[Milsurplus] A Documented Gibson Girl Rescue

[Bruce]

Hello All,

Here is a documented Gibson Girl rescue:

73, Bruce WA8TNC
================

39th Bomb Group
Osaka Mission 1 June 1945
Crew 30

Just after landfall that day, Orr and his Crew 30 had trouble with an 
engine, but they refused to abandon the mission and went on to the target 
just before bombs away, a direct flak hit struck another engine and put it 
out of commission.

Then, shortly after land's end, the propeller broke from the engine that 
had first given trouble and struck the B-29's fuselage with great force. A 
gaping hole was torn in the airplane, placing it in imminent danger of 
breaking up in the air.

Working from the right side of the plane, Qrr and his pilot, Lieutenant 
Monte Frodsham, were able to bring the bomber under some measure of control 
and to maintain flight through some five hundred miles of turbulent frontal 
weather on instruments in a right-wing-low, nose-down attitude.

The B-29 was in perilous condition with accumulated damage now amounting to 
the loss of two engines, a flak hit in the third, damage to the flight 
controls and the hole in the fuselage. As a matter of fact, whenever Bill 
Orr pulled back on the controls the whole plane would bend and the crew 
thought that it must surely fall apart in mid-air.

After flying for several hours in this extremely dangerous state, the plane 
finally came out of the overcast and sighted a small-uninhabited island. 
There Orr ordered the crew to bail out.

Then one of the bravest acts of the 39th Group's history took place. The 
flight engineer couldn't swim, so Monte Frodsham took him on his back and 
jumped from the stricken plane. Monte hoped that he would be able to assist 
the engineer when they got into the water. But the force of the air tore 
the man from the pilot's back and they fell separately.

Orr remained with his plane and was the last to leave. Although he was 
barely managing to stay in flight with the one engine he had left, he 
refused to bail out until he was sure that all his men were out safely. He 
circled the spot where they had jumped until he saw them all in the water, 
and then, despite the fact that the B-29 was rapidly losing altitude and 
might blow up at any moment, he flew it away from the vicinity so that it 
could not possibly hit any of the survivors in the water when it crashed.

Then Bill jumped at a dangerously low altitude. He got into the water 
safely and was later picked up, along with the other men, by Navy rescue 
facilities.

And in connection with the rescue, there is another remarkable story to tell...

Staff Sergeant James E. Schwoegler, Orr's radio operator, had stayed in the 
crippled plane until the last minute to assure himself that the ground 
station received his position report of the bail out.

The Navy sent a rescue submarine immediately, and Captain Robert S. Laak of 
Crew 45 (62nd Squadron) took off in a B-29 to help locate Crew 30's survivors.

Laak got the vicinity of Orr's bailout on 2 June. A B-17 had already 
dropped the men a Higgins lifeboat, after sighting them the day before. 
But, shortly after Laak and his crew left Iwo Jima, the weather closed in 
to such an extent that the entire search mission, which lasted about ten 
hours, was flown on instruments at altitudes varying from 100 to 500 feet.

On the approach to the vicinity where the survivors had been seen, Sergeant 
Lloyd W. Dunnet, Laak's radio operator, made contact with two submarines, 
one of which was eventually directed to the survivors.

Orr and his crew were close to Sofu Gan Island, a bare rock jutting 
straight out of the ocean.

This island was a dangerous obstacle to Laak's flying, for available maps 
did not show its altitude.

However, it was picked up by radar and shortly thereafter an SOS from Off's 
Gibson Girl was picked up on the radio compass.

Laak was at low altitude in a complete overcast and could not see a thing. 
But he persisted in his efforts to find the survivors and direct the sub to 
them. He homed on the SOS until the signal would fade out, and then he 
would circle in that area until he could pick up the signal again. Then he 
would home on it again, and gradually, after hours spent in this sort of 
thing, he was sure that he was right over the men in the water. At this 
time the altimeter indicated 200 feet, but the overcast was so thick that 
the surface of the water could not be seen.

Laak's radar observer, Lieutenant Edward M. Coon, plotted the position 
where he was sure the Higgins boat was. This information was transmitted to 
the submarine nearest the spot. Then the B-29 continued to circle the 
position where the survivors were and to give instructions to the sub.

Finally Laak and his men received word from the submarine that the men of 
Orr's crew were safely aboard.

Although the elapsed time from Laak's receipt of the first SOS from the 
Gibson Girl until the rescue was effected was about four hours, and their 
airplane was always at an extremely low altitude in the neighborhood of 
Sofu Gan, the men in the Superfortress not once made a visual sighting of 
the crew they were so instrumental in saving.

For their expert work on this occasion, Captain Laak, his radio operator, 
his radar observer and his navigator, Lieutenant Wilbur W. Wiley, were all 
given the Distinguished Flying Cross. Likewise the commander of the 
submarine that picked up Orr's crew paid high tribute to Laak and his crew 
by stating that their performance was the finest aircraft to submarine 
cooperation that he had ever received.

When Orr and his crew came back to Guam their story finally came to the 
ears of General Spaatz. So greatly did he esteem the bravery of Bill Orr 
and his magnificent accomplishment that, in a special ceremony at his 
headquarters, he presented Captain Orr with the second highest decoration 
given by the United States - the Distinguished Service Cross.
The citation read: "For extraordinary heroism in action on 1 June 1945." 
And it concluded, "Captain Orr's intrepidity, magnificent airmanship and 
gallant leadership reflect the highest credit on himself and the Army Air 
Forces."