Former airmen remember darkest hour

Monday, Oct. 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

At a briefing for B-17 bomber crews, an officer read a telegram from Gen. Fred Anderson, commander of the Army's 8th Air Force:

"This air operation today is the most important ... in this war. The target must be destroyed. ... Good luck, good shooting and good bombing."

From the rear, a gunner shouted prophetically: "And goodbye."

That mission, 53 years ago today, is remembered as "Black Thursday," the second unsuccessful bombing raid on the ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt. Sixty Allied Flying Fortresses were shot down while inflicting minor damage on the German factories.

It was one of the worst Allied bomber defeats of World War II. But from the ashes of that disaster came the era of the long-range fighter -- the P-51 Mustang that would protect future American and British bombers on raids that hastened victory in Europe.

"It's good to remember the setbacks of the war so we won't make the same mistakes in the future," said Jack Novey, 73, of San Francisco, who is joining about 200 other veterans and their families for a reunion of the Second Schweinfurt Association today through Thursday at the Gold Coast hotel-casino.

Premonitions of doom

"Before the Schweinfurt mission, many crew members said that morning at breakfast they knew they would not be coming back that day."

The warriors had reason to be concerned. On Aug. 17, 1943, the Allies lost 36 bombers in the first strike on Schweinfurt.

That same day, 26 more Allied bombers were shot down in the equally disastrous raid on the Messerschmitt aircraft assembly works at Regensburg in North Africa -- another of the 25 missions Novey survived.

Novey's book about his war experiences, "In the Cold Blue Sky: A B-17 Waist Gunner in World War II," is due out in January.

A waist gunner stood in the back middle of a B-17, firing a Browning 0.5-inch -- also called a 12.7mm or .50-caliber -- machine gun. The "Cold" in the title refers not only to the starkness of battle, but to the icy 150 mph winds that waist gunners endured at high altitudes.

This week's reunion marks Novey's return to the city where he got his combat training. In 1942, Novey was stationed at the gunnery range that today is Nellis Air Force Base.

While many movies about World War II depict bomber pilots and crew members as devil-may-care lads who laughed in the face of death, Novey said the fear in their hearts was real.

In his memoir, Novey, a staff sergeant during the war, recalled his thoughts the night before Black Thursday:

"An icy fear enveloped me. I turned into a robot. Everything else vanished from my mind. In our hut, no one said a word. I climbed into my top bunk and stared at the ceiling. ...

"I remember one case where a returning gunner remained in the waist of the plane, cowering and whimpering. ... He hadn't been shot. ... They carried him off in a stretcher. We never saw or heard of him again. ... Obviously the poor guy was just frightened to death."

A private terror

Of the day of the mission, Novey wrote:

"As we waited in the drizzle, I didn't talk to anybody. I didn't even look at anybody. I was just trying to cope with my own private terror.

"Then a jeep drove up, and Col. Old got out. He came over, looked us all in the eye, and talked to us for a moment, wishing us Godspeed and good luck.

"I thought to myself, 'He's got guts. He's the commanding officer of the bomb wing, and he didn't have to fly, but he chose to lead this one.'"

Novey recalled that the colonel, co-piloting the Fertile Myrtle, "was wounded -- shot in the ass." Ironically, it summed up what the raid on Schweinfurt meant to the Allied war effort.

But many others were not so lucky. From 1942-45, 55,000 American and 50,000 Royal Air Force airmen and officers were killed in action.

"It was frustrating because we never were informed about what was really going on," Novey recalled. "For the longest time, we weren't told of the extent of the losses at Schweinfurt. And we were told that 60 percent of production was wiped out on the raid."

Actually, Allied bombs blew the roofs off some of the workshops, but the machinery was not damaged significantly and full production resumed at the ball-bearing plant in about four weeks.

"What a tragic waste of lives for so little," said Novey, who for 45 years had declined to talk about the war.

Two years ago, while attending an air show, Novey was interviewed by a reporter from the Oakland Tribune, who wrote a story about his war experiences. The reporter told Novey his saga would make an interesting book.

On Oct. 14, 1943, more than 200 bombers took off from England for Schweinfurt. Novey was on the Black Hawk, which on its nose had the image of an 8-ball with two protruding guns instead of the customary painting of a pretty woman.

"I guess we considered ourselves behind the 8-ball," Novey said. "At times, the odds on bombing operations were so stacked against us."

On bombing missions of that time, the accompanying RAF Spitfires and P-47 Thunderbolts turned back after crossing the English Channel so they would not risk running out of fuel. In effect, the B-17s went into Germany naked.

Before reaching Schweinfurt, the Luftwaffe met the American bombers and began shooting them down.

Some made it home

A small number of survivors were lucky enough to contact the resistance forces and make it back home, Novey said, noting that most were either killed or captured. A great many of those attending this week's convention are ex-POWs, he said.

After dropping their load on the Schweinfurt ball-bearing plant, the bombers headed home only to run into 200 German planes that further decimated the Allied aircraft. Five crippled Fortresses crashed into the English coastline, just miles from the base.

Jack's brother, Harry Novey of Las Vegas, was stationed stateside during the war and was at home when his family got the telegram telling of Jack's fate.

"Before we could get the telegram open, our father suffered a heart attack because he was sure that it would say Jack was killed at Schweinfurt," said 78-year-old Harry. "The telegram said Jack was wounded but would survive. So did dad."

On his tour of duty, Jack Novey was wounded twice, earning two Purple Hearts to go with his Distinguished Flying Cross. He also was credited with two confirmed kills of Messerschmitts, although he undoubtedly shot down many more.

After Black Thursday, Allied leaders determined that bombers, despite the guns they carried, could not effectively protect themselves from the onslaught of smaller, quicker enemy planes without the help of long-range fighters.

In Washington, Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces, ordered the large-scale production of the P-51D model, which had a range of 2,300 miles and a top speed of 437 mph.

With those features, the so-called "Little Friends" were able to escort and protect bombers deep into enemy territory.