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Using The Writing 69th Home Page

If this is your first visit to The Writing 69th Home Page, you should start with The Story of The Writing 69th, which will guide you through some key aspects of the story. For those interested in more detail there are selected chapters from the book, The Writing 69th, at Green Harbor Publications.

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If you like this site, you might also enjoy The Free Fall Research Page, which is dedicated to recording the stories of a select group of people have survived a fall of thousands of feet without a working parachute

The Book

Images of the House Set on Fire by a Crashing B-24

February 2010: There are no existing photos, that I know of, of the crashed B-24 that carried Robert Post and Capt. Adams' crew. A while back, however, Tomas Hauschild provided several photos that Gerd Behrens gave him.

I assume that these photos were taken by a civilian. The B-24 wreckage would have fallen on the other side of the house, out of view of these photos.

Living History Reenactor Creates a Writing 69th Patch Replica

January 2010: Allen Ambridge is a living history reenactor from the United Kingdom. He created this replica of the Writing 69th logo for the war correspondent uniform he uses for his presentations. Allen does not have a web site but if you are interested in contacting him, let me know, and I will put you in touch with him.

Update on the Newsreel Cameramen

November 2009: The Writing 69th home page has a Questions page and on that page there's a query about five newsreel cameramen who participated in the training along with the Writing 69th members. No progress was made on this for years until we stumbled across the British Universities Film & Video Council’s News On Screen web site, which includes biographies of each cameraman. Through the help of Linda Kaye of the BUFVC we were directed to an on-line repository of Movietone film. You have to register to get access to this, but it’s worth doing. In the Movietone archive there is footage by one of the cameramen, J.L. "Jack" Ramsden, probably taken late in February of 1943. Once you are in the archive, search for story number 43422 (“Flying Fortresses”). At around the 2 minute 10 second mark, you see Ramsden himself on film. Late in the sequence (4 minutes 37 seconds) you see a shot of a shot-up tail fin with 124617 on it. This turns out to be the B-17 Southern Comfort of the 305th Bomb Group’s 364th Bomb Squadron. (Trevor Williams has a very interesting web site on this aircraft.) So it appears likely that Ramsden was assigned to the 305th after the training session. There is no indication that he flew on Southern Comfort, but he did take a shot of it on the ground.

It’s possible that one or more of the five cameramen took part in the February 26, 1943 raid and that footage exists from that mission, but not all of the footage is accessible today via the web. As we learn more about these newsreel cameramen we will provide updates. Many thanks to Linda Kaye and Trevor Williams for helping us make these discoveries. See the Questions page for a photograph and some additional details, including links to the cameramen's biographies.

Film of Heinz Knoke's "I Flew for the Fuhrer"

November 2009: Tinus le Roux of South Africa is producing a film (using live actors combined with computer graphics) based on Heinz Knoke's book "I Flew for the Fuhrer." He has chosen three days in the life of Knoke and is basing it on the English translation of the book. One of the days he has chosen to include is February 26, 1943, the date of the Writing 69th mission. You can see a one-minute trailer on YouTube. It is a non-commercial venture intended for private use.

Update (January 2009): You can now see the full movie on YouTube (completed in December 2009).

An Actual Photo of Cronkite with the 303rd Bomb Group

August 2009: The mystery of the B-26 photo having been solved (see below), it's now time to show an actual image of Walter Cronkite with the 303rd Bomb Group. The photo below shows Cronkite with a group of 303rd Bomb Group airmen before a D-Day mission on a B-17. Cronkite flew in Shoo Shoo Baby (#42-97311 of the 303rd Bob Group's 427th Bomb Squadron. From left to right the men are the bombardier, 1st Lt. F.E. Umphress, Jr., the pilot, Capt. Robert W. Sheets, Walter L. Cronkite of the United Press, unidentifiable crew member with his back to the camera, and the engineer, T/Sgt. Francis X. Neuner. The full crew is listed below. The image is autographed, having been sent by Cronkite to Bob Sheets in 1997, the same year that Cronkite published his autobiography "A Reporter's Life." The inscription reads: "For Captain Bob Sheets - With a lifetime of gratitude for getting us back! Walter Cronkite"

The entire crew was: Capt. Robert W. Sheets (pilot), 2nd Lt. Darwin D. Sayers (co-pilot), 1st Lt. Kenneth L. Olsen (navigator), 1st Lt. F.E. Umphress, Jr. (bombardier), T/Sgt. Francis X. Neuner (engineer), S/Sgt. Earl J. King (ball turret gunner), T/Sgt. Andrew G. Benevento (radio operator), Sgt. Tom C. Sullens (tail gunner), S/Sgt. Leonard C. Smith (left waist gunner), S/Sgt. James F. Donnelly (right waist gunner), and Walter L. Cronkite.

Thanks to Sally Wiggins (Bob Sheet's daughter) and Gary Moncur, 303rd Bomb Group historian, for providing this photo and the relevant details.

Thoughts on a Famous Cronkite Photo

July 2009: The Bettmann/Corbis photo (http://pro.corbis.com/) shown below is accompanied by the following caption: "After a stint in radio that ended 1939, Cronkite was sent by United Press International to cover the war in Europe. His exploites include flying with the 303 Bomber Group over Germany, above, parachuting into Holland with the 101st Airbonre, and landing at Normandy during the invastion by Allies." In addition to the obvious typos, the caption is inaccurate in saying that the photo shows him with the 303rd Bomb Group. Although they don't state it, this implies that the photo was taken before the February 26, 1943 Wilhelmshaven mission, which he did fly with the 303rd. The problem is that the aircraft behind him is not a B-17. It is clearly a B-26, which also explains why there are only a handful of crewman when a B-17 crew would be double the amount. Can someone help identify the proper bomb group? It shouldn't be too hard to find a B-26 bomber named "S.O.S." The photo was likely taken before a mission on or around the time of D-Day. If you have the answer, please let us know. Update: See below the photo for a full answer.

Update: The aircraft is a B-26 Martin Marauder called "USO" (serial #41-31951). It flew with the 323rd Bomb Group's 454th Bomb Squadron. The pilot was 1st Lt. Jack W. Nye. The date of the mission was February 9, 1944 and the target was a V-1 rocket site in Freval, France. The crew members have been identified. The men in the photo are, from left to right: T/Sgt. Ceibert C. Bragg (flight engineer), S/Sgt. Enrique Zepeda (tail gunner), S/Sgt. Arthur W. Brand (radio operator), 1st Lt. Norman M. Rosner (bombardier), 1st Lt. Jack W. Nye (pilot), and Walter Cronkite.

Many thanks Roy Bozych, the 323rd Bomb Group's historian, for his research on this photo. Thanks also to Gary Moncur for making the connection between the photo and this bomb group. Gary is the 303rd Bomb Group's historian.

Walter Cronkite, dead at 92

July 2009: Walter Cronkite died on Friday, July 17, 2009 at his home in New York City of cerebrovascular disease. He was 92. One of the best tributes that can be made to Cronkite is something that Harrison Salisbury wrote about him. Salisbury, who was Cronkite’s United Press boss at the time of the Writing 69th mission, said that wild elephants couldn’t have kept Cronkite from taking part in the mission. It was that level of determination that drove Cronkite to success throughout his career. Andy Rooney, now the only surviving member of the Writing 69th, used to kid his friend about the "purple prose" that Cronkite chose for the lead sentence of his Wilhelmshaven story ("American Flying Fortresses have just come back from an assignment to hell..."). Rooney wrote, “When I want to remind Cronkite that he is mortal man, I quote him a few sentences from his United Press story that day.”

Veteran's Day Presentation, 2008

November 2008: For those who are interested, here is the the dog tag story presentation that Jim Hamilton gave on November 8, 2008 as part of a program at Ventress Memorial Library in Marshfield, Massachusetts. The PDF file is not huge, but at 700KB it may take a little while to download and open.

Scott Brewer's Dog Tag Is Found in Germany

January 2008: Scott Brewer, a gunner on the B-24 carrying New York Times reporter Robert Post, died on February 26, 1943 along with Post and other crew members. Brewer's dog tag, which lay in a field for nearly 65 years, was recently found by Tomas Hauschild, a German from nearby Borbeck. Hauschild has an unusual profession. He works for an explosive ordnance disposal unit that is called in when unexploded World War II munitions are found. The area around Bad Zwischenahn was heavily bombed during World War II because of a nearby airfield. Hauschild found the dog tag with a metal detector on January 18, 2008, not far from the farm where the aircraft's wreckage came down. Hauschild contacted Green Harbor Publications hoping that we could help him return the dog tag to one of Brewer's relatives, none of whom had been located at that point.

Green Harbor Publications contacted Tim Woodward, who writes for the Idaho Statesman (Brewer's home town was Boise). Woodward wrote two marvelous columns on the topic:
Did you know Scott Everhart Brewer?
Scott Everhart Brewer's mystery is solved

As a result of Woodward's articles, a number of family members have been located! In May of 2008 the Brewer family received the long-lost dog tag.

In reviewing Brewer's war record for details on his family, a sad fact came out. Brewer's father, Paul B. Brewer, died on March 6, 1943, two days before Brewer's mother, Louise E. Brewer, received the telegram informing her that her son Scott was missing in action. One other tantalizing fact is that Brewer, though his dog tag was missing, was identified by a yellow link metal bracelet with his name, address, and home town. The bracelet was also inscribed with the name "Mary." Brewer's mother received a letter from the army offering to send her the bracelet, but warning her that it was damaged by fire, and saying that they did not want to send her something that might be distressing to her. She thanked them for their offer but decided she would rather not have it sent to her. Brewer's surviving relatives have a few theories about who this Mary might be (perhaps it was his grandmother, his aunt, or a girlfriend) but no one is certain.

William Wade, member of the Writing 69th, dead at 87

March 2006: William Wade died of a heart attack on March 24, 2006 in Oakland, California. He was 87. Wade was a journalist, war correspondent, and member of the Writing 69th. Here is the link to his obituary in the San Francisco Chronicle. I will always be grateful to Bill Wade for his thoughtful responses to my letters and for the photographs he shared when I was writing the book. He told me that when Homer Bigart died the Writing 69th group photo was reproduced along with the obituary. Friends in New York and California had seen the picture and called him to say so. I'm sure that many people today are having fond memories of Bill Wade. Wade's death leaves only two living members of the Writing 69th: Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney.

Remembering Tex McCrary

August 2003: Tex McCrary died on July 29, 2003 at the age of 92. Tex was an 8th Air Force public relations officer (PRO) at the time that the Writing 69th was formed. I contacted Tex while researching "The Writing 69th" and had a memorable phone call with him one day more than five years ago. Reading his obituary I was reminded of something he told me during that call. In 1944 McCrary co-wrote a book called "The First of the Many" about his experiences as one of the early members of the 8th Air Force in England. When I talked to him that day, he joked that if he ever wrote his memoirs, he would call it "The Last of the Few." His good-humored comment is a sobering reminder of how many of our World War II veterans are dying every day.