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first steps of the 8th AF, the ups and downs, the
difficulties in building a position and promoting
the idea of the importance of heavy bombers and
their daily missions. One of the films created
in his section was the 40-minute documentary
‘The Memphis Belle - A Story of a Flying Fort-
ress’ which was shot in the spring of 1943 by Maj.
William Wyler. However, even before this film
was completed, Bernie Lay was tired of sitting
behind a desk. Although he was promoted to
Lieutenant Colonel and a career at the top of the
army air force certainly awaited him, he asked
to be transferred from the air force staff to com-
bat duty. Also thanks to having rubbed shoulders
with important commanders, his request was
granted in the summer of 1943. Due to his age and
previous experience, he was offered command of
one of the nascent air units. First, however, real
combat experience had to be gained. The choice
fell on the 100th Bomb Group, which from June
1943 flew from East Anglia USAAF base No. 139
near the village of Thorpe Abbotts. This is where
Bernie Lay went ‘for some experience’. With
a rank among the highest in Thorpe Abbotts,
but no experience on heavy four-engined aircraft,
he was to fly several combat missions as an ob-
server or co-pilot. Out of five missions flown, the
first four were pretty standard, while the fifth
would become impossible to forget....
The best way to tell this story is to let Bernie
tell it himself in his own words. The following
is from his article ‘I saw Regensburg destroyed’
published in The Saturday Evening Post on
October 6, 1943:
In the brieng room, the intelligence ofcer of
the bombardment group pulled a cloth screen away
from a huge wall map. Each of the 240 sleepy-eyed
combat-crew members in the crowded room leaned
forward. There were low whistles. I felt a sting of an-
ticipation as I stared at the red string on the map that
stretched from our base in England to a pin point
deep in Southern Germany, then south across the
Alps, through the Brenner Pass to the coast of Italy,
then past Corsica and Sardinia and south over the
Mediterranean to a desert airdrome in North Africa.
You could have heard an oxygen mask drop.
“Your primary,” said the intelligence ofcer, “is Re-
gensburg. Your aiming point is the center of the Mess-
erschmitt 109 G aircraft-and-engine-assembly shops.
This is the most vital target we’ve ever gone after. If you
destroy it, you destroy thirty per cent of the Luftwaffe’s
single-engine-ghter production. You fellows know what
that means to you personally.”
There were a few hollow laughs. After the brieng,
I climbed aboard a jeep bound for the operations of-
ce to check up on my Fortress assignment. The stars
were dimly visible through the chilly mist that cov-
ered our blacked-out bomber station, but the weath-
er forecast for a deep penetration over the Continent
was good. In the ofce, I looked at the crew sheet,
where the line-up of the lead, low and high squad-
rons of the group is plotted for each mission. I was
listed for a copilot’s seat.
While I stood there, and on the chance suggestion
of one of the squadron commanders who was look-
ing over the list, the operations ofcer erased my
name and shifted me to the high squadron as copilot
in the crew of a steady Irishman named Lieutenant
Murphy, with whom I had own before. Neither
of us knew it, but that operations ofcer saved my
life right there with a piece of rubber on the end of
a pencil.
The commander who initiated the transfer
of Bernie Lay from the bottom squadron to the
better protected upper one was Maj. Gale ‘Buck’
Cleven, who alone remained in the cockpit of the
lead airplane of the exposed bottom squadron.
Of the six aircraft in his group, only two would
remain after the battle... Lt. Col. Bernie Lay was
originally cast as a member of the crew under
Lt. Roy F. Claytor, who flew the Fortress named
‘Alice from Dallas’ on her tenth mission. Lay was
replaced in his intended seat by the co-pilot of
Claytor’s crew, Lt. Raymond J. Nutting, Jr. Alice
was among the first aircraft of the 100th Bom-
bardment Group to be shot down that day. Three
men were killed out of the crew of ten.
A more detailed write up describing the fate
of Alice from Dallas can be found in the special
edition of our newsletter ‘The Bloody Hundredth,
1943’ from June, 2024.
Maj. Gale “Buck” Cleven, CO of the 350th BS, who on
August 17, 1943, initiated the transfer of Bernie Lay
from the low squadron to the top squadron, which
was composed by the 349th and 351st BS ships.
B-17F s/n 42-5867 “Alice from Dallas” was lost at Regensburg on August 17, 1943,
with Lt. Roy F. Claytor and his crew.
HISTORY
INFO Eduard
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August 2024