The Wilmington morning star., 1944-03-09
By ERNIE PYLE

IN ITALY,-(by wireless)-Most
of my time with the 47th Group
Of APO Boston light bombers has
been spent with the gunners. ALI
the gunners are sergeants. Each
plane carries two. They ride in
the rear compartment of the plane.
The top gunner sits in a glass-en-
closed bubble rising above the fuse
lage. The bottom gunner sits on
the floor during takeoff, and aft
er they're in the air he opens
trap door, and swivels his machine
gun down into the openhole.
Due to the nature of their mis-
sions and to the inferiority of Ger
man fighter strength in Italy, the
A-20 gunners seldom have battle
in the air. Their main worry is
flax, and that's plenty to worry
about.
The gunners live in pyramidal
tents, four and five to a tent. Some
of their tents are fixed up inside
even nicer than the officers 9TH
eTS are pare.
The gunners have tc stand in
chow line the same as other SOL
diers, and eat out of mess kits.
Now and then they even have to
60 on cleanup detail and help pick
up trash throughout their area.
They must keep their own tents
clean, and stand frequent inspec-
ton.
I found them a high-class and
sincere bunch OF boys. Those who
really love to fly in combat are
the exceptions. Most of them take
it in workaday fashion, but
keep fanatical count on the num-
Der of mission sfolwn, each one
of which takes them a little near
to the final goal-the end of their
tour of duty.
Ordinarily gunner goes on only
one mission a day, but with the
increased air activity of late they
sometimes go both morning and
afternoon day after day. There are
boys here who arrived only in De-
cember and are already almost
finished with their missions, where
as it used to take SIX months and
more to run up the allotted total.
Life in the combat air forces is
fairly informal In several days
on this field I've seen only one
salute. But that's all right, for the
Air Forces don need the same
type of discipline that less spe.
cialized branches require.
The enlisted gunners and the
commissioned pilots work so close
ly together that they feel them
selves in the same boat.
Gunners don't like braggarts,
either among commissioned Off
GERS or their own fellows. After l
got to know them they told me Of
some of their own number who
talked too big, and of some with
the bad judgment to tell "whop-
pers" even to their gunners.
One night I sat in their tent with
five gunners for about three hours.
After 1 had been with them some
time, their natural reserve in front
OF stranger had worn off, and
we talked and talked about every-
thing under the sun, and about
what men think and feel who ara
caught in the endless meshing Of
the war machine.
One by one they told me of the
experiences they had been through
EVry man in the tent was living
on borrowed time. Every one had
stayed alive at least once only bv
a seeming miracle. Several had
been badly wounded, but were
PACK IN action again.
When I started to leave. thew
said alphabetically. Were kind Of
ashamed. Here we've been doing
an the talking, when actually we
wanted to hear your experiences
Ana l tried to say, people like
you saying things like that! just
one Of your ordinary missions is
more than everything I've seen MT
together 'e 0een PUT
And they said, We'll, ANYHOW.
you don't know how much we an.
preclate your coming and taking
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