20 Homer

Homer

Words of longing, loneliness, and hope overflow from Jack’s letters to Alice. Nearly all read like this one:

  Oh honey the more letters I get from you the more I miss you and want to be with you more every day. Gee we are going to be so very happy when we can be together again. I miss you so very much. Winkler says that he thinks he is homesick. He said he sure gets lonesome at times. I too get lonesome honey but when I can write to such a dear wife as you it helps me to relieve my mind and makes me feel better. You are so perfect in every way and I love you from the bottom of my heart.[1]

Some local English children provided a great antidote to loneliness. Jack and fellow crew chief Tony Haley bought a dog from them for eight dollars.[2]

Jack's English friends

England, March 19, 1944

Dearest Alice,

  The other night some of our little English friends were here, and I asked them if they could find me a little puppy. They were just here and said they had located one. They are going to try and bring it over for me to see tonight. If I like it I may buy it. We need a mascot around here anyway. They say he is black & white & his mother is a terrier. I’ll tell you more about him after I see him. He could sure be a lot of company to me here.

  One of our little English friends is only two years old, and he is quite a guy. I just gave him a Life Saver and he sure knows what to do with it. The rest of them are about 6 to 8 years old.[3]

Jack, Homer, and two crew buddies

 

Jack got to ride with one of the pilots: Yes honey it is quite thrilling to go up in a plane, especially a fast one like we did. It sure was exciting.[4] It was so exciting he applied to Cadet School, a prerequisite to Pilot School. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Aviation Cadet Training Program was overwhelmed with applicants.[5] Jack hoped to be accepted, become a pilot, and then return home as soon as he had flown the required number of missions. He anticipated that would be sooner than his normal enlistment period. In March he wrote Alice, I haven’t heard anymore about Cadets but am just keeping my fingers crossed.[6]

Wallace Winkler, Homer, and Jack

England, March 29–44

Dearest Alice,

   “Homer” is getting cuter every day and is starting to play quite a bit now. I have so darn much fun teaching him & playing with him.[7]

A dog was someone to talk to, to confide in, and to play with. You could tell him everything the censor would cut out of your letters home. You could pet him and hug him when you missed the touch of your loved ones. In the darkest times he could make you laugh.

England, April Fools Day

Dearest Alice,

  Homer is having quite a time in the barracks tonight. He is chewing up paper & wood & having a great time. He sure is a lot of company. Gee I don’t have a chance to write you letters like I want to because I am so darn tired at night and have my mind on my plane. Boy these long hours are sure hard to take. Yes, Honey, the largest part of the fellows here have been out with the girls over here, and most of them have really had some wild times Don’t worry, Honey, I don’t want any part of them.[8]

Fellow Sonoma County
crew chief Erwin Derrick and Homer

England, April 4, 44

Dearest Alice,

  The loud speaker has been playing some music for the first time, and can you imagine what the first piece they played was—Anniversary Waltz. Gee and here two years ago tomorrow we were married. Tonight reminds me of the swell nights in Dallas after it got warm. You, anniversary waltz and the Eve of our anniversary, boy we sure had a good time. Didn’t we have fun?[9]

England, April 5, 1944—2 years—

Dearest Alice,

  Here it is after 12:00 midnight, and I just got thru work and cleaned up. That makes about 18 hours today. I am so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open. Honey I have a little bad news or maybe it’s good news, all I know is that it is God’s way, and that is that my Cadet papers have been returned as they are not accepting any more. I read in the paper where they had turned back thousands in the states, so I was looking forward to getting mine back too. It kind of makes me feel sort of low as I did want to learn to fly, and also we would have been together sooner, but I guess God’s way is always best, so that’s that.[10]

Jack and Homer

 So that’s that, and Jack would continue working and writing home and playing with Homer. One day he saw his plane take off, and the inevitable happened.

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[1] Jack J.Kellar (England), letter to “Dearest Alice” [Alice Streeter Kellar], 14 February 1944, excerpt.

[2] Jack J. Kellar, “Autobiography,” 1998; two ninety-minute cassette tape recordings; held and partially transcribed by the author.

[3] Jack J.Kellar, letter to “Dearest Alice,” 19 March 1944, excerpt.

[4] Jack J.Kellar, letter to “Dearest Alice,” 14 February 1944, excerpt.

[5] “Aviation Cadet Training Program (USAAF),” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_Cadet_Training_Program_(USAAF) : accessed 3 May 2018) > Aviation Cadet Program (USAAF), 1940–47 > 1941–47.

[6] Jack J.Kellar, letter to “Dearest Alice,” 19 March 1944, excerpt.

[7] Jack J.Kellar, letter to “Dearest Alice,” 29 March 1944, excerpt.

[8] Jack J.Kellar, letter to “Dearest Alice,” 1 April 1944, excerpt.

[9] Jack J.Kellar, letter to “Dearest Alice,” 4 April 1944, excerpt.

[10] Jack J.Kellar, letter to “Dearest Alice,” 5 April 1944, excerpt.

19 We Fought Them Over the Channel

Pilot DeLong, Jack, another crewman

In the Air in Combat

A month after receiving its planes, the 363^rd finally saw its first mission, 24 February 1944. As part of “Operation Big Week,” Jack’s 380^th Squadron provided twelve of the forty-two P-51s sent up to patrol and protect bombers on their return from a bombing mission. They met their bombers at 25,000 feet over Brussels, where smoke from the drops could be seen up to 10,000 feet. Although flak was heavy and accurate over Belgium, the group had a successful first outing.[1]

Bombed Brussels

Jack remembered: The Germans were flying out of France, and our planes fought them over the Channel.[2]

With their new engines, planes from the 363rd's base at Rivenhall in
southern England flew to Brussels and even Berlin and back.[3]

In addition to escorting bombers to and from their targets in France, Germany, and the Low Countries, P-51s from the 363^rd attacked other strategic targets. They bombed airfields, bridges, trains, and railroad marshalling yards. Flying low they aimed their wing-born machine guns at vehicles, flak towers, and gun positions. They strafed troops on the ground.[4]

 

A railroad target

Lt. William M. Haynes with his kills and bomb drops
stenciled on his plane

Decades later Jack recalled that one of his pilots always came back from his missions with the paper covering his gun muzzles intact. He had not used them. One time the paper was burned away, and Jack excitedly asked him, “Did you get any?” He was ready to cheer on his pilot in their common effort to overcome the enemy. Jack’s voice choked with emotion when he spoke the pilot’s quiet reply, “No. I waited 'til they were in the trenches.”[5]

Germans in trenches along Germany's western front[6]

Jack: I’ll never forget the first mission we made, to fly top cover for the B-17s to Berlin, which was a historic thing. Our outfit was in it. On that morning they were sending the B-17s over our field, and as they gained altitude, some of them were going east, some of them were going west, some of them were going north, some of them were going south, and they were gaining their altitude, and after they got their altitude, you could see them take off, and they were on their way to Berlin. Big day.[7]

B-17 Flying Fortresses in formation[8]

At home in Santa Rosa, Alice read about the bombing in the local news, unaware of Jack’s involvement in the operation: “U. S. ‘Forts’ Hit Berlin First Time”

LONDON, March 4 (AP)—Berlin was bombed by American Flying Fortresses [B-17s] today for the fist time in the war as part of an extensive daylight attack on eastern Germany by the U. S. Eighth Air Force.

  Plunging 600 miles into the heart of the Reich, one formation of heavy bombers hit the capital itself . . . with the help of an escort of Mustangs which also went all the way to Berlin to equal the deepest fighter penetration ever made into Europe.

  The flyers reached their objective and tensed for the bomb run through heavy flak as the luftwaffe’s small but dangerous fighter force swept in to give battle. Fourteen bombers and 26 fighters are missing from the operations [and] nine enemy planes were destroyed by the fighters.

  The Fortresses thundered through blinding snowstorms and 58-degree-below-zero temperature in the substratosphere to make the first American attack on the capital. The once-mighty German air force sent up only 30 to 40 fighters in defense of the city.

  Flyers said they saw bombs crash down on “buildings surrounded by trees.” The American crews had been tense for days because of their knowledge that the “big B” was coming up. Most of them were apprehensive of powerful resistance as they were briefed in the predawn darkness. Some of them—including men making their first mission—didn’t expect to get back alive.

  The weather over Germany was almost unbearable. Flyers wearing two suits of heavy underwear and electrically heated outer suits nearly froze. As the clouds and snowstorms thickened over Europe, a majority of the big armada cut over to hit other unidentified targets in eastern Germany in order to take advantage of more favorable weather.^[9]

 

B-24 Liberators

Liberators dropping bombs

Jack evaluated the American losses: They made this first run to Berlin. When they came back we had planes down in France; we had planes down in the Channel; we had them in southern England; we had them in northern England. They were lost; they were all over the place. Some of them were crippled; some of them ran out of gas.[10]

A crippled P-51

The diary of the 363^rd Group echoes this somber evaluation. “March 4^th, Saturday, this day will go down in their history as the worst day the group was to encounter; in fact, the worst day for any combat fighter group during the entire ETO [European Theater of Operations] operation. Eleven (11) pilots of the 381^st and 382^nd failed to return and were classed as mission in action . . . They were never heard from again. The group’s 7^th mission started as a bomber penetration action . . . which was to take the group just short of Berlin, Germany. On take off and climb to its assigned altitude, the group entered an overcast, from which the [eleven] pilots and their planes . . . were never seen or heard from again.”^[11]

The missing pilots and planes were from the other two squadrons in Jack’s group. The 380^th Squadron would not be immune, though, given the nature of the operations, the inexperience of the young pilots, and the idiosyncrasies of the planes themselves. It was just a matter of time, wartime.

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[1] Nick Marinelli, The History of the 363^rd Fighter Group, 380^th Fighter Squadron, 381^st Fighter Squadron, 382^nd Fighter Squadron, 9^th Air Force, ETO, IX Tactical Air Command, 70^th Fighter Wing until August 1, 1944, XIX Tactical Air Command, 100^th Fighter Wing until August 29, 1944, Reorganized as the 363^rd Tactical Reconnaissance Group, 160^th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 161^st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 162^nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron after September 4, 1944, and attached to the XXIX Tactical Air Command (South Lynn, Mich.: Nick Marinelli, 1992), 3-20. Also Kent D. Miller, Seven Months Over Europe: The 363^rd Fighter Group in World War Two (Hicksville, Ohio: The author, 1989), 4. Also, 380^th Fighter–160^th Tac. Rcn. Squadron History, February 1943–August 1945 ([unknown place]: [unknown publisher], printed by A. Roßbach, Eschwege, Germany [1945]), 13. Also, “Big Week,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Week : accessed 28 April 2018).

[2] Jack J. Kellar, interview about his first years after high school by Judy Kellar Fox, 12 April 1993; cassette tape recording and transcription held by the author.

[3] “Rivenhall-Brussels-Berlin,” map, Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Rivenhall,+Witham,+UK/@50.6929155,-0.2325661,5.5z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x47d8e497733e7d39:0x843f6fb561437262!8m2!3d51.8263785!4d0.6525162 : created 25 April 2018).

[4] “363d Expeditionary Operations Group,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/363d_Expeditionary_Operations_Group : accessed 28 April 2018), 363d Fighter Group. Also, “North American P-51 Mustang variants,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_P-51_Mustang_variants#Dimensions,_performance_and_armament : accessed 26 April 2018), “P-51A/Mustang II (NA-99).”

[5] A story Jack related to his daughter Judy Kellar Fox, but not voice recorded, about 1993.

[6] Lohmeyer, “Westwall, im Bienwald, Laufgraben und Drahtverhau,” [Siegfried Line (Germany’s western fortifications), in the Bienwald (a large forested area in the western Palatinate), trenches and barbed wire], photograph, 12 March 1940, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2006-0187,_Westwall,_im_Bienwald,_Laufgraben_und_Drahtverhau.jpg : accessed 26 April 2018); Deutsche Bundesarchiv [German Federal Archive]; CC-by-SA 3.0.

[7] Jack J. Kellar, interview about his first years after high school by Judy Kellar Fox, 12 April 1993; cassette tape recording and transcription held by the author.

[8] “OVER GERMANY—B-17 Flying Fortresses from the 398th Bombardment Group fly a bombing run to Neumunster, Germany, on April 13, 1945,” photograph, U.S. Air Force (http://www.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2000591320/ : accessed 17 March 2018) > News > Photos > 040607-F-0000S-004.JPG. Official U.S. Air Force photo in the public domain. 

[9] “U. S. ‘Forts’ Hit Berlin First Time,” The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California), 05 March 1944, p. 1, col.. 4, and p. 3, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/265209703/ and -715 : accessed 28 March 2018).

[10] Jack J. Kellar, interview, 12 April 1993.

[11] Nick Marinelli, The History of the 363^rd Fighter Group, 3-24–3-25.