TIME CAPSULE
SEALED: JUNE 1938 - OPENED: FEBRUARY 2001
WARREN JOHN WEIS
TIME CAPSULE SEALED: JUNE 1938 - OPENED: FEBRUARY 2001 |
WARREN JOHN WEIS |
BACK : : : :Warren John Weis was born in 1920 in St Albans, Queens. He attended PS 36, The St. Albans School, and graduated from Jamaica High School in June 1938. Above is his yearbook picture with an Art Deco gold emblem from the cover of the yearbook.
After graduation Warren's family changed their name from Weis to Wade and Warren began working for American Airlines. About three months after graduation, on September 29 1938, Reichs Chancellor Adolph Hitler of Germany, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain, Prime Minister Edouard Daladier of France and Premier Benito Musselini of Italy had the last of a series of meetings to decide whether Hitler would be permitted to take over the part of Czechkoslovakia known as the Sudetenland. Czechkoslovakia was not invited to participate in the talks. The four countries agreed that Germany could have the Sudetenland if it agreed that it would cease expanding into other territories. On September 30 Chamberlain gave his famous Peace in our time! speech,which has become synonymous with the term appeasement.
On September 21 1938, the day that Hitler's troops began to threaten to march into the Sudetenland, the northeast coast of the United States was hit by a massive hurricane. Many coastal towns were flooded, beaches were heavily eroded and more than 900 people drowned. Because the world's attention was focused on the impending war in Czechkoslovakia, the news of this disaster did not receive much attention.
In November Hitler broke his promise and his troops overran the rest of Czechkoslovakia and then Poland, plunging Europe into war.
After graduation from JHS Warren found employment with American Airlines, which sent him to school to learn meteorology. Three years later, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, the United States joined the war, the Art Deco period ended.
When Warren decided to enlist in the Army he was following a long family tradition of military service to the United States. His father had served in the Field Artillery in France in World War I, participating, on September 12 - 16, 1918, in the Battle of St. Mihiel in France, one of the most significant battles of the war. In this battle, the first of the war in which American forces had the opportunity to maneuver independent of British or French troops, two men first distinguished themselves: Colonel George S. Patton, Jr. for innovative use of tanks, and Colonel William "Billy" Mitchell, for innovative use of airplanes. Both these men later made their mark again in WWII.
One of Warren's grandfathers had served in the 14th Regiment of the New York National Guard. One of his great-grandfathers had served in the Civil War and was wounded at Gettysburg. In keeping with this tradition, one of Warren's brothers served in an artillery unit in Italy with the 5th Army.
Warren was inducted Oct. 14, 1941 at Ft. Dix, NJ, into the Coast Artillery Corps. On December 20, 1941 he was shipped to Panama, where his unit was defending the Panama Canal, which was of great strategic importance to the United States since it shortened the travel time between the Atlantic and Pacific by about a week. This duty ended on Feb. 6, 1943, when he entered the U. S. Army Air Force.
He started flight training in Camden, SC., then at Shaw AFB in Sumter, SC. Next was George Field, Illinois, near Lawrenceville across the river from Vincennes, Indiana. While there he met his future wife just after the middle of November, 1943 at the Vincennes Club where she was a junior hostess. His next training was at Rantoul AFB near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Then Plant City and finally Avon, both in Florida. He enjoyed the training immensely. Here are five cartoons he drew which expressed his feelings about learning how to fly a bomber.
Warren finally received his commission as a Second Lieutenant on December 5, 1943 in a graduation ceremony at George Field. His sweetheart, Emma Lou Wessel did the honor of pinning on his new "wings" badge at the ceremony. Six months later they were married, on June 2, 1944 in Tampa, Florida. To the left is Warren in dress uniform and his wife, Emma Lou Wade, wearing his wings next to her heart.
The graduation was noted in the Vincennes, Indiana newspaper, The Sun Commercial of December 5, 1943. The article also told of Warren's earlier military service.
"In World War Two the 8th Air Force became the greatest air armada of any country in any war, reaching a total strength of 200,000 persons by mid-1944 (it is estimated that more than 350,000 Americans served in the 8th AF in the three years in Europe). At peak strength the 8th AF could put up over 2000 four-engined bombers and more than 1000 fighters on a mission. For these reasons the 8th Air Force was known as The Mighty Eighth." (398TH Bomb Group Memorial Association)
Warren's B-17, or Flying Fortress is seen here second from the right at Boeing Field where it was built in 1942: Serial Number: 42-97385.
The crew of the Shady Lady, back row, left to right: Bombardier: 2nd Lt. William A. Howell, Pilot: 2nd Lt. Warren J. Wade, Co-pilot: 2nd Lt. Theodore L. Prevost, Navigator: 2nd Lt. Burt D. Bream.
Front row, left to right: Left waist gunner: unnamed. This man never flew with the crew because a waist gunner on the inside of a formation would be shooting at friends., Radio operator: Sgt. John H. Rex, Top turret gunner: Sgt. Robert T. Ritter, Tail gunner: Sgt. Eugene Gamba, Right waist gunner: Sgt. Harrison F. Brooks, Ball turret gunner: Sgt. Wilbert Y. Burns.
Ella and Allie Burns in West Virginia with their family, about 1919. Sgt. Wilbert Y. Burns (front row right, above) is a child of about 12 months here, sitting on his mother's lap. Wilbert became a chemical engineer, married and had a daughter before joining the Air Force. (Picture and information courtesy of Sharon Kirk, Wilbert's first cousin, once removed.)
Warren's B-17, "Shady Lady," was part of the 601st Squadron, 398th Bomb Group, which in turn was part of the 8th Air Force, known as the "Mighty Eighth" operating out of Nuthampstead and other locales in England. When Warren took over command of her she had already flown 43 missions over Germany and German controlled territory. With four successful missions under his belt, Warren and his crew set out on their fifth mission on Sept. 8, 1944. Their target was the I. G. Farben chemical plant in Ludwigshaven in western central Germany. This account of what happened appeared in 398th Bomb Group Flak News. and was originally published in 398th Bomb Group Remembrances.
While en route to Ludwigshafen Shady Lady's number 1 engine failed and she began lagging behind the rest of the group of bombers, very vulnerable to German fighter planes. A little while later number 2 engine failed and Wade sent a radio appeal for fighter support because he was quickly losing air speed and altitude. As they approached the target, number three engine also failed. Wade immediately dropped his load of bombs and turned tail in the direction of Nancy, France, the shortest route to allied territory.
At this point the mission turned from simply dangerous to dangerous and bizarre. [Their escape route took them]...into a heavy cloud cover as the lone operating number 4 engine did its best to maintain some flight integrity. It was a losing battle, complicated further by the loss of most of the instruments operated by vacuum pumps in number 2 and 3 engines.
The plane was going down but nobody really knew how fast or how far [because we couldn't see anything inside the clouds.] A flash of inspiration led Wade to order engineer Ritter to hold up his ear phone cord to help establish some kind of idea of [which way was up and which way was down.]
Recalled Prevost, "It was wild, and the tremendous downdrafts had us all guessing. And then our pilot tube had frozen over so we had no idea of our air speed." Somewhere during this descent the bombardier chose to bail out and he was followed by the engineer. Both went out the nose hatch. The wild ride continued for about 40 minutes, when all at once came the "moment of truth."
A church steeple appeared just ahead...and they were flying upside down! "Warren and I put our legs on the yoke and pushed, just barely clearing the steeple as we turned the plane right side up. Now we were on the deck and the next thing I heard from Warren was, 'Wheels and flaps!'" The emergency landing was so smooth, the other members of the crew who had huddled in the radio room for the impending crash jolts hardly realized they were safely on the ground.
The joy of the super landing was short lived, however, as the crew was quickly rounded up by German soldiers. And as these soldiers were ordering the seven captured Americans into a truck, others were cutting branches from nearby trees in an effort to conceal the prized, intact, B-17 from the air. [They knew that] U.S. fighters had standing orders to destroy any bomber that might have survived such a crash landing. [Nevertheless,] it didn't take [our planes] long to find the B-17 and render it junk.
Below are German pictures of Shady Lady after the landing and after American planes destroyed her.
"We had landed somewhere about halfway between Nancy to the west and Sarrebourg to the east," said Bream. At least it was 12 kilometers to Nancy, according to a sign post."
The seven Americans were guarded by five SS troops in the back and two more in the cab. Now quite dark, Wade passed the word that they should try to escape, even in the face of seven armed guards. In the dark, he reasoned, they could make a run for it and reach Allied lines before dawn.
At Wade's signal, they jumped the guards and the battle ensued. Tail gunner Gamba threw himself at a guard only to catch the muzzle of a machine pistol in the stomach. He took "many" rounds and died quickly. In the wild thrashing of bodies, bullets began flying in all directions. The two guards in the cab also opened up with their machine pistols, their spray fire killing one of their own men. But also killed were Wade and Burns. Prevost was then blinded by a bullet and Bream was wounded in the hip. While Prevost was still standing a guard hit him in the face with his rifle butt. Then the little war was over. "It was a very bloody truck."
Warren J. Wade's daughter, Mrs. Ann Addison, informs us that her father's remains now rest in Plot K Row 41 Grave 15 in Lorraine American Cemetery & Memorial in St. Avold, France, pictured below. The Red Cross told her, she explains, "that her father and the other 2 men from his crew were originally buried in a church cemetery in Hagenau, Germany. It seems most appropriate to have a cross for him at this place in France, because it is very near where he landed the plane. His name is also on a stone in Vincennes, Indiana, where I was born and raised."
Servicemen keep their clothing and gear in a locker, sometimes known as a footlocker because it was placed at the foot of one's bunk. John Wade's locker was sent home to his family: his wife and the daughter he had never seen. It contained his personal effects, including the flag which draped his coffin at the interment, three medals: the Purple Heart, the Air Medal and the Bronze Star, and his jacket with his wife's name on the back.
In Jamaica High School on a wall just beyond room 140 is a memorial list of Jamaica High School students, men and women, who served their country in the Armed Forces during World War II. There are 5099 names on the list: 9 faculty, 48 young women and 5042 young men.
A gold star next to a name on a list of veterans means that that person died in the war. In all there are 174 gold stars on the list. This section of Jamaica's WWII Memorial shows two gold stars, one after Warren John Wade's name. (The bronze memorial sculpture which stands at the Gothic Drive gate and which was dedicated in 1948, shows 188 names.)
: : : : FEEDBACK: D. Jensen, Librarian (Retired): jamaica@jamaicahighschool.org : : : : 01/18/01-07/18/05
