Robert C. Wilson

Robert C. Wilson was the radioman on the Charles Blankenhorn crew.

Robert's nephew sent copies of letters he sent home and some photos.  Below are those letters:

Letter 1

Dear Fern, I hate in a way to start this, but  I will see how it goes. It may sound like bragging, but it is not meant to be. As I said before, have had a pretty exciting life and here is going to be some of it.

When I was 17 yrs old, it was decided that I go to sea and that is what I did. I boarded the "President Polk" at San Pedro and went around the world on it. We hit 22 ports and I worked like a dog as an ordinary seaman for a dollar a day. My memory of the trip reads like one of Hemingway's stories or books. I stopped at Hawaii, Kobe, Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Penang,, Columbo, Bombay, Suez, Alexandria, Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, New York, Boston, New York again, Havana, Panama and Colon. Finally home to L.A. Some trip!!!!

I went back to school and finished with graduation. This was in 1934. All this at 17! After this I did several jobs and finally joined the Army and served there at Ft Mac Arthur for a couple of years. Bought myself out and went into machine shop woth in Hollywood.

Hitler invaded Poland and I knew we would be in, so I re-enlisted in the Army Air Force. They sent me to radio school and a year or so later the war started. as we were on the way to the Philipines and could not get there because Pearl Harbor had been attacked.

We started to go around the world the other way, destination , Austrailia.
On the way there, we stopped at many of the places you have probably been. Puerto Rico, Trinidad, British Guiana, Brazil, Dakar, Accra. Kano. Khartoum, Aden and the finally India. There we lost an engine and could not go on the the great sub-conitinent. By the this time the Japanese had Java and we could not get to Austrailia. This is only the start of things and I will send it an see what you think of it. Here goes !!!!

Letter 2

Dear Fern, I think I left off as we got to India and were stuck there   
because of the blown engine.   

We replaced the engine with one out of a British fighter and then they   
blew the new one due to not changing the oil cooler, as I had suggested, and  was ignored. By the time they found us another engine, the Japs had Java   
and we could not go on as planned.   

We stayed then in India and formed a group around other bombers in   
different circumstances. To make the story a bit shorter, we started to   
bomb into Burma as the Japanese were taking that now. However before we   
started the bombing, we were required to take a whole battalion of the   
Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers into Burma (they were almost all lost later)

We took over 600 British, and Indian refugees out as we returned to India, one was a very pregnant Indian woman. It was my job, the pilot said, to help  her if she should deliver on the way back. (thank goodness we made it and   
she did not have the baby then)    

We met some of the Flying Tigers at Magwe, Burma and they were some   
bunch!!!   

I think I will send this pretty soon and get some dinner and also I am   
tired of typing. Glad you find this a little interesting. There is a   
terrible amount to come!

Letter 3

Here is the 3rd instalment of MY LIFE   

The first bombing mission out of India was to Port Blair, Andaman   
Islands south of Burma. I went as tail gunner in another crew other than my   
own. It was a long mission with one bomb bay tank.    As we took off, we were 2nd of three. I saw a big fire as were made a left turn and did not know  until later that the 3rd bomber had Hit a stump with its tail section, then
flew into a small knoll and all perished.   

At any rate we were told that the Japanese were not ready for us and   
there would be no opposition. In the harbor (it was moonlight) we found   
several transports and we were to bomb them at low level. They challenged us with a light C O H I recall the very challenge to this day. I read it   
and told the pilot. Of course we did not have the answer and they started to   
shoot I saw this as red rain going in the wrong direction, up instead of   
down! An odd thought came to me then. "Why those people are unfriendly!”   
They started to use their searchlights then, and I Fired my guns at one of them and it went out. (we were very low at about 1500 ft.)   

Eventually we climbed and the dropped the bombs (-Probaby hit the   
transport with one of the 500 pounders) at least the image in the water said
so. We returned to Calcutta's dum dum airport and got gas to return to   
Asansol, our base at the time.

There were many raids after that into Burma. One raid accounted for the   
Japanese gas dump across from Rangoon and it made a terriffic fire!   
Later we moved from Karachi to Allahabad a the junction of the Ganges and   
Jummna rivers and there continued to make missions into Burma. We had only 6 or 7 B-17s and we had to make the most of them. Some of the missions were at night and the rest as we were designed to do (in the day)   

This continued until we were called to Egypt as Rommel was getting close   
to Alexandria. We ended up based in Palestine as it was called then at Lydda
airport between Tel A Viv and Jerusalem.

There we bombed ports and convoys in the med. area. The we moved to   
Egypt and continued this stuff. Finally, the alies landed in North Africa   
and we went there to be with the B 17s that were there. (B-24s in the middle east) Think I will send this now and await a reaction from you.   

Letter 4

(I forgot to say that I was married, had married about six months before   
the war started, In Los Lunas, NM I was the only married man on my crew)   
Arriving in North Africa,    we ran into the 32nd squadron who we had left   
in Albuq. and we had some decent food with them for a change. Though our
diet at times consisted of dried peas and corned beef twice a day.

We bombed the ports of Sfax, Tunis and Bizerte mostly here. We ran into    
very heavy AA here and came back with lots of holes in the B-17. For the   
first time in the war, we had escorts with us and they were very welcome   
(P-38s) . We had Spitfires with american pilots for field protection as the   
P-38s were too slow to get off the ground and were not good at the job they
were designed to do (interception)   

The first field we operated from was a little oasis in the desert, and   
outpost of the French Foreign Legion a replacement city for them We could go into town for a bath, but there was little water for anything out at the   
field. We never had a bath there and there was only water for shaving and
drinking.   

I have left out much of what happened to us up to this time. There is   
not the time or the energy for me to do anything like what should be done with this account.   

At any rate, I saw some things that you would not believe to be true!   
One of which was that they gave us each a candy bar when we would go on a
mission. If for some reason, (weather, engines or anything) we did not   
cross what they called to "bomb line", we were to bring the candy back   
intact and not get one for the next mission if we ate it. (of course we   
always ate the candy whatever as we might not live to eat it later) Of all   
the silly things they did to us, I thought this was about the silliest!   

I had the 2nd close encounter with Germans on a mission to Tunis. We   
were attacked by 65 Me 109s. One of which went for us. He came close,   
very close to us and before that, hit me in the foot with a machine gun (One   
bullet) and it put my foot to sleep for about half an hour. I could not feel   
if my toes were working, thought the whole foot was gone. Anyway my tracers went into his engine after two or three bursts. He pulled up sharply-and then down and out of sight. The waist gunner said he caught fire and that was that. I better send this before they douse me again (AOL)   

Letter 5

I think I had best regress a little now.

Before we came to North Africa, we were based in Palestine for about 6 months and there we went out on various mission. Between times, I had the chance to see several things I went to Bethlehem, saw the tourist attractions there, went to old, cities, Joppa and Jerusalem. I took a taxi to Beirut and the over to Damascas while a good many of my compatriots stayed in Tel A Viv and got drunk. From Palestine we moved to Egypt and stayed there for a short time until we moved to N. Africa.

Back there now.

To resume the story. We bombed, (most of the time with little result I am afraid with a lot of risk).

My last mission (the 36th) was to Bizerte. We dropped the bombs and stared the return to base when I felt the plane almost stop in mid-air and then to my surprise we went into a very steep dive and I saw the rest of the formation far above us. We came out of the dive at low altitude and continued in the direction of base. 1 called the pilot on the inter-phone, but there was no reply. and I did not know what had gone wrong. I called again and still no answer. We then went lower and into some wadis to avoid German fighter detection I guess. Near the base, I crawled out of my tail position and learned that the Co-pilot had taken a piece of flak in the head and had been unconcious for a time.

We landed and they finally got him out and on the ground. I saw the flak
fragment right through his left eye (the piece was bigger than a finger, and had broken the bone near it) In the ride back to our tents, one of the crew said, “Oh it's only his eye" That statement tore me up a lot as the co-pilot was from my crew, not theirs. A lot went on from here, but suffice it to say that I ended up in the hospital, the British 95th in Algiers. Thence I was sent home and finally to Boise, Idaho and made a chief gunnery instructor there.
My wife joined me there and the first daughter was born in 1944. MORE LATER I HOPE