Subject: marauder radio operator
From: (Ron)
Date: 12/7/03 8:51 AM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

(ArtKramr) wrote in message
...
Subject: marauder radio operator
From: (Ron)
Date: 12/6/03 7:03 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

Got a new book out of the library, Marching Home by Kevin Coyne. In it
is a story about Bill Lopatin,radio operator on "We Dood It" with thw
322nd.
Seems to be a straight forward account of life in the Marauder over
Europe.
What say you Art?
Ron

Don't know. But I'll ty to find a copy and let you know.The 322 nd was a
good
outfit located just to the North of us.
Regards,



Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Hi Art,
A couple of things;
They had a load of 8 300# bombs and he pulled the safety pins off
just before dropping them. 4 didn't release so he re installed the
pins and they returned to base with them. Is this correct?
Ha had almost completed his 50 missions but when D-Day came the
criteria changed to an indefinite number of missions. Also correct?

Regards
Ron


None of it sounds correct. We had no pins, we had arming wires. They stayed in
all the time and were pulled automatically when the load was dropped. Any bombs
that failed to go out would have had their arming wires intact, and were
therefore safe. We never carried 300 pounders. We carried 8 500 pounders to
make upo the full load of 4,000 punds. But 8 300 pounders is less than our
limit but he could have flown a short load to get greater range. That is a
possibility. There never was an indefinite number of missions. When the war
ended you needed 65 missions to go home. That is quite a definite number,
This is one strange sounding book. I gotta get a copy.

Regards,

Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer