Dear Greg,
I received the material you sent regarding your father, Orval Sorlie. I was co-pilot of his crew during training through to our final mission and will try to recount the history of our crew.
Following graduation from Advanced Twin Engine Training at Turner Field, Albany, GA, I was transferred to Army Air Base, Pueblo, CO for transition into B-24’s. I was assigned to Rudy Neumann’s crew as a replacement co-pilot. The crew had been in training on B-24’s for about a month before I joined them.
I joined the crew in late April 1944 and my flight records show activity to June 5, 1944. We trained in B-24’s with formation flying, gunnery practice, bombing practice and navigation. About June 13, 1944, we flew to Topeka, Kansas to pick up a B-24 which we would ferry to Ireland. This was the plane you mention named Short Arm. It had .45 autos painted on the nose. We flew this plane to Bangor, ME one day and Goose Bay Labrador the next. We had trouble with the radio direction finder (RDF) on the way to Bangor and an attempt to fix it failed. Our flight overseas was made on June 19, 1944. It took us twelve hours to make the flight. On the way we had overcast and undercast and for a while we were completely socked in. At one point we flew into a clearing and saw a B-17 about 500 feet in front of us at the same altitude!! Close call – 20 men might never have been heard from again! With RDF out Tony LoRusso was forced to navigate on dead reckoning with only a few drift readings. He did a great job as we hit landfall, Donegal Bay, Ireland, right on the nose. We left the Short Arm in Ireland for theater modifications and went on to the 458th Bomb Group at Horsham St. Faith, England.
My flying records show flight activity at the 458th between July 5th and July 31st 1944. Some of these flights were for training and orientation. Our combat flights were as follows:
July 17th 1944 – NoBall (Missile launching site, northern France)
July 24th 1944 – St. Lo, France
July 25th 1944 – St. Lo, France
July 31st 1944 – Ludwigshafen, Germany
Contrary to the Hollywood version, we never had a plane assigned to us with a faithful ground crew, etc. You flew whatever plane was ready to go when a mission was on! Our last flight on July 31st was flown in a B-24H, serial number 42-95116, and may well have been named Junior, I don’t recall a name – it’s been a long time since then. At around noon, while on the bomb run over Ludwigshafen, we were hit by flak which knocked out all flight controls. Rudy Neumann ordered an immediate bailout as we were peeling off to the left going into a power spin.
According to a debriefing report on our plane – “Ship 116, 754th Squadron received a direct hit in the nose and pulled out, lay over on side, jettisoned bombs and fell into a spin. Tail assembly ripped off before aircraft disappeared into undercast. Two chutes reported.” There were, of course, four chutes, one each for Sorlie, Been, Neuman, and Grigg. We were all captured in the Manheim-Ludwigshafen area and locked up at what I took to be a military hospital. The next morning we met in a hallway under guard, but were not allowed to speak to each other. We were processed separately and made to identify our personal items that had been removed from us earlier. At this time we could recognize some of the items from other crew members. We knew four of us had survived, but didn’t know the fate of the other six.
The four of us were then sent to the Wetzlar Interrogation camp. We were in solitary confinement for 3-4 days with question sessions each day. After release from solitary confinement we met for the last time in a separate compound just before being shipped to our POW camps. Sorlie and Been went to Stalag Luft 3b, while Neumann and Grigg went to Stalag Luft I, Barth, Germany. What followed was ten months as POW’s waiting for the war to end in Europe. I believe it was May 11, 1945 when Russian troops arrived at Barth and we were freed. There was a flak school next to Stalag Luft I with an airfield. We were flown by B-17 to Camp Lucky Strike near Fecamp, France. Next by ship to Boston and home.
I hope this thumbnail sketch of our crew’s experiences will help you understand some of what your father lived through. Of course, a person’s total war experience goes far beyond what I’ve record here and varies greatly with the individual. Those of us who were fortunate enough to survive a life-saving parachute jump and join the “Caterpillar Club” share the chance to come home and continue our lives. We remember the ones we left behind with sadness.
Regards,
Procter H. Grigg
