Why was the Greatest B-17 Gunner Erased From History?

January 29th 1944 a B17 bomber Soares into German occupied Europe a deadly sky that is filled with anti-aircraft and German Fighters painted on her side the bomber's name Buckshot Annie upon her tail Gunner hwit Dunn and his crew are part of a massive attack sent to take out the industrial hubs of Germany this is his very first mission and although he has heard all of the stories of the Lost and difficulty of striking Hitler's War Machine somehow he felt strangely at home almost like he belonged there but little did he or his Squadron know that he would soon become the most decorated and mysterious man in the Eighth Air Force during World War II flying more than 100 Missions in a B7 before the war's end it was said that by the spring of 1945 huitt Dunn could predict flak burst before they happened calling them out to Pilots over the intercom he was truly in every aspect a legend come to life so surely this man is an American hero with his name common among the pages of History not quite the tale of huitt Dunn is nearly impossible to find his story has been for all intended purposes wiped from the records especially his mysterious death he vanished at just 41 years old and any of his buddies and Veterans of the 390th Bomb Group never knew what became of him in fact we can see here that searches of huitt dun still pull up very little today and in all entries his death is not mentioned at all this is very odd for such an iconic figure who died at such a young age so now 80 years later he has been all but forgotten despite being the most accomplished heavy bomber crew member in World War II so the question is why why has such an important story been suppressed and what actually happened to this American hero let's find out to find the answer to this story we have to start at the beginning huitt Tomlinson Dunn enlisted in the US Army in 1942 just days after turning 23 years old he proceeded through his training as a heavy bomber Gunner with flying colors and in just a few months was assigned to the 390th bomb group in framlingham England after a handful of training sorties Dunn was soon declared fit for combat and was ready to fly with his Squadron across the channel officially joining the Air War over Europe at this point Dunn was assigned to be a tail Gunner riding alone in the cold exposed rear of the b7s unpressurized fuselage this would be the first of his 104 combat sorties during World War II and it was not any old milk run either January 29th of 1944 saw the largest attack put forward by the eth Air Force on a single Target up to that point of the war their target was the Industrial heart of Frankfurt Germany a valuable Hub of production which was known to be heavily defended Dunn and the members of the 390th on this particular day were lucky because of their position in the group they ran into no fighter defense and minimal anti-air Crafter Flack they had already begun their trip back home by the time the fighters were able to be scrambled and Flack teams could hone in on the bomber stream because of this from the tale dun could only watch as he observed the contrails of enemy Fighters weave through the bomber formations behind him amid puffs of black smoke it could have very easily been him there instead but it wasn't that was war for huitt dun it was one Mission down 103 left to go in the next few weeks he would see more missions in various aircraft as the winter of 1944 came to an end each one gained him valuable experience and time in the air in fact his first daughter Donal Lee was born on February 25th of 1944 and on that very same day huitt was flying with the 390th as a tail Gunner aboard B7 gung-ho in the Skies over occupied Europe this would be his ninth combat Mission and the target was Regensburg Germany like his first mission the following few bombing runs would see dun assigned to his position in the tail gun always watching for opportunities to defend his aircraft and crew but as he went along it became clear that the German attack strategy was head-on runs at the bommer formations and so it became more valuable to keep the best gunner in the nose of the aircraft rather than in the tail so he was eventually moved up to the nose where he served as the Bombadier in toly a protecting the 12:00 from the diving MMI and Fu ofal Fighters that filled the Skies over Germany in the early spring through these missions he became a symbol of strength and experience in the face of fear and Men across the 390th Bomb Group looked to Da for certainty in every kind of mission many years after the war one fellow Bombadier in the 569th recalled the role that major Sergeant Dunn played during the officer briefings prior to the missions the officers would watch Buck Dunn he would come into the briefing room sit down in a chair and lean back against the wall using the back two legs then after the curtain was drawn and the target was exposed if dun stayed leaned backwards against the wall they knew that they could relax the target was easy and the mission would be a milk run but if Dunn leaned forward and brought all four legs of the chair to the floor then they knew that it was a tough Mission and they had something to potentially fear Sergeant Dunn would complete his first Tour of Duty in April of 1944 that is 30 missions in 3 months where most men would have returned home for RNR or extended leave Dunn signed on for another Tour of Duty having been quoted saying I'm sticking around until D-Day I don't want to miss out on the greatest event in history history so his tour over Europe continued the morning of May 29th of 1944 would be one of the missions That Was preparing for this great event the target for today was the aircraft manufacturing plants of leap Zig Germany which were rapidly assembling measure smid 109 Fighters for the lufa for this Mission the 390th bomb group was ordered to provide 28 bombers the b7s took off from framlingham around 8:00 a.m. they formed up on schedule and took their assigned positions in the combat box without any issue and pretty soon they had crossed France and were approaching Germany during a 10-minute window in the Target area when the bombers from the main group were flying without an escort around 40 German Fighters took the opportunity to pounce they were experienced and aggressive German pilots and managed to shoot down two fortresses from the 390th sitting pretty and Yankee Doodle Dandy despite this encounter with the Germans the bombers arrived over leap Zig roughly around the time that they were expected however the planes from the main group were forced to call off their attack run and instead hit a secondary Target which was reduced to Rubble huitt dun and the rest of the group would return to England a few hours later but that night 20 men did not return to their bunks in framlingham this would be the Crews of the two bombers lost they would be replaced by new Crews and new aircraft just a few days later for many especially the rookies it was a trying Mission and friends were lost but for Dunn it was just another day he had seen many like it and knew that he would see many more by the time 1945 came about the crews had begun to refer to Dun as the Iron Man the Gunner who was invincible he had been at the front for more than a year and had more heavy bomber missions flown than any other person in England or even the world but despite the legend that was building dun's aircraft were not quite impervious this would be shown on January 28th of 1945 exactly 364 days after dun's very first combat Mission here two of dun's fellow crew members for that day recalled the events that unfolded this would be Wilson Shira and Richard Kohl's on January 28th 1945 we were on a mission to uh duberg Germany I was piloting The Fortress Richard Dick cows was the tail Gunner and huitt buck Dunn was the togger cows and Dunn had flown about 15 missions together and knew each other well we started on on the bomb run and there were little little black burst of flack ahead of you you could see it coming it was right in line with us Buck was in the nose as toggle are calling off the shots he calmly came on over the intercom and said hang on they're going to get us about 20 seconds later one shell went off the nose the next one came right through the floor and up through the ceiling of the Radio Room exploding just above the aircraft causing the entire plane to jump up in altitude then violently drop back down the final shell exploded just behind the aircraft and cow's seat in the tail gun when we were hit I just figured we got it I didn't know where the ball turret Gunner was screaming because he couldn't get out he didn't have any power he he couldn't get a response from anyone in the crew over the intercom until dick cows came on and said he was still okay cows crawled out of his position with a walk Round bottle and found both waste Gunners out he administered to them and then went forward to the radio room I didn't know what was going on I just smelled all the black smoke you couldn't see anything figured I was going to hear a bailout Bell cuz the minute that thing hit and exploded the aircraft went up and then just dropped Like a Rock from the explosion all of the radio sets were gone part of the bulkhead was gone there was a big hole in the top of the aircraft and the control cables were hanging down like spaghetti gun's inacom connections from the nose had been severed and it was unclear if he was still alive and able to drop the payload amazingly the radio operator was alive CS remembers I got him all hooked up and he was kind of stunned the explosion blew him clear across the room if the radio operator hadn't turned around in his seat he would have gone right up through the top of the aircraft and would have been long gone I had put the plane on automatic pilot and came to the back to assess the damage to the control cables then with help from the revived crewman removed the ball turret Gunner who was okay we continued over the target flying on automatic pilot and buck dun triggered the bombs away when the group dropped and we missed a getting hit in the bomb bay by maybe 8 ft cows had almost the same thought 2/10 of a second earlier and it would have hit the bomb bay and we wouldn't have had to worry about anything because it would have blown that ship into a thousand pieces when we look back at missions like this it truly puts into perspective just how absurd dun's record truly was there were so many times that 1 second sooner or later an around of flat could have easily taken his bomber down ending his tour also we can see just how seasoned the Ironman truly was by this point literally calling out Flack before it hits his plane the amount of experience one would need to anticipate things like this is truly mind-boggling but the Iron Man was not only a seasoned Gunner with a six sense but he also showed his value in other ways on this raid the group saw more than 700 bombers set out for England with orders to destroy a Naval Shipyard for this sorty huitt Dunn was assigned to the tail Gunner once again aboard B7 Buckshot Annie surely the crew of Buckshot Annie thought that they were safe with the good luck charm on board but they would be wrong leading up to the bomb run the 390th found themselves forced to climb up to 28,000 ft above a cloud Bank to provide cover from the Relentless flak that they were seeing over Germany this was 5,000 ft higher than the planned altitude for dropping the payloads and it would be more difficult to hit their target but it was supposed to keep the crew safe this decision was made because the sub Marine yards had become notorious for dealing heavy blows to the bomber Crews their anti-aircraft defenses were second to none this decision though would still not keep the crew of Buckshot Annie safe despite their conservative decision one of Dunn's fellow crew members Joseph giara was wounded by Flack while over the Target in vilem shaven Germany with the lack of enemy fighters on this Mission however Sergeant Dunn was able to leave the tail and help alongside other crew members hooking O'Hara up to oxygen and providing first aid to shrapnel wounds he remained with his injured crew member for the entire trip back to England and thanks to Dunn's help O'Hara survived the mission and would go on to finish his 30 mission tour as a Bombadier with the 390th the value of dun as a member of the Bomb Group eventually became so high that sometimes fellow crew members would go to drastic measures to keep him safe on March 21st of 1945 Sergeant Dunn was flying on his 94th mission where he elected to fly in a different position one that he wasn't used to for his first and only time in his career he chose to sit in as the top turret an engineer the flight was underway with all going seemingly fine prior to reaching the target however Dunn's oxygen mask and regulator system became unhooked and soon he col collapsed in the top turret because of his size being a star football player he had fallen with his head in a position in the top turret that made it difficult to get his oxygen mask back on the pilot Lieutenant Mel Myers got out of his seat to administer oxygen to bug but he did so without any walkaround Oxygen of his own and quickly passed out himself realizing this the co-pilot William n McVicker quickly acted and heroically Dove the plane down to a lower altitude so that the Navigator could help revive dun and Myers in order to save done the co-pilot had left the formation and headed the bomber back for home eventually once they were able to get the oxygen at a lower altitude Lieutenant Meyers and Dunn came too and they were able to make it back home dun was clearly a Priceless asset to the men of the 390th and this value would finally be solidified with one crucial mission in April early in the morning of April 6th of 1945 Sergeant Dunn and the men were back in the briefing room at framlingham Airfield the Iron Man chose his usual chair and in classic fashion reclined backwards on the rear two legs as he waited to hear the target for today the men all watched his posture as the target was revealed leap Zig Germany Sergeant dun slowly guided the chair forward onto all four legs as he studied the mission details here a tense air took over the briefing room the men knew all too well what this posture meant leap Zig was no milk run the airspace over that city was all too familiar to Hue it done having already been credited himself with shooting down an enemy 190 months earlier on another raid to the same area and now it would be the location of his 100th combat Mission here 37 planes of the 390th took off for England and headed out including the great mcti with Sergeant Dunn in the nose as the bombarder thick clouds concealed the target but the fortresses dropped their loads after watching their bomb strike the target they turned away and headed to England the tense atmosphere from earlier in the day began to lighten with every mile flown where was the enemy resistance flak fire was reported as meager and inaccurate at best and the bombers of the 390th encountered no Fighters the formation returned to England that day with zero aircraft lost and no casualties which was unusual sometimes you just got lucky and that was the case today but regardless he had done it the seasoned crew of The Great mcti piloted by Lieutenant Melvin Meyers had just helped 24-year-old Sergeant huitt Dunn reached one of the most historic Milestones ever achieved by any Aviator in World War II surviving 100 combat missions over Europe in a B7 the average lifespan of a B7 itself in the 390th bomb group was just 33 missions Sergeant Dunn had just flown three times that and still signed back on for more he would fly four more combat missions before the War's end but this would not be the end of his story in fact the real mystery was just beginning in the Years following World War II dun remained in active service serving with many other bomb groups all the way into the early 1960s he was to say the least one of the most revered and decorated enlisted veterans in the entire Air Force that is until one day in 1961 where according to most sources he simply died at the age of 41 no other info is available and details on this event are essentially non-existent when veterans from his Squadron and the Bomb Group found out that the Iron Man Of The Eighth Air Force was dead in his early 40s they naturally had many questions a group of them even inquired with local police in merid and in the town of Victorville California as well as his unit in the Air Force but still they were given no answers even local newspapers turned up cold for many years and while major Sergeant Dunn was well remembered by the 390th Memorial Museum and Veteran Memoirs for many years he remained a ghost in World War II history rarely being mentioned at all in documentaries and historical discussions but why we decided to dive into the archives and find out the reason that this hero was wiped from so many records in doing so local journalism proved to be the only remaining of official record of how huitt Dunn's tragic death came about and the answer to this question understandably after the war Dunn's personality changed like many veterans after seeing so Much Death and loss not everything was right somewhere deep down Dunn likely still had his own battles that he was fighting and it was noted by Dunn's superiors working on Castle Air Force Base that he had recently been given a low proficiency rating with had labeled him as argumentative and unsocial following a denied promotion he was frustrated and no doubt felt underappreciated still dealing with the difficult memories and Trauma of War one night dun and his wife Peggy went out drinking at the non-commissioned Officers Club at Castle Air Force Base when they returned home to their 8 Acre Farm huitt and Peggy got into a serious argument huitt then began beating Peggy seriously injuring her in the front yard when she came to she saw their young son Craig in front of the house with a rifle in hand aimed at huitt Dunn he fired five shots at his father killing him on the spot little Craig was simply trying to protect his mother after the incident some Publications disclosed Dunn's death as a Firearms accident with one newspaper even going so far as to state that huitt was teaching his son about firearm safety when the rifle went off by accident due to the nature of his death it makes sense that the details were never made publicly clear the last thing many people and especially the US Air Force would want is to tarnish the record and reputation of one of the nation's most stored military veterans especially in the middle of the Vietnam War but that is the truth of his death and that is how the story was suppressed despite this tragic ending huitt Dunn is without a doubt an American hero simply one that kept fighting his own battles after the war ended and made a crucial mistake he is a man that achieved something no other heavy bomber crew member ever did he flew 32 times as a tail Gunner one time as a top turret Gunner one time as a waist Gunner and 70 times as a nose Gunner or Bombadier for 104 total all by the age of 24 huitt Dunn never even got to meet his first daughter until she was over a year old in 1945 and continued his service long after the war ended we owe a great deal to our greatest generation and to Veterans like major Sergeant huitt T Dunn we must remember them in their glory and in their faults as well without men like him we wouldn't be here today thanks for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 899,005

Keywords: IL-2 Sturmovik, IL2, Flight Sim, World War II Flight Sim, IL-2 Great Battles, IL2 Game, IL-2 Highlights, IL-2 Flight Sim, Combat Flight Sim, War Thunder, Realistic, History Channel Dogfights, Historic, Documentary, Mark Felton, Yarnhub, TJ3 Gaming, Dark Skies, WW2 Air Combat, flying fortress, b-17 flying fortress, b-17 bomber

Id: EGpckna-PKs

Length: 22min 59sec (1379 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 21 2023