KEEP ‘EM FLYING
make matters worse, they had to use mechanics, electricians and others to load the bombs, because there were not enough trained ordnance men. The bombs were loaded on shackles in the bomb bay, hoisted up by a hand-cranked windlass above. At that time, they were fusing the bombs on the cart, since they were easier to get at than when loaded in the plane. Meek surmised that one of the bombs slipped out of the double sling it was in, and swung down in an arc, scraping the nose fuse on the concrete. Then it went off, even though it had a safety pin in it. Meek explained this to Headquarters, and they tested it back in the States, but we never heard the results. At any rate, the loading procedure was immediately changed, and we never had any more trouble.” The tragic loss of ground crewmen
and aircraft (19 men killed, 21 injured, four B-17s destroyed, and 11 B-17s damaged) was a devastating blow to the 412th. Just four days later, Peek was transferred to the 412th Bomb Squadron as its Engineering Officer. The remaining B-17s and ground crews moved to their permanent base at Horham Airfield on July 1st. “Since I was assigned to the unit that was decimated, it meant I had some rebuilding to do. No missions were flown for almost two weeks,” recalls Peek.
“KEEP ’EM FLYING” Peek’s duty as Engineering Officer was to “keep ’em flying” if at all possible, regardless of battle damage. “I was fortunate to have a group Engineering Officer who was old- time Army. He had served in the Mexican excursion in 1916, then World War I, and had been the crew chief on the sixth B-17 built. Major Fields really had experience, and we young squadron engineering officers respected him and had a great
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DOMmagazine.com | june 2020
95th Bomb Group Engineering Officers (L-R): Captains Peek, Beall, Flanagan, Baxter, and Major Dowlin
learning opportunity. He came up from the ranks, knew the airplane very well, and also treated us well,” says Peek, “We were all engineering graduates, and I had the advantage of having a commercial flying license and the usual mechanical abilities of a farm boy. As Engineering Officer, I saw very little actual combat. Although the 95th Bomb Group suffered grievous losses early on, we struggled through and became the most decorated group in the European Theater—the 95th was the only unit in the 8th Air Force to
receive three Presidential citations. I really think we were a top group, and our engineering sections were very good.”
When the B-17s returned to the field after their missions, they taxied off the runway to the “hardstands” (large circular concrete parking pads). Peek went out and talked with the pilots and inspected the airplanes for battle damage. “I’d coordinate repairs if necessary, or get the airplane ready for the next day’s mission. We did first-echelon maintenance, such as adding fuel and oil and doing
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