Evening star., 1944-03-05
College Park Officer Is Veteran
Of25 Missions to Nuzi Europe

|" 70 missions
Moi. BortheI Wants to
Go to Medical School
When War Is Over
BY WALTER McCALLUM,
star STAT Correspondent.
ENGLAND.-Maj. Carl G. Barthel
of 1910 Erskine road, College Park,
Md, is shy grinning, blond young
man you'd never believe to be part
OF the remorseless machine that
slowly Is grinding Nazidom to bits
via air power. Here at Liberator
base, where the big geese Of the
upper air take OF almost daily for
occupied Europe, the men speak
with awe of slim Maj. Barthel.
He had just been made q major
when I met him at the Lib base.
His gold oak leaves were new and
shining. He accepted congratula- :
tions shyly, with wide grin. You
never would suspect he was q vet
eran of rs missions of death over
Maitland, nor that he took part in
the Ploesti and Wiener Neustadt
raids.
Jerry Is a pretty good gunner, and
an artful gent with devices to stop
air attack. Nor has the quality OF
the Jerry fighters declined to q
noticeable degree. He's still rough,
tough egg in any combat and a gent
who battles to the bitter end.
Maj. Barthel sat in the operation
on1ce smoking q stubby pipe. I'D
like to get a look at the United
States again." he grinned. How
are things over there? Do they
know we are fighting a war here?"
To Return TO School.
When Jerry tosses In the sponge
and the Japs take 1t on the lam
back to Toxic Maj. Barthel thinks
he'll 60 to the University Of Mary
land medical school. At n, he isn't
too old. he thinks, to study medi-
cine. Il had . couple Of years Of
premed," he says. That should
help"
With casualness bordering on
boredom, these quiet men speak Of
Ploesti. Vegesack, Hamburg, Wiener
Neustadt, Lorient, st. Nazaire, Bor-
deaux and other shows where Jerry
took pasting. They speak casually
OF the milk run" over the invasion
coast of nearby France, often called
the "rocket-gun coast" They do
that milk run" frequently, with SO
many bombers in the air you thrill
at the sound and power of the
impressive armada overhead. It
doesn't take long, the milk rum"
but Jerry knows the results in terms
OF strategic spots bombed out of
existence.
Yeah, Ploesti was quite a show"
said Maj. Barthel-
I'VE are briefed pretty thoroughly
on that one. We were told we might
expect so per cent loss in aircraft
and men. The ferries had quite an
elaborate petroleum refining layout
there, and they liked it. The fax
and automatic weapons fire was
something terrific. Did you ever look
an 88-millimeter gun right in the
muzzle, knowing it was shooting at
l. you?
They had trained for several
months in the African desert for the
Ploesti job and knew the capabilities
Of the sturdy Libs they were to fy
August /, 1943.
Hit Balloon Gables.
HE had a bunch of balloons up
over the refinery" said Mai. Barthel.
I'VE came in at very low level. You
could see the Lbs hitting the cables,
cutting them like a sharp knife
through new cheese and going right
on, spouting lead and destruction.
My ship didn't happen to hit q
balloon cable, but the main spar on
the Lib Is pretty sturdy. Some ships
had the wing cut right back to the
main spar when they cut the balloon
cables, but it didn't stop 'em. Moth
ing ever stops a mission short Of
death or total destruction.
I'VE had field day that day. For
months we'd been training in low
flight. dropping delayed action stuff
that burst through thick brick walls
and exploded after we had left the
target. But the big thrill most of
the boys got was fighting machine
gun against machine gun. Don't let
any one tell you Jerry isn't good
with that 88 rife. He handles 1t
like machine gun and it sprays up
a lot Of stuff. 1t isn't any fun to
gaze down the muzzle Of one OF
those things.
I'VE came over one spot where
some Jerry were standing out in q
street potting at us with hand ma
chine guns. When our .50-caliber
slugs hit 'em you gould see 'em spin
and roll againks the walls. They
had a lot Of automatic weapons,
machine guns and 20-millimeter
stuff scattered through the target
area, and we were down low enough
to give them a pretty thorough STRAIT
ing. 1t was the first real chance a
lot of us had at returning automatic
weapons fire at ground targets, and
a lot Of fun 1t was.
But the real fun was a few min
uteS before we hit Ploesti. The men
In at least 10 Libs on that trip said