Art Harvey

Art Harvey was the radio operator on the Harold Edmonds crew.

Art submitted the following:

Our crew, piloted by Capt. Harold W. Edmonds of Garden City, L.I., NY had been in the 376th for only about 5 weeks, having been transferred from the 98th after our twelfth mission with them, the November 15, 1942, "attack" on Tripoli (which, incidentally, was not really an attack on Tripoli because the target was cloud-covered and the formation, crossing the coast of the Gulf of Sirte on its return, dropped its bombs on a dummy airfield south of Benghazi. We were in the 98th's 343rd Squadron then and were flying tail-end Charlie in a 72 plane formation of which General Brereton was in the lead plane. I mention these details because I believe they were part of the reason for our transfer to the 376th).

Now, here it was December 27th, and the 376th was scheduled to hit Sousse, Tunisia, on the 28th. We were posted to go with the 514th to our forward base at Gambut, Libya, in preparation for the raid. However, before it was time to leave Abu Sueir, the first sergeant called in the enlisted crew and informed us that we were not obligated to go on the next day's mission because effective today, the 27th, we were transferred back to the 98th, this time to the 344th Squadron (We later reasoned among ourselves that this was because Col. Kane, who assumed command of the 98th Group on December 29, 1942, having previously commanded the 34th Squadron, had some position that he wanted Capt. Edmonds to fill when he got back). Our response to the first sergeant was to ask, "What are our officers planning to do?" When the answer turned out to be that they were going, we said, "So are we." So, for the December 28th attack on Sousse, we were a 98th crew flying, for the last time, with the 376th. However, whatever plans anyone had for Capt. Edmonds were never realized because he was killed by flak over Sousse that day, and it was some days after the funeral that an orphaned crew reported for duty at Kabrit.