Above are photographs I received from Phil Brodziak, nephew and namesake of Philip Brodziak (top gunner on the Pistol Pakin Mamma). At the beginning of my search into this history I was naive and believed that my great-uncle Bob, being the first-pilot of PPM at the time of their loss, had named the plane and that [it]was the only one he ever flew. Well, with information provided by the Brabender and Brodziak families, I was schooled quickly on the subject. As you will see in these photo's, they were taken at various bases/locations. First and what I assume to be the "original crew" is at Hamilton, Florida, 2-10-1944. Second was taken in Hawaii, 3-1-1944, likely at Hickam [air] Field during "gunnery school". The third, from 5-16-1944, taken in front of the "Come Closer" plane is taken at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands. This is the day they got the "Come Closer". In my opinion, this 3rd photo is one of most fascinating. You will notice that Lt. Davies is missing and he's replaced by Victor Petroff. First-pilot, Lt. Davies, must have been
one hell of a good guy as he was killed on another plane 4-10-1944 over Truk. According to the Rene Brabender logs: Lt. Davies "
went just so he could let the rest of know what to expect when we start our missions". Davies was killed on that mission with
"Lt. Larsons crew. The whole plane blew up and there wasn't a chance of anyone getting out". Also, from the Brabender logs I gain that Victor Petroff was assigned to the crew on 5-5-1944.
Another interesting point about "Come Closer" is that she had at least 3 crews in her time and according to the book "Log of the Liberators" she'd flown at least 91 missions and was a contender in the 30th bomb group to be one of the first to obtain 100 missions. Gee, things may have been different for us if they'd stayed on that plane?; it's all history now. The topper of all toppers is that I now own this book which I inherited from my Grandfather Dempster (Robert's brother). It [Log/Liberators] clearly mentions the "Come Closer" and never in my life did I ever hear mention of this plane. I highly doubt that my grandfather ever even knew his brother flew on this plane. More photo's can be found of Come Closer at this link:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/319369@N20/pool/with/4477778926/ This link is also listed to the right of this page as Liberator and Privateer fan club.
Enjoy,
Brant
The Come Closer did in fact reach its 100th mission on 19 February 1945 over Iwo Jima, its final mission. If any readers know more about the Come Closer, I'd love to know. If Lt. Dempster's crew moved out of CC on May 28, 1944 (dated in one of your later posts), then the the names below might have been in the very next CC crew. In June 1944, all five were awarded an Air Medal after the Truk Island missions; I can't be sure what plane they were in then, but by January 1945 they had crewed Come Closer on 38 of their 40 missions (2 in other planes), including over Truk, Wake, Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima, and the Marianas.
ReplyDelete* 2nd (later 1st) Lt. William E. Simms (Attleboro, PA, later of Napa, CA), pilot or co-pilot.
* S. Sgt. Harold M. Tipson (Winooski, VT), ball turret gunner.
* T. Sgt. Otis L. Andrews (Geneva IL), right waist gunner.
* T. Sgt. Jerome M. George Jr. (Winnsboro SC), engineer.
* S. Sgt. Thomas W. Denson Jr. (Atlanta GA).
Simms is a relative of mine, and I would especially welcome any information on him. Thank you! My email is trout@gwu.edu.
BTW, my info above is from the 38th Bombardment Squadron Organizational History, transcribed here by the 30th Bomb Group Association: https://30thbombgroup.org/home/
ReplyDeleteAnd this newspaper article, "Lt. Simms and Crew Debunk Good Luck Myth," Attleboro Sun, 27 January 1945, p. 8, searchable here: https://attleboro.advantage-preservation.com/
CORRECTION above: William "Bill" Simms was apparently bombardier, at least at the time of the June 1944 Truk missions (he's mentioned in Barker's narrative apparently in that role: https://liberatorlog.blogspot.com/2013/12/flights-of-fantasy.html). His hometown newspaper seemed to imply he "flew" as pilot, but it didn't actually give his position in the crew; that was my error.
ReplyDelete