Oral History: Murray Lirette 9-Apr-15, 20150409.

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Genre:

Internet videos.

Nonfiction films.

Physical Description:

online resource (video file 1:07:46) : Sound, Colour

Place of Publication:

9-Apr-15,

Summary:

2nd Lieutenant Murray Lirette was born April 6, 1924 in Houma, Louisiana. His father was an Overseer on a sugar plantation. Murray entered LSU when he graduated from high school and in 1942 enlisted in the United States Army Air Force. He always wanted to fly and become a pilot; instead, he qualified as a Bombardier. After his training, he was assigned to the 351st Squadron 100th Bomb Group and stationed at Thorpe Abbott's Air Base in England. He flew 11 missions into Europe including two daytime raids over Berlin, on April 29 and May 7, 1944. These missions he said were the most difficult: "it was the heaviest flak we ever encountered and the Germans put up every fighter plane they had. We lost 127 bombers on the first Berlin mission, not sure how many on the second." May 11, 1944, was his eleventh mission and it would be his last. The targets were railway yards in Leige, Belgium; it was suppose to have been an easy mission. As he dropped his bombs on the target the right wing was hit and then they received another direct hit. He was blown out of the nose of the plane and managed to parachute to safety. Only three people from the crew survived. He spent the rest of the war as a German POW. When the war concluded he went to work in Huntsville, Alabama for the Department of Defense and worked with German engineers and scientist designing and developing rockets for NASA. He always found it ironic that he was working with the same people he had tried to kill during the war.

Notes:

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

Archive Reference: OH.3505.