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Post by Karl Welteke on Jun 18, 2015 20:44:08 GMT 8
A WWII VETERAN JOINS HIS COMRADES IN ETERNITY A frequent Corregidor visitor and friend, Steven Foster, and a descendent of a 503d Paratrooper presents this segment. “A friend of mine, Col Robert Voss, a B-17 pilot, passed away last week.I attended his funeral at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, yesterday. The link below is a video produced by the local high school, showing him discuss his experiences”. veterans.othstoday.com/colonel-robert-voss/Obituary mollfuneralhome.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=3190708&fh_id=13999Note from Karl: There are actually 2 videos, one is 16 minutes (interview) and the 2nd one is 4 minutes (highlights of his career). I think the high school student done a very good job and I liked it very much that is why I pass it along. Steve also attached a photo and 3 screenshots: X602 Col Robert Voss, his funeral at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. X603 Col Robert Voss, when he entered the service, the Army Air Corps. X604 Col Robert Voss, the crew of: ”The Dorothy V”, 94th Bomb Group, 332 Squadron. X605 a piece of flak, which was removed from my rudder pedal after the mission to the oil refineries in Merseberg Ger. 30th Nov. 1944 . Some 60 bombers were reported shot down or severely damaged.
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Post by beirutvet on Jun 19, 2015 0:43:35 GMT 8
Wonderful tribute.
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Post by okla on Jun 19, 2015 3:32:11 GMT 8
Hey Guys....Those guys who made those regular "runs", especially over the Fatherland, deserve all the tributes they get. You can't say enough about the guts they had to have to sit there in those 4 engine bombers, holding formation, while the Luftwaffe ME 109s and FW 190s, plus the .88 AA flak were cutting them to pieces. Several years ago I was stunned to learn that the Army Air Corps took more KIA than did the USMC (54,600 as opposed to 19,600). This boggled my mind as all I could think of was the "blood baths at Tarawa, Iwo, etc, but after pondering these numbers for a bit I realized that day after day, especially in Europe, we sometimes, daily, lost as many as 40, 50, and a couple of times even 60 Forts and Liberators with their crews of, usually, 10 men. Those kinds of losses quickly add up over time. Of course, the Gyrenes had a great many more wounded, with the flyboys having many more taken POW when their planes were shot out from under them and they had to bail out. That KIA number, tho, still "rattles" me somewhat.My admiration goes out to Colonel Voss and all the other guys who climbed into those Bombers (and Fighters) and took to the Wild Blue Yonder. Just sayin'.
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Post by beirutvet on Jun 20, 2015 3:18:03 GMT 8
Okla
You are correct. On the allied side the 8th Air Force had the highest casualty rate and on the Axis side it was the German navy (u-boats) suffering the most.
The islands were blood baths, no doubt. But after the island was taken there was a lull in the action. As you stated, the 8th was taking hits day after day. Colonel Voss and all the other European fly boys had big hairy ones.
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