DEDICATED TO 93^rd BG (H) 330^th BS

B-24 Flight Engineer

Staff Sergeant John D. Purvis

[WWII European Theater England 1945]

Submissions of J.D. Purvis material from his son John Purvis

Site edited and maintained by Doug Cook

Last Update June 1, 2010

EIGHTH AIR FORCE 93RD BOMB GROUP (H) 330^th BOMB SQUADRON

330^th BOMB SQUADRON “The Traveling Circus”

LOGBOOK and MISSIONS

CITATIONS and DOCUMENTS

PILOT 1^st LT ROBERT H. HELLER SPEECH

(A must read!)

AIR MEDAL

S. Sgt. John D. Purvis

B-24 LIBERATOR 330^th BS ‘D’

John Purvis:

I talked with Mr. Heller yesterday and he advised me that they trained as a crew with a bombardier and arrived in England with a bombardier. When they reached Hardwick, their navigator, bombardier and ball turret gunner were moved to other crews. He also stated that most of the B-24 aircraft that they flew had their ball turrets removed. Mr. Heller informed me that they flew bombing missions with groups of 18 planes, each group had two leads, a primary and a secondary in case something happened to the primary. When they reached their IP (Initial Point) then these groups of 18 planes began to tighten up to the point of over lapping wings, this is when they became very nervous because of their proximity to each other. They held this position on their approach to the target, upon target acquisition the lead plane opened its bomb bay doors and as they all had a visual on the lead they did likewise, when the first bomb left the lead plane the rest of the group released theirs. He stated that this was call Pattern Bombing. Another thing that was interesting is that he stated that they never talked from plane to plane on the radios, just inter plane via the intercom.

Here is a revised break down on the crew:

PILOT Robert H. "Bob" Heller Penn Yan, NY Living

CO-PILOT John S. "Luke" Lucas Greensboro, NC Deceased

NAVIGATOR Mario J. Rota New York, NY Deceased

FLIGHT ENGINEER John D. "Jack" Purvis Belzoni, Mississippi Deceased

LEFT WAIST GUNNER Cecil D. Kenny Cumberland, Maryland Deceased

RIGHT WAIST GUNNER Joseph R. Davis Saint Louis, Missouri Deceased

NOSE GUNNER George R. Light Baltimore, Maryland Deceased

RADIO OPERATOR Leonard B. Bartchak Cleveland, Ohio Deceased

TAIL GUNNER Michael J. Gentile Worcester, MA Deceased

(Navigator probably had a dual role as Bombardier)

HELLER B-24 LIBERATOR CREW