Oral History: William Toombs 4-Aug-14, 20140804.

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Genre:

Internet videos.

Nonfiction films.

Physical Description:

online resource (video file 1:44:03) : Sound, Colour

Place of Publication:

4-Aug-14,

Summary:

William Toombs was born 8 May 1924 in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father worked for the railroad and to stay employed during the depression the family moved constantly throughout the state of Arkansas. When William graduated from high school, like his father, he went to work for the railroad. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Force in October of 1942, he chose the Air Force because he did not want to be assigned to the infantry. William was good with machines and tools and the Air Force trained him as an airplane mechanic and then assigned him to be a flight engineer for B-24s. He was transferred to Lincoln, Nebraska where he was assigned to the 493rd Bomb Group. The crew he was assigned to flew their plane from Nebraska to New Hampshire, then to Iceland, and finally reached their base in Debach, England. As the flight engineer William was responsible for checking the plane out with the pilot and co-pilot before each mission, he would also monitor the fuel during the flight and during takeoff he would stand behind the pilot and co-pilot monitoring the instruments. In August of 1944 his crew was transferred to a B-17, they had very little training on it. Their fourth mission aboard the B-17 was a bombing run over the IG Farben chemical factory in Ludwigshafen, Germany. They came under heavy anti-aircraft fire and German fighter planes were everywhere. There B-17, "Baby Doll" took several hits and they lost engines 3 and 4. They tried to stay with the formation but were unable to so they set a course to return to Belgium. As they entered Belgium they began to lose altitude fast. The Captain asked if anyone wanted to bail out. They all decided to stay with the plane. The captain crash landed the plane into a tulip field and everyone survived with minor scratches and bruises. William flew 20 missions with the B-24 and 8 with the B-17. His crew was sent home after 28 missions. William upon his discharge returned to Little Rock, Arkansas.

Notes:

Description based on online resource (viewed on 12 June, 2019).

Archive Reference: OH.3270.