MY MOST SECRET MISSION - page 4 the untold story of Yalta by Al Eberhardt |
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The Mission That morning Colonel Harris made a pre-dawn take off with his Red Flight (4 planes); about 50 miles out into the Atlantic they made initial rendezvous with the task force at first light for the entire First Fighter Group. Red Flight flew cover for this part of the trip covering the task force as it came thru the narrow section of the Strait of Gibraltar at "full tilt" . Our P 38 combat flight duration was generally limited to about 6 hrs, even when using the auxililiary tanks. By using one flight of planes at a time, the squadron was able (with plenty of "reserve") to maintain "air cover" for the President's task force for all of the daylight hours. Our two remaining flights, while temporarily on the ground at Gibraltar, and the 71st, at Algiers, would be on a "standby alert" status, in case the active flight or the task force's radar indicated a quick "scramble" was necessary. At the appointed hour, Cpt. Gonring, and the other three of us comprising White Flight, took off singly, from our carrier-like field at Gibraltar, into the crisp mid-morning air. We formed up into a loose formation during a 360 turn, being very careful to avoid Spanish air space. We then picked up our easterly heading climbing slowly to about 10,000 ft. carefully scanning the horizon ahead of us. Just a few minutes into the flight we spotted the speeding task force and then the colonel's Red Flight. As we spelled Red Flight, Cpt. Gonring pulled up alongside the colonel's plane and they waved to each other (we were maintaining very strict radio silence); Bucky then proceeded to take his four birds back to the "Rock".; the colonel and his Red Flight returned to Gibraltar temporarily, apparently so that Bucky could send a coded progress report to Tunis, Algiers, and Malta, refuel, and head for Oran. I suspect each squadron was assigned a "top secret clearance" communications officer with a code machine for such a purpose. Our White Flight then divided into a pair of two plane elements, as pre-arranged. Gonring took his 2 planes to the opposite side of the task force and I kept our element on the near side. We then set-up a slow weaving pattern, with one element going a few miles North of the task force while the other element would go a few miles South; then we would alternate and repeat. Consequently, the two elements criss-crossed near, but never directly over the two cruisers ( the light cruiser was trailing the President's by about a half mile). We were really scanning the horizon hard for any suspicious aircraft. After several minutes of this, I spotted a Bogey at 7 o'clock low closing in on the task force from the Northwest. With my wingman on my right, I headed over toward him on an intercepting path at full throttle. From a couple of miles, I recognized it to be a DeHavilland Mosquito ---a very fast, all plywood attack bomber !! In a few seconds I was close enough to see British insignia on the fuselage. Bucky's final words at this morning's briefing were ringing in my ears, "Beware of the enemy flying one of our planes". We made a diving pass at him, holding our fire, and pulled up quickly in front of him narrowly missing his right wing. I looked back over my shoulder and he was still "boring in" straight for the cruisers. I jerked on the wheel, shaking my wings violently---he would not alter his course. Hoping he was on Gibraltar's frequency, I yelled desperately on the radio "Change Course, Change Course" Still he persisted, closing quickly on that two mile limit. I turned my gun switches on, made a quick turn, and set up to make a more serious pass on a wider (more visible) angle, coming in from his right and about 100 ft above his plane. From approximately 600 yards out, I squeezed the trigger and pressed on the cannon button, praying "please dear God, don't let me shoot down one of our own". I was aiming much further ahead than required so that my tracers would be flashing by in front of his cockpit. The four 50's and 20 mm cannon in my plane's nose were spewing out their deadliness. Just as he was about to converge with this lethal concentrated firestream, he must have seen my tracers and/or my guns blazing. When he realized what was happening, he suddenly broke sharply left, away from the cruisers and fled the scene with us in hot pursuit---- like killer bees protecting the hive !! Without any further shots, we escorted him several miles away from the task force before breaking off and returning to resume our weaving pattern over the ships. I think I might have accidentally squeezed my transmit button afterwards with a relieving sigh of "close, very close". All of this transpired in a couple of minutes but seemed like an hour. To this day, I don't know if that Bogey was just a curious friend or a deadly foe. If anyone knows the answer, I would sure like to know. As we continued our escort, I wondered could anyone in the task force hear my guns firing? Was the President out on deck enjoying the sun and sea air? Did he hear it ? Did it make anyone nervous? Did anybody on watch witness this through their binoculars? All of these still remain questions in my mind today. With no further intrusions, we completed our escort stint. At the appointed hour, we just barely perceived Lyle Baker's Blue Flight coming over the western horizon to relieve us. Without making any radio contact on the exchange, they pulled up into position and we headed for the La Senia Aerodrome at Oran, landing there in the late afternoon; in the early evening Baker's Blue Flight, having completed our squadron's daylight escort assignment joined us at the air base. Our C-47 with our crewmen also joined us there that evening and serviced our planes early the next morning. Sometime later I found out that the President's ship was in the Oran harbor that night since the Quincy and her destroyers required refueling. Back to Foggia Next morning the 8 of us (White & Blue Flights) took off in our P-38's for Algiers and those luxury quarters. At this time the 71st flying out of Algiers under Lt. Col Frank Jones' command took over the task force escorting. In the late afternoon, Col. Harris and his Red Flight joined us at Algiers; that evening some of the local military sponsored a small party at the hotel. The next morning after taking off from Maisson Blanche, we wanted to give their tower a proper departure “buzz job”. This proved to be a harrowing experience for Blue Flight leader, Cpt. Lyle Baker. We were in the process of "forming-up" our echelon over the adjacent Bay of Algiers. Baker’s guardian angel must have told him at the right instant, during a turn in this tight formation, to glance down just as his wing tip was about to enter the water. Miracuously, Baker was able to maintain control of his P-38 by temporarily withdrawing from the formation; he rejoined us shortly before we screamed across the airfield at a very low altitude. Depth perception when flying over water can be very deceiving. A friend of mine, Bill Ford from San Francisco, had drowned a couple of months before while training for combat with Capt. Gordon Buttles over Lake Lesina in Italy. Many fighter pilots were killed on training flights, and in combat, flying formation at low altitude. When you’re flying close formation on somebody’s wing you are so totally absorbed in controlling your plane to maintain a minimum distance (sometimes only a couple of feet away), you tend to lose track of how close the end of the wing on the other side of the plane is to the ground or water. If the plane you are following gets too low, the results are disastrous. We then flew nearly all of the 500 miles to Tunis in a loose echelon formation at a very low altitude (below radar detection). I guess you could say we were "buzzing" the grassy hills of Algeria and Tunisia. We saw many flocks of sheep grazing on the pastures with their shepherds just as they had done back in Biblical days. Occasionally, if we got too close and disturbed the sheep, an angry shepherd would throw his staff in the air, hoping to break a prop or dent a wing. Again we spent the night at the Tunis air base. Next morning 23 P-38's of the 71st and 94th squadrons, in widely separated flights, headed back across the Mediterranean toward Foggia. Unfortunately, after flying about 500 miles over water, as we approached Italy, a warm front had closed the Foggia area temporarily and we had to land at a B-24 base near Bari. After about a half hour's wait the fog lifted and we made the short hop back to our Salsola base arriving on the late afternoon of Feb.4. This concluded our 7 day odyssey and participation in escorting the President and other VIP's to the Yalta Conference. Our 94th squadron would remain on standby for the next 10 days, until FDR and his entourage embarked on their secret return trip. Eastern Mediterranean and Yalta At this time the 27th Squadron took over the escort duties.The plan was for the President and the Prime Minister and their key people to fly in escorted C-54 and British York transports from Malta over Greece, Turkey.and the Black Sea to the Russian Crimea.On Jan. 30, while our squadron had been initiating the escort in the Atlantic, the 27th Fighter Squadron , with a contingent of 25 men, 18 P-38 fighters and a C-47 transport, led by their CO, Lt. Col. Francis Pope, and joined by our group commander Col. Agan, flew from their home base at Foggia, Italy to the Luqua Aerodrome, a British air base on Malta. After two days at Malta, 18 large American and British transport planes with full crews had arrived and "squeezed" some of the 27th out of the limited Transients' Quarters. Colonel Pope then led half of his squadron on a flight to the aerodrome at Athens to await further orders leaving Major Ash in charge of those remaining on Malta.Their ultimate destinations would be the air field at Saki, then the larger field at the Simferapol naval base, both near Yalta in the Russian Crimea, and then eventually (after the Conference concluded) to the Heliopolis Aerodrome near Cairo, Egypt. Early Sunday morning Lt. Joe Demkovich, an acquaintance of mine from P-39 and P-38 training in the states, went into town to attend Sunday mass. After the church service Joe heard a familiar sound, looked toward the heavens and saw a large formation of P-38’s go by. Imagine his consternation when he realized the red band markings on the nacelles meant they were his own 27th Squadron. Joe rushed back to the base to discover half the squadron’s planes, including his own, had left Malta. Major Ash had pinned a note to his duffel bag that said simply and succinctly “get your ass over to Athens immediately or face a court martial”. In Luqua’s operations office he saw an RAF A-30-A (a Martin Baltimore medium bomber) posted on the ops.board with an Athens designation. When the Greek pilot checked in, Joe, whose parents were immigrants, spoke to him in Russian. The Greek pilots made the trip to Athens a memorable one for Joe. He was assigned a place by the waste gunner’s window while the pilot and co-pilot showed off their Greek daring and depth perception skills by staying about 10 ft. above the waves of the Mediterranean all the way to Athens. At the time, Joe wished he had taken the court martial and stayed on Malta. While President Roosevelt's task force was steaming across the Mediterranean to Malta, Winston Churchill was flying directly there from England (via Naples, probably at night in his C-54 Skymaster). The prime minister (like FDR), was also accompanied by his daughter, Sarah. He would join Britains’ top military men including First Sea Lord of the Admiralty Sir Andrew Cunningham and Field Marshall Sir Alan Brooke (both had arrived 4 days earlier via flights to Casablanca) Our General George C. Marshall and Admiral Ernest B. King had also flown into the Luqua Aerodrome on Malta with their staffs (via their C-54 trans Atlantic flights to Casablanca) for a 3 day joint strategy planning session. With a refueling stop, it would also have been possible for FDR to fly to Malta in his long range C-54, the Sacred Cow; however for reasons of: safety, health, and his need for additional meetings, he opted to take the extra 3 wks.and go by ship. I suspect he was not fond of flying, although his son, Elliot, was C.O. of a photo reconnaissance squadron based near us in Italy. The USS Quincy steamed into Malta under an umbrella of locally based Spitfires and docked alongside a British cruiser which had arrived earlier: Winston Churchill was waiting on its fan tail in anticipation of the arrival of his old friend FDR--they exchanged warm vigorous arm waves as soon as they spotted each other. The President's armored Lincoln was unloaded on the dock, he was welcomed by the Governor and then proceeded with Prime Minister Churchill in a fast motorcade to the Government House for a pre-conference meeting. That evening both military delegations would join the principles at the Governor's reception and dinner. During the night and early next morning they would board the transport planes for the long trip to the Crimea. In the early morning hours of Feb 3, there was a mass exodus of VIP's from Malta----destination Yalta, Russia. It started with our ambassador to that country, W. Averell Harriman and his staff (some Russian speaking Americans). The President’s personal interpreter, Charles E. “Chip” Bohlen was on that flight. They left in a C-87 (converted B-24) shortly before midnight and flew unescorted; most of their flight to the Crimea was under the cover of darkness and hidden by a layer of stratus clouds. To minimize alerting the Germans, the 18 transports took off singly over a 5 hr. period starting at 11:30 pm. The night of Feb. 2, 1945, the Luqua Aerodrome must have seemed like Los Angeles International without lights. All of the transports were flown at the relatively low altitude of 5000 ft. Most of the British contingent left in their York Transports shortly after midnight and arrived a couple hours after daybreak. The first American C-54 taking off at 2 am carried our new Secretary of State, Edward R. Stettinius and his staff. They were then followed shortly by 4 - C-54's carrying General George C. Marshall, Harry Hopkins, Admiral Ernest B. King, and their staffs plus the other presidential advisors. Most of these VIP's were escorted by a pair of P-38's. It was near daybreak when the President boarded his plane, a C 54 called the "Sacred Cow" which had been flown in by his pilot Col. Meyer a couple of days earlier. Using (for the first time) a special "on board" hydraulic lifting device, he was hoisted (wheel chair and all ) into the belly of his plane. The long 10 to 12 hr. trips to and from Yalta would prove be his first and last in this specially built C-54 Skymaster aircraft. This plane was a large 4 engine, fast long range transport built by Douglass; post war it would be known as a DC-4. Major Paul Ash and Lt. Guy Casey took off at about 6 am with their wingmen from Luqua Aerodrome immediately after the President's plane. The remaining P-38's took-off ten minutes later to escort Churchill's plane piloted by Flying Officer Fraser. In a few minutes Ash's flight of 4 P-38's established their escort positions with a 2 ship element on each side of the "Sacred Cow". While flying across the Ionian Sea in a close formation, Casey observed a female photographer (probably the President's daughter) at the plane's observation window taking photos of their P-38's. After approx. 6 long hours of escorting, they finally arrived at their rendezvous point over eastern Greece. The five planes then proceeded to fly a wide circling pattern looking for their escort relief flight. Late that morning Col. Pope, Lt. Edward Begley, Lt. Edgar Coury, and Lt. John Haring had taken off singly at approximately 20 second intervals from the air base at Athens. Pope made a wide climbing circle of the airfield while Begley and Coury intercepted him and flew formation with him as he set a southeasterly course. Unfortunately, this was to be one of Coury's last flights as he was killed in combat shortly thereafter. Because visibility was very poor, due to the inclement weather, Lt. Haring (the last one to take off) could not locate the others. After several minutes he made a desparate radio call asking for the flight's location. By now the others were nearly 40 miles southeast of the field, so, much to his chagrin, he was instructed to return to base. The three P38's caught up with the President's 5 plane formation around noontime above the clouds at the designated rendezvous point over the north end of Andros Island. There they relieved Major Ash's flight, and established their escort formation. There were two dangerous spots near their route; one was the 8500 ft high Greek mountain Island of Samothrace, the other was the heavy anti- aircraft artillery on the West end of the Island of Crete which was still under German control. They flew nearly over Istanbul, Turkey, which was cloud covered, and then out across the Black Sea. Meanwhile, Ash landed his flight at Athens where they remained for several days. As they approached the Crimea, they experienced some very nervous moments; it was now necessary to drop down thru the dense cloud layer while still trying to escort the slower C54. On entering the cloud bank, they immediately lost sight of the President's plane and had to "go on instruments". Flying blindly, they could only hope and pray that they did not fly into the President of the United States or one another or a mountain. After what seemed like an eternity of "sweating it out", they finally broke out of the dense fog-like cloud strata and, with much relief, saw the Sacred Cow behind and above them. When the C-54 and the three P-38's approached the Russian coast line in the Crimea, they were required by the Soviets to fly a certain pattern by entering a narrow air corridor, execute their identification procedure, make a specified right hand turn and then land on a relatively short strip at the coastal Saki Aerodrome. A few days before, when some of the British advance party were arriving in their C-47, the Russian gunners shot at them because they did not follow the procedure properly.Three other P38 pilots of the 27th led by Lt. John Hurst also rendezvoused at Andros and escorted Prime Minister Churchill in his C-54 (piloted by Flying Officer Fraser). Although they left Malta a few minutes after the President's plane, they arrived a few minutes before, briefly causing some consternation. Colonel Agan remained at Malta until all flights had taken-off for the Crimea. He then flew solo to Athens and refueled quickly. With Lt. Warren Danielson as his wingman, he led a flight of 5 P-38’s directly to the Saki Aerodrome. While Roosevelt's and Churchill's escorts and Agan's flight were not within sight of each other, they were all in the same general area. During the long trip to Yalta , if radar or ground observer information on enemy activity required it, a radio call could bring them to each other's aid. The Conference---a Tragedy in the Making ? Josef Stalin was conspicuous by his absence at the airport; the welcoming was handled by Foreign Secretary Molotov. Perhaps Stalin was still "smarting" from the many arguments the principles had over delayed timing on the Normandy invasion. The Americans were driven about 70 miles south across the mountains in a military motorcade. Their five hour trip on a winding mountain road was guarded by Russian sentries stationed about every 50 yards for the entire route. The President and his party finally arrived at the seashore resort town of Yalta after dark. Prime Minister Churchill and his delegation were assigned to the old Vorontsovski Palace, at the nearby town of Alupka, while President Roosevelt and his staff were quartered in the big, beautiful Livonia palace where the Conference was held. This magnificent structure had been Czar Nicholas II 's "dream house"; the palace had served as the royal family's summer home. Apparently the Conference did not go at all as planned a few days earlier at Malta; Josef Stalin was adamant in his refusal to give the French an occupation zone and a voice in managing post war Europe. Consequently, to appease the little (5ft. 4in.) Bolshevic, the French zone had to be carved out of the planned American and British zones of occupation. We must remember, at this time, this shrewd dictator had not yet declared war on Japan, territory concessions in Europe and Asia would be his price for such a declaration. Five years previously, this butcher of the male Polish intelligentsia had ordered the summary execution of thousands of Polish officers trying to survive in his austere Soviet prison camps. The first 4 days at the Saki Aerodrome our planes and pilots were constantly guarded by Russian soldiers with automatic weapons; this made our men feel more like prisoners than guests of the Soviets. Finally, the Russian Command relented a bit (after Col. Agan's protests) and took our men down to Yalta for some better food and "treated" ( ? ) them to a 3 hr. opera at the Yalta Opera House. All in Russian, of course; if anything, it helped most of them get caught up on their sleep. A few days after landing in Russia all of the planes were flown the short distance from Saki to the larger air field at Simferopol to take advantage of a longer runway. This would enable the longer take-off runs required on the return trips with full fuel loads. One night at Simferapol a freezing rain encrusted all our planes in a heavy layer of rime ice; P-38's were not equipped for de-icing. Early the next morning the fighter pilots joined their crew chiefs in laboriously removing the accumulated ice using wrenches and other tools as hammers and ice picks. That morning the first return flights began. FDR, knowing the resolve of the Japanese people and their total devotion to their Emperor, must have envisioned the loss of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers and millions of casualties as the cost of invading and conquering the Japanese homeland. The U.S. had already sustained nearly a million casualties. To have the huge and experienced Russian Army assist in this potentially bloody campaign would, in his mind, be worth the concessions. Unfortunately, Stalin, who was not anxious (like FDR) to send his troops home, would misinterpret this as softness and lack of resolve by the Americans and lead to many unnecessary confrontations in the cold war to follow. Photos from Yalta have shown the traiterous Alger Hiss, the State Dept's "expert" on Soviet affairs, at Roosevelt's side, giving (probably misleading) advice. During the winter of 1945 the President could not possibly imagine the awesome success the Manhattan Project would have that summer; we must also remember the very first test of the atomic bomb was not until after his premature death. If only he could have known how suddenly the killing and maiming would stop after a plane flight to Nagasaki !! Major General E. W. Watson, FDR's military aide must have taken a lot of "heat" from the top military commanders during and after the Conference. This stress could have been a major factor in the sudden fatal heart attack he suffered on Feb. 20 aboard the Quincy on its homeward journey. A few weeks later, the President would lose another close friend and confidant, the Episcopal Bishop of Arizona who passed away 3 days before FDR's untimely death. Shortly after his return from Yalta, the military/political developments in Poland made him realize Stalin could not be trusted to keep his word; Roosevelt never made public his promise to declare war on Japan. All of this must have preyed heavily on his mind, right up to the end. |
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