Re: Another Hero Gone

Date: June 24, 2004

"Brother tells tale of WWII hero

By SPECIAL TO CITIZEN-TIMES
By Eckel C. Bradley Sr.

ASHEVILLE - On May 28, another native Asheville hero died: Col. Clyde W. Bradley Jr.

This does not diminish Col. Robert Morgan's record, the late pilot of the famed Memphis Belle, but my brother also flew out of England during World War II as part of the 8th Air Force.

He completed his 25 missions over Germany shortly after Col. Morgan. Because the bombing of Germany was having an effect on the destruction of the German war machine, the commanding officers came to those remaining in England and asked them to volunteer for five more missions.

They flew the famous B-17 Flying Fortress plane.

Col. Bradley was on his 30th bombing mission - and supposedly his last - in this raid over Berlin. He told me the story:

As they had released their bomb load and were turning off of the target, a German anti-aircraft gun had tracked them over the target and its last shell fire knocked out an electrical circuit box, causing two of the four engines to stop working.

Dropping out of the formation of planes flying back to their base in England, they flew on the two remaining engines for four hours, trying to reach the English Channel.

As they continued to lose altitude, my brother radioed the rest of their crew and asked if they were ready to bail out of the plane.

It was quiet for a few minutes before one of the crewmembers replied, "Lt. Bradley, we have all come this far together and no one has a scratch on us. Let's ride her to the ground."

As they dropped further down, preparing to basically belly land the plane, a German fighter appeared, flying alongside them and observed that the crew was busy, throwing machine guns and all equipment out of the plane to lighten the load, so the bomber could stay aloft as long as possible.

The German fighter evidently realized they were possibly doomed and chose not to try to shoot them down, then flew away.

When they were right at tree top height and ready to start to pancake into the trees, my brother said all of a sudden, the trees disappeared and the most beautiful pasture opened up beneath their plane. They slid in on a wheels-up landing. The only injury was that one of the non-commissioned crewman, who received a slight cut over one eye.

From there, they departed the plane, broke up into four groups in an attempt to escape and possibly return to England.

The B-17 had a crew of 10 on each plane, a pilot, co- pilot, bombardier and navigator, all of them commissioned officers. The other six were noncommissioned officers - gunners on the plane.

My brother and two other crew members were captured the next day as they came out of a patch of woods, run down by a group of farmers on horseback. Since the farmers had had pitchforks, his group surrendered.

The entire crew of 10 was captured in a period of one week and was sent to prisoner of war camps. When my brother was captured, he was taken into the small town of Soltau, Germany, and he was held in a small pub in the town until German soldiers and possibly SS Storm troopers came after them.

Within due time he was shipped off to the infamous Stalag Luft No. 3, 90 miles southeast of Berlin, near the town of Sagan, Germany. He was prisoner of war for a year and 11 days.

About 20,000 American and British pilots and other officers were interred there. While he was there, three other Asheville Air Force officers were there, too: G.L. Leslie, Joe Davis and Furman Davis.

One morning, as these POWs were out on the grounds, a machine gun opened fire over their heads. They all hit the ground, crawling into trenches to avoid getting shot.

One prisoner had a pair of binoculars and saw that U.S tanks were approaching. After a battle with German troops, these prisoners were liberated.

This battle started at 10 a.m., and at 2 p.m. that afternoon, the American flag was run up the flagpole.

My brother opted to continue his Air Force career and spent 26 years until retirement and then moved to Montgomery, Ala.. and gave 18 more years to the Air Force by being employed at Maxwell Air Force base in Montgomery, in a civilian capacity.

On May 30, my brother Col. Clyde W. BradleyJr. was buried in his wife's family plot in Livingston, Ala.

On May 31, Memorial Day, we held a resurrection memorial service in Montgomery, Ala., for my brother. He was a genuine hero, as were so many who) served in World War II.

About the author: Eckel C. Bradley Sr. lives in Asheville

The Asheville Citizen-Times is a Gannett newspaper along with USA Today."