When I first started to go to Oshkosh to work the KidVenture circles, the volunteer that used to bring our water, ice and sandwiches was a WW-2 vet named Mike and I think his last name was Titrie or something similar. At first he seemed like a grouchy and gruff old codger and then we found out he was a WW-2 vet and a P-47 pilot!! When we found that out, we would bug him for a story or two of his exploits during the war and he truly seemed pleased that we were really interested. One that I can remember was that he invented the method of launching a bomb while pulling up from a dive so the bomb would fly in a large arc while you pulled away. He said this was entirely by accident because he had a bomb release mechanism that was faulty and unpredictable. The fist time it happened he was making a run on a bridge, pulled the release and nothing happened, and when he pulled up to recover he felt the bomb let go. When he got the recon report on the mission he found out that the bomb had found one of the early V-1 Buzz Bomb launching sites!! One day we were talking about something that us KidVenture volunteers were eligible to participate in but we had to be at least 18 to do so, and Mike mentioned to me that he had won his Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) before he was even old enough to vote or buy a beer!! He was a great guy, but kind of small in stature and only came up to my shoulders and I'm not really tall, and being familiar with the P-47 and what a large airplane it was, I just couldn't see him sitting in the cockpit and still being able to see over the instrument panel!! But he did and did so with distinction. The EAA had a program where vets could sit in front of a camera and tell of their experiences in order to preserve them and Mike did that. I think those can be seen on line at the EAA website Sadly, Mike passed away from cancer but while he was still with us and ion the hospital we wounded up a large model of the P-47 and we all signed it and sent it to him, and his wife said he was truly moved by the gesture and so was she. Having met and known many guys like Mike, who we all owe so much to, I know the younger generations just have no idea what these guys did, went through, and what we all owe them for their sacrifices.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: A P-47 pilot tells his story on flying in WW-2 (Read 816 times)