HISTORY

I was probably five or six years old when I first heard “The Story” and looked at those

three tiny 2 1/2” X 4” photos of the B-17. This story and those small images were probably

responsible for my life long love affair with aviation history.

My Dad, then Captain Edward Mautner, had arrived in England on July 9, 1944, attached to the

127th Station Hospital based in Salisbury in the

south of England. Salisbury was one of the four

whole blood distribution centers for the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) and in particular

for the troops breaking out from the Normandy

beachhead. My dad was charged with developing

a transportation unit to deliver whole blood to

field hospitals supporting the troops advancing

into France.

Captain Mautner’s first challenge was to find

vehicles – two and half ton trucks (“deuce and

halfs”), Jeeps, motorcycles, trailers, and refrigeration units to extend the short shelf life of whole

blood. He also had to create a cadre of drivers.

The 127th arrived with only 11 licensed drivers and

two men qualified to ride motorcycles- Corporal

T/5 Lyle Holcomb and my dad. All the vehicles

were requisitioned without paperwork, including

20 Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Training began

on the Salisbury Plain. Teaching young men to

drive trucks and Jeeps was pretty easy. The motorcycles were not quite so easy to master. Men

were taught to start, accelerate, brake and shift

gears. They were then sent out on the grassy

plain and told to practice and return in one half

hour. Several did not return having dumped their

motorcycles and found them too heavy to right.

A search party led by Captain Mautner and a few

semi-competent novices then rode out in search

November 2023

of the lost sheep. Once found, they were sent out

again.

The point in mentioning this is to emphasize

the acute shortage of vehicles and drivers. “Midnight requisitions,” a kind term for thievery, by

other needy units depleted others of their hardwon caches of vehicles and made securing vehicles of paramount importance. And so it was on

the afternoon of August 10, 1944 when Lt Y.Z. Garner of Birmingham, Ala., entered Capt. Mautner’s

office seeking a favor. Garner wanted to borrow

Mautner’s Jeep. One of his best buddies from

Birmingham, an Eighth Air Force B-17 pilot, was

flying into a nearby U.S. Army Air base and Garner

wanted to drive to meet him. Mautner, concerned

for the security of “his” Jeep, offered to accompany Garner to that base which was approximately

15 miles southeast of Salisbury.

Stoney Cross was a Ninth Air Force base in the

New Forest about 10 miles west of Southampton.

This former RAF base was home to P-38s of the

376th Fighter Group that had recently flown off

to newly bulldozed fields near the Normandy

beaches. Remaining at Stoney Cross were the

Martin B-26 Marauder Medium Bombers of the

387th Bombardment Group. The seemingly short

ride to Stoney Cross over narrow, hedge cropped

roads took over an hour. Arriving in mid to late

afternoon, Mautner and Garner quickly identified

a lone B-17 Flying Fortress that dwarfed a field of

B-26 medium bombers.

Finding the crew of the B-17 proved a little

more challenging. Questioning base Army Air

Force personnel led Mautner and Garner to the

base Officers’ Club or “O Club.” Garner’s friend

was at the bar with a co-pilot. Both had been

drinking. After salutations and introductions,

Garner’s friend, introduced as “Mac,” asked his

guests if they would like a ride in “his” airplane.

He didn’t have to wait long for a pair of affirmatives. The only hold up was how to get the co-pilot

back into the aircraft as he was quite inebriated

and needed assistance. Once hoisted into the aircraft, he was unceremoniously laid on the plywood floor of the radio operator’s compartment,

unable to sit upright in his right front seat. This

is where he remained as “Mac” took the controls,

Garner sat in the co-pilot’s seat and Mautner

stood between the two with no more than a good

grip on their seat backs. Mautner recalled that

they seemed to use all of the 5000 foot runway

to get airborne. “Mac” asked his guests what

they would like to see on their “joy ride.” Like

so many American servicemen in England, the

White Cliffs of Dover on the Channel Coast was

Title photo: My Baby, B-17G-35-DL while her original assignment with the 324th BS, prior the 91st Bomb Group red-tail marking

was applied. [NARA]

INFO Eduard

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