80 years ago today – April 20,1945

On this day in 1945 my Dad, Frank Simmerly, (age 25) was copilot of a B26 bomber with the 9th Air Corp, 323 Bomber group flying a mission over Germany. The target was the Marshaling Yards at Memmingen Germany. The intelligence reports of the day had stated that all significant Nazi resistance to air strikes seemed to have collapsed and there was a relaxed mood in the bombing group. The mood changed when they crossed the Rhine River and found heavy flak.

The bigger surprise came as the group was lining for the bomb run on Memmingen. A group of ME262 German Jets began to attack the group. This was the first time the had every seen a fighter jet. The book Marauder Men by John Moench (retired major general) has some first hand descriptions of the attack from members of the group.

The pilot of my dad’s plane was Lt. Harvey Adams and as described below in the Marauder Men excerpt below, their plane was hit in both engines Lt Adams leveled the plane and turned towards home and told the crew to bail out while he and my dad continued to try to fly the plane. At some point Harvey told my dad to head back to bail out and to “wait for me”. My father never heard the “wait for me” part and bailed out by himself.

My father landed in a mud puddle with his 45 sidearm drawn. He was not sure if he was in France or Germany. Some locals came to help him and they were German speaking French. He was safe.

I took my Dad 3 days to make it back to his base. He was the last of crew to return . He found everyone had made it back before him. His locker was cleaned out and he designated MIA. He returned carrying his ripcord along with whis parachute on his back. Since parachutes were made of silk at the time, he sent the it home to my Mom. The rip cord hung over his desk at our home and was donated to the small museum at the airfield where he learn to fly.

The crew was sent to for R&R in Paris and when they returned the was was over. April 20 turned out to be the last mission of the war for 9th Air Corps. Germany surrender on May 8th. My dad sailed back to the US in the Queen Mary

When he passed in 2004 my Dad wore his Caterpillar Club pin that he always wore on his suit coat (The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft.)

Thank God for the greatest generation. #greatestgeneration