped pows often using old smuggling trails walt and most of his crew were escorted safely to switzerland walking by night and sleeping in barns by day of the 10 crew only one member ball turret gunner sergeant andrew gordon was captured by the germans gordon being captured reportedly as soon as he landed the crew was interned in switzerland but it turns out not for long on may 8 the german surrendered to the allies news that he'd survive only reached home the day before on may 8 the hartford current reported that he had been recovered safely the same day the paper reported his brother chief warrant officer william houser returned home after 39 months fighting in the pacific the nine crewmen in switzerland were repatriated saving them from the mountain goat blood sausage and sergeant gordon was also safely returned when walt hauser returned to the united states in 1945 he used the gi bill to attend at notre dame university where he met and married margaret he earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering a master's degree in economics and re-enlisted in the newly created united states air force teaching rotc at notre dame he served for a total of 26 years and retired with the rank a lieutenant colonel spent the rest of his career as an engineer at an aerospace firm but he never forgot that exciting day in april 1945. margaret said that he mailed care packages to the people of morbeno and thanks for their rescue in 1957 he and margaret and her mother lilian went there for a visit he said the daughter of the only restaurant owner in moribeno sent photos of the playing wreck to walter she had some of the silt from walt's parachute when the daughter heard that walt and others would be coming she spread the word and the townspeople showed up to greet them she closed down the restaurant for them to have a private welcoming dinner they were happy to see walter they made a wonderful dinner for them walt hauser's story is just one of the millions of those who served in the largest war in human history he did his duty he faced the very real possibility of death and he found salvation in the form of strangers half a world away who risked their lives to save his and who would later become his friends he spoke little of the war and on may 13 2015 passed away at the age of 90. he left behind five children his family jewels apparently having survived their encounter with his parachute harness and among those was fred houser who was kind enough to share his father's story with us a father who as his oldest daughter said in her eulogy at his funeral was the sort of person that any of us would admire to be i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 64,477

Rating: 4.9872732 out of 5

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, b-17, italy, switzerland, wwii

Id: X6tvK8BYiWE

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021