[Milsurplus] A Documented Gibson Girl Rescue

Tue Aug 14 12:39:04 EDT 2012

Hey Bruce,

Was this "our" Bill Orr, the radio author/editor?

Al

On 8/14/2012 2:41 AM, Bruce wrote:
> 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."
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-- 
Al Klase - N3FRQ
Jersey City, NJ
http://www.skywaves.ar88.net/