William Smither, Mission January 15, 1945

We raided Vienna, Austria, on January 15, 1945*.  The flak was heavy, and our ship took several hits, but continued to fly.  We fell behind the other planes because of the damage our ship sustained.  We were losing altitude and getting lower and lower.  We started throwing items out of the plane to make it lighter.  We threw out machine guns, ammunition and anything that was loose.  I remember throwing out an oxygen tank.  We knew we weren’t going to make it, and finally we bailed out over the mountains of Yugoslavia.  The pilot opened the bomb bay doors, and most of us went out that way.  The bomb bay doors on a B-24 did not fold down and create wind resistance, but rolled up into the fuselage.  I pulled the rip cord, and the chute opened.  It had just opened when I hit the ground.

Bailing out over Yugoslavia presented two possibilities.  Part of the country was controlled by General Mihajlovic, and the rest was controlled by General Josip Broz Tito.  Mihajlovic sided with the Germans, and if his people captured you, they shot you.  Tito was with the allies because he was a Communist and wanted the Russians to win.  If his people (the Partisans) captured you, they would smuggle you back to our lines.

The plane was very low when we bailed out, and we landed in snow up to our chins.  Our pilot and copilot didn’t make it out, and they were killed in the crash.  It is a terrible thing to lose part of your crew.  Their bodies were found by the Partisans and are interred in the “Overseas American Cemeteries” in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy.  May God bless their brave souls.  

It was very difficult to move in the deep snow with the heavy flying suit and boots on.  Four or five days went by, and we hadn’t made much progress.  We all had 45 caliber pistols, but I never could hit anything with a 45.

As we moved down the mountain, we saw a small hut with smoke coming out of the chimney.  We watched for a while, and a teenage girl come out and went back in.  We sent our navigator who could speak a little Slavic down to check it out.  They were Tito’s people.  There was a teenage boy wearing a uniform, and he had an automatic weapon.

We all went down to the hut.  It was made of stone and had a piece of leather for a door.  The floor was dirt, and there was a fire in the corner.   There was what looked like the leg of a deer hanging over the fire.  He said they had heard us and knew we were in trouble and had crashed, but they did not know where we were.  He said they were glad to find us.

He started leading us to a British outpost which had a landing strip.  The kid knew all the paths.  We were going down a mountain when he motioned for us to be very quiet and still.  We thought we had run into Germans, and he was trying to avoid being seen.  He shot his weapon at some birds.  He did not want us to scare them.  We continued toward the British outpost, and someone on another ridge waved at the young man.  They were watching us to see what we were doing.


We stayed with the British for about a week.  We got on a radio and radioed Italy.  They said to go to Split.  There we caught a small boat run by the British.  We boarded and headed for Italy.  There was tremendous storm.  Our guys got sick, and even the British who were running the boat became sick.  Dawn was coming; I looked out and saw land, and I knew we hadn’t crossed over.  The storm was so bad they had come back.  I talked to our navigator, and he said he did not want to try the boat again.  We got on the radio and told them to send a plane for us.

While we were waiting, another B-24 came over, and it was in trouble.  One parachute came out, and the plane crashed and exploded.  The rest of the crew was killed.  The one who bailed out was a gunner, and he was just a kid.  He was from Detroit, Michigan.  I asked him how he had gotten out, and he said someone pushed him out.

They finally sent a C-47 to pick us up, and the kid from Detroit flew back with us.

*On January 15, 1945, there were two extra men that flew with the Ritter crew this mission, both bailing out and eventually returning to Italy with them:
Earl J. Horn from Sullivan, Illinois was a Bombardier.
Toby W. Sinclair from Minden, Texas was RCM (Radar Counter Measures)

Celeste Smither, daughter of William R. Smither        July 2015