Presentation Date: June 24, 2004
1st LT Harry Moore USAAF
* Pilot Wings, Class 43-B, Roswell, NM * Flew 67 Combat Missions, ETO, From ENGLAND During 14 Months * 556th BS, 384th BG, 8th AF * Flew Mission Over Normandy Beaches, D-DAY June 6th, 1944 (60 Years Ago!) * Born In San Francisco, 1917
* Joined USAAF February 1943
* Pilot Wings, Class 43-B, Roswell, NM
* Flew 67 Combat Missions, ETO, From ENGLAND During 14 Months
* 556th BS, 384th BG, 8th AF
* Flew Mission Over Normandy Beaches, D-DAY June 6th, 1944 (60 Years Ago!).
Dropped 35 100-Pound Bombs
* After WWII, He and His Brother (NAVY F4U "Corsair" Fighter Pilot, Lexington)
Built Private Business
* After 42 Years of Successful Business, Sold and Retired in 1988 Written by John Crump
Harry Moore remembers when he graduated from the Air Force Class of 43-B, along with nine other graduates at Roswell, New Mexico. He was told he was to become a P-38 pilot to cover the Troop Carrier Command. "My feet didn't touch the ground for three or four days!" he says.
Moore's feet touched the ground for the first time in San Francisco, in 1917, when he was born. With his high school diploma in hand, he joined the Army Air Forces in February, 1942; he passed the written test and was allowed to sign up. Even so, Moore's draft board was dismayed. Moore had been a salesman for the Linde Company - - among his clients were Kaiser shipyards, the Naval Station in Vallejo and a Benecia foundry which made large gun barrels - - and Harry was considered "essential to the war effort."
Fortunately for Harry's flying aspirations, the red tape was cut, and his training began, which led to graduation at Roswell the following year. But after the 43-B graduate arrived at Bergstrom Field, Texas, there wasn't a P-38 to be found among the C-47s based there. He was quickly checked out in that military transport version of the civilian DC-3 airliner, sent to Fort Bragg, and was soon carrying paratroopers aloft.
"When you're flying at 500 feet, 90 miles an hour, they can shoot you down with a 30.06. I really wasn't too happy in troop carriers. "I was sitting on the flight line in an empty plane one day and I pushed the right pedal forward and the pedestal came back. I couldn't push it forward because my left knee was in the way. So I wrote a letter to the commanding officer, saying that due to the length of my legs I could not control this aircraft at low speeds, and requested a transfer.
"Believe it or not in ten days a transfer came through. And I went up to see the commanding officer and said, 'Lt. Moore, sir. I appreciate the transfer. Would you sign my traveling orders. "He said,' Son of a gun. I thought you were a little guy who couldn't reach the pedals!'"Nevertheless, Moore's transfer took him to a replacement depot in Tampa, Florida. He'd already had the C-47 flight time as well as time in a B-25, and was promptly shown the B-26 Marauder, for which the Army Air Force was seeking pilots.
The B-26 came with a reputation. Moore says in September of '43 there were thirty Marauders lost in Tampa Bay in training accidents, more than probably were lost in any month in combat. The B-26 was a hot ship, but still had some development bugs to be worked out. The B-26's origins dated to a 1938 Army specification for a low-level attack bomber. Glenn L. Martin Company responded with the Marauder, and the first B-26, a bomber with a very short, high loaded wingspan, came off the line in 1940. Many modifications would ultimately make the B-26 a reliable weapon - - among them: replacement of the shorter wing with a longer flying surface, upgrades of the engines, armor plating and a turret on top.
In 1943, the 387th Bomb Group was looking for co-pilots. That's where Harry found his niche, and he volunteered to join the group, which was heading overseas. Harry was to co-pilot for the commander of the 556th Bomb Squadron, Captain Ives, a former National Guard infantry officer.
"He told me when I joined, he was a hard-flying tough, S-O-B. And he said some people don't like to fly with me. If you ever feel if you don't want to fly with me, let me know and I'll make other arrangements." Harry accepted the challenge and training continued in Lakeland, Florida and then Louisville, Kentucky, before the whole bomb group was shipped to Selfridge Field to equip with brand new B-26s. Moore recalls the first flight in the new bomber, when the pilot-in-command took it up to 7,000 feet to see how it would fly on a single engine.
'He pulled back the mixture on the right engine, pulled back the throttle on the right engine, then feathered the left engine. "I said, 'Gee, so this is the really hot pilot...!' "
With the plane back under control, Moore says they continued on to Savannah, Georgia, to meet up with the rest of the aircrews and ground personnel. The squadron commander did suffer a second gaffe when he tried to fly through bad weather and had to put down overnight in North Carolina before completing the flight to Savannah. Soon, they were on their way to the European Theater of Operations, via Presque Isle, Maine, then Halifax, Nova Scotia then Greenland to Iceland.
In Iceland, Harry says his plane's radioman told him that German propaganda broadcasts featuring 'Lord Ha Ha' were warning against bringing the bombers to Great Britain, that they wouldn't make it to their destination. The radio message was accurate down to the number of bombers remaining in the ferrying operation - - one had already returned to Presque Isle due to a canopy problem. On the way to the 387th's base at Chipping Ongar, about thirty miles south of London, Moore says Captain Ives flew through bad weather and nearly into a mountain, prompting Moore to take up Ives' offer for a transfer to another bomber crew. "So, I never flew with him again. The refusal to fly with the flight commander, I'm sure, was on my record... " The second day at the new base, the B-26s were grounded, after B-26 units suffered extraordinarily high losses due to flak on low level missions against German submarine pens in Holland.
To remedy the problem, the USAAF decided B-26s would fly their missions at medium altitude. And Moore says his missions were all flown between 11,000 and 12000 feet in tight boxes of six aircraft, to coordinate defensive firepower against enemy fighters. "We had fighter problems on the first 15-20 missions," Moore recalls, of the 387th's first missions against German airfields in France. "But we were quite successful, just about destroying them all. The purpose of that was so our fighters based in England didn't have to go out with the heavies, but could pick them up later, maybe at the German border, and escort them to targets in Germany, giving them better fighter cover."
In hitting their targets from medium altitude, Moore describes a tactic which B-26 crews developed to greatly boost their survival. "Someone discovered that by the time they (the Germans) 'cut a fuse' on a flak shell, loaded it in the gun, and fired it to 12,000 feet, it took somewhere between 18 to 20 seconds. So we took evasive action every 15 seconds. The B-26 was very maneuverable. This didn't eliminate the flak, but reduced its effectiveness."
Strips of aluminum called "window", dumped from Marauders, also helped to confuse the Luftwaffe radar guiding anti-aircraft crews. Most Marauder losses, says Moore, came from anti-aircraft fired at them during the 40 to 60 seconds the bombers flew straight and level on their bomb run to the target. After nearly 30 missions, Harry says his crew was temporarily posted to the 394BG, where the assignment was to train the new group's crews for combat. After twenty days of training, Moore says he and his crew requested and were granted two day's rest and recreation leave.
But no sooner had they left for the R&R, than word reached them they were considered AWOL. Returning to base, the commander said he'd lessen their penalty from a court martial to a fine under the 104th Article of War. Moore says they took the penalty, paid the fine and that, too went on Harry's record. Moore says that's probably the reason he remained a 2nd Lt. after 67 missions. After 35 missions, the 387BG saw the departure of the bomber commander who Harry had chosen not to fly with. Captain Ives was promoted out of the unit.
Two of the more memorable of Moore's missions came on June 6, 1944, D-Day, the Invasion of Normandy. In between weather fronts, Operation Overlord was launched, with bombers softening up the beaches and German coastal defenses. Moore says from about 8000 feet, his Marauder dropped bombs on Omaha Beach.
"Our bomb load was 4,000 pounds. Normally we went with eight 500 pounders, but on D-Day we bombed the beaches with forty 100 pounders, and that was to detonate landmines. Some people thought it might have been to dig foxholes... "Then we had a second mission on D-Day to Caen, where the Germans had a big stronghold of defense, tanks and the whole works. We hit them pretty hard and got a commendation on the accuracy and the effectiveness of our bombing that day."
As the war continued, citing a need for more airmen and a statistical lessening of the risks of bombing, the USAAF kept raising the minimum missions bomber crews had to fly before they could be sent home.
But Moore learned danger was always lurking. He remembers the group losing two Marauders to prowling Luftwaffe fighters while returning from a mission.
"These fellows, they just didn't expect them. When they started going back over he Channel, they unloaded their guns. It was just a trip back home and they weren't ready for them."
For Harry, the number of missions nearly doubled from his original requirement. After flying sixty-seven missions in the span of fourteen months, Harry says he was the sole remaining member of his initial B-26 crew. The rest of the airmen had gone home. Moore was told to see the flight surgeon, who sent him to the headquarters of the Ninth Air Force for a medical review, with the expectation they would send him home.
Elated, Moore waited his turn to leave as others were sent home. Once again, he was the only one who hadn't been sent. The delay came in the form of his promotion from 2nd lieutenant after having flown those 67 missions.
Once back in the States, Harry Moore got married to Kathleen Gardiner, whom he had met before he went into the service. He was assigned to Barksdale Field for training, and then sent to Del Rio, Texas for instructor's school. A return to Selfridge Field had Moore as a flight commander, in charge of five instructors training French crews to fly the B-26. Harry says he was able to send the instructors and crews on training flights around 2 1/2 hours in length, and catch nine holes of golf at the base course before they returned.
For his service in WWII, Harry Moore earned several Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Harry and his brother, who had been an F4U "Corsair" Fighter Pilot aboard the USS Lexington co-founded a welding and industrial supply business. In 1988, after 42 years, Moore sold the company and retired.