Subject: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, intro part 1
From: [email-masked] (Michael Fitch)

Subject: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, Part 1 
        
        I have been reading several military related netnews groups
since 1988, But I've never posted before. A friend, here at work, has
his fathers Diary of the B-17 bombing missions he participated in
starting the 26th of November, 1943, about 50 years ago. Along with
the diary, his father wrote letters home to his wife, and since the
letters would be heavily censored, he also enclosed clippings from the
local British newspaper (might have been the London Times, but we're
not sure) which were relevant to his particular mission.
        My friend, Mark Watson, has never posted to the net, nor has he 
ever read anything posted on netnews. I tried my best to explain my intrest 
in this media and how I beleive some of you would (hopefully) be interested
in this unpublished material. His father, William J. Watson, was 
originally the Tail gunner, but once the radioman position opened up he 
moved there. The first Boomerang Barbara was a B-17F. It was shot down  
when the crew went on leave and another crew took it on a mission. The
second Boomerang Barbara was a Model G, with 13 .50 caliber machine guns.
        I will try to faithfully reproduce everything that I post from
the diary, memoirs, and newspaper accounts, with the original spelling
and punctuation, or lack of, as it appears on the documents I have. If
something is mis-spelled on the diary, I will use the original spelling.
        We also have the memoirs of Al Soriano from the first ten 
missions on Boomerang Barbara as well as a copy of his scrap book. The
scrap book contains photographs and newspaper clippings relevant to
Boomerang Barbara's missions.
        When Mark contacted Al Soriano, one of the three remaining
crewmen still living, Al sent a long letter expressing his delight at
our interest in Boomerang Barbara and sent all the above mentioned 
material.
        What Al wrote to Mark is a good way to introduce the crew:
Dear Mark,                                      October 26, 1993
"The first time Bill and I met was at a hell-hole, called Moses Lake
in the state of Washington. The "City" of Moses Lake was a wide spot
on the highway. A couple of beer joints and a gas station. The base
was new and still under construction. There was dust every where. There
was a good base movie house. At first the chow was bad, but an
inspector general took care of that real fast. I was told to report to 
some building on the base and without much fan fare we were all told 
meet your crew. First came the pilot 1st Lt. Robert M. Bailey, then the
co-pilot 1st Lt. Harry G. Ward. Then the enlisted men, S/Sgt Joseph J.
Stankevich (Stinky) Top turret, S/Sgt. Edward J. Sudol Radioman, Sgt.
Albert Soriano Tail gunner (your dad and I exchanged positions) Sgt.
James E. Ballord Right waist gunner, Sgt. Ferinand Zuckelli Left waist
Sgt. William J. Watson Tail gunner."

...to be continued.

E-mail to:      [email-masked]   (Mike Fitch)

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 DO SOMETHING!!!  Lead, follow, or GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!                   
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 E-mail:        [email-masked]

From [email-masked] Fri Jan 14 11:14:30 1994
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 11:13:40 -0500
From: [email-masked] (Michael Fitch)
To: [email-masked]
Subject: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, intro part 2
Status: O

                SUBJECT: Boomerang Barbara, Part 2

Dear Mark,                              October 26, 1993

        ...(continued from part 1) "They gave us a "permanent" base pass
good for only fifty miles from the base. This got you to Moses Lake and
no where else. At first we had a lot of time on our hands. One day I was
given a days duty at our base office, while there I "found" a pad of
blank three day passes. So our crew found a way to go one hundred and
fifty miles, which made some large city within our reach. Please don't
put this on your records, the Air Force may still be looking for the 
pass pad.
        From Moses Lake, we went to spokane, Washington. We were now 
flying as crew. We did not have electrical heated suits, all we had was
those big fur lined flying clothes. We were flying over the ocean on
training misions. We had no bullets for our guns because this was
formation flying training for the pilots and navigator. So we made the
mistake of moving to the radio room because it was warmer there. Bad
mistake, the pilot had turned control of the ship to the co-pilot and
walked in on us in the radio room. When we landed, he chewed on our butts
for what seemed as hours, Then he said, "I am letting you off easy this
time, the next time you will all polish this airplane with tooth brushes."
Did he mean it? Well it has been over fifty years and I haven't forgotten
his words. Wild Bill Bailey, is what we called him when he was not around. 
What did we think of him, the best damn pilot in the Air Force. A man who
would back up his crew to the hilt. After this training, we were sent to
Topeka, Kansas. We were then shipped via rail to an eastern port and on
October 20, 1943 we left for England. We went aboard the SS George
Washington. This ship was manned by an English crew. We got two meals a
day, one about 11:00 am and the other about 6:00 pm. Sometime we got real
"good" stuff, like liver and onions for the first meal of the day. So, 
Bill and I lived on Hersey Bars or crackers we bought at the ship stores.
It took us thirteen days to get to England. It was lucky for us, that
someone found the ship was carrying K Rations in the hole of the ship.
We borrowed a few cases and life was much better on board after that.
        We arrived in England on November 2, 1943. From there we were
sent to station 136. Our first time on English train. They were nothing
like ours, each compartment had its own door which opened to the outside
as well as another that opened to a hallway in the train. This was the 
first time our crew saw "action" in England, the train stopped at a 
station and every body but us started rushing off the train and going
toward the station. When we saw that, we said this must be a German air
raid we better get our butts to the shelter with the rest of the people.
We jumped off and ran to the station. It was just in time too.. Had we
been a little slower, we would have missed our chance to have some nice
English TEA. Yes, it was tea time and they stopped the train, in war time,
for some nice hot tea."

        (continued in part 3)

E-mail:         [email-masked]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 DO SOMETHING!!!  Lead, follow, or GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!                   
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 E-mail:        [email-masked]