Lt. Russell B. Witte, Jr. B-25 Mitchell Bomber pilot with over 50 missions flying from North Africa over Sicily and Italy. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and 9 Air Medals. Later served as a test pilot at Eglin Field in Florida where he flew the camera planes during the filming of "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo". .

Russ'family in the 1930 Census;

1930 Census; (8 April)

Russell B Witte, Sr. 38

Marion E Witte 38

Russell B Witte, Jr. 13

Mary L. 12

Jane 9

Penrose Avenue

Hamilton County

Cincinnati, Ohio

“Most of all I have vivid memories of the dust; the noise; the thrill, pride, ecstasy, and excitement of good tight formation flying; the fear and terror associated with near misses by attacking fighters and bursting flack; and the overwhelming grief you feel when you see a friend, flying near you, shot down.” Russell B.Witte, Jr.

Born in 1916 in Cincinnati, Russ Witte was destined to become a part of his father’s

construction business since the age of one

when his dad RB included him in his newly

named construction business: “R.B. Witte &

Son”. He spent his early years in Cincinnati

growing up with his 2 younger sisters and

swimming in the Ohio River. In 1939 he

graduated from the University of Cincinnati

with a Civil Engineering degree. In the

ROTC program he was commissioned a 2nd

Lieutenant in the Army Reserves. Ordered into active duty in early 1941 Russ was assigned a

stressful job as a Personnel Officer managing 3,000 new recruits. Frustrated with that position he became very

interested in a flyer posted on the hallway bulletin board about the severe need for pilots. Russ liked that he could

keep his rank and payscale while going through pilot training.

He was a little worried that he had never been near an

airplane but decided it had to be easier than handling all those

young recruits and paperwork. So he flew with a friend who was

already a pilot, still wasn’t sure he liked it but kept going with the

decision. He was qualified and accepted into the SE Air Corp

Training Center. His primary training was in the PT17 Stearman

at the Hawthorn Flying School in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Luckily he got a super civilian instructor who understood that

some days a new young pilot could handle the rigors of intense

Army Air Corps pilot training and some days should be spent

concentrating on taxi-training. With this kind of understanding

Russ gained his tolerance and love of flying and steadily

increased his skills, learning to fly the way the Stearman

teaches, “by the seat of your pants”. Advanced pilot training

included the Vultee BT-13, North American AT-6 and Cessna At-

17. Pilot wings were received early September 1942. By

November Russ had been training in the Mitchell B-25 medium

bomber at Greenville, SC Army Air Base except most of the

training was on the ground with the actual flying time given to the

squadron ahead of his. Russ was given a week of leave to see his family in Cincinnati. The travelling took a day and a

half and no sooner had he arrived home he received a telegram with orders to return immediately to his base as he

had been picked to replace a pilot from the squadron ahead of his. The mother of one of the pilots in that squadron

getting all the flying time had contacted her Congressman complaining that her son was being sent overseas into

combat with less than adequate flight training. The War Department removed her son from his squadron and sent him

to the West Coast to report for immediate overseas combat duty in the Pacific Theater. Russ was ordered to replace

that pilot and sent into combat duty with only 3 hours actual B-25 flying time. So on December 20,1942 Russ departed

with 17 other new B-25s from West Palm Beach, Florida on a flight to Cairo, Egypt to become a member of General

Brereton’s 9th Air Force. Along the way they had stops in Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Brazil, Assencion Island, the African Gold Coast, Nigeria, British

West Africa and Sudan, landing in Ismalia, Eqypt on January 3, 1943. There the planes were modified for desert warfare including larger

carburetor air filters. They were initially based at Landing Ground (LG)142 at Gambut, 30 miles south of Tobruk, Libya.

“As a member of the British 8th Army, we wore British uniforms with American insignia, lived in British 12’X12’ EPIP (Egypt, Palestine, India

Personnel) tents, ate British rations and dropped British bombs. Around the landing fields we used we dispersed our tents 50 yards apart and our

planes 150 to 200 yards apart. A 5 man crew lived in each tent (pilot, co-pilot, navigator-bombardier, radio

gunner and top turret gunner). We slept on 6’ canvas folding cots and were each issued 5 blankets and a

pillow. When we moved we loaded our tent and all our gear into the back of the plane. This made the tail of

the plane so heavy we had to prop a pole under the tail to hold it up until we got the engines running and the

prop wash would keep the tail up. Being so tail heavy made the airplane very difficult to fly. Because it was so

dusty on the desert we took off on our missions 6 planes abreast, crosswind, so the dust would blow to the

side and the next 6 planes could take off. We landed 3 planes abreast for the same reason. We flew our missions in 6 plane “boxes”, 1 to 6 or more boxes per mission depending on the target. We flew mostly at altitudes between 7 and 10,000 ft, in tight formation, continually varying our altitude and direction for our entire mission except on our bombing runs, because at those altitudes flack could be very accurate. But flying any higher required oxygen and we didn’t have it.” The pilots also desynchronized the two engines to confuse the German sound ranging devices that would be searching for the normal harmonious engine sound.

Through most of 1943 Russ flew missions attached to the Western Desert Air Force that was commanded by British Air Vice-Marshal Sir Coningham, and along with South African, Australian and British Groups, flew tactical missions in direct support of General Montgomery’s 8th Army on the ground. “Coningham and Montgomery maintained a joint headquarters in which aviation and ground elements had equal voices. This was a new way for Airmen to work with ground troops, and was very successful.” The British 8th Air Force was successfully pushing Rommel’s Africa Corps west across the Libyan Desert.

As they headed west the crews would move into landing fields the Germans had recently abandoned. Reaching Tunisia and Algeria the Squadrons joined with the 12th Air Force. Many of these missions were dropping leaflets urging German soldiers to surrender. The crews did not like these paper dropping missions since they would be getting shot at. Early June they moved north to the Mediterranean Sea and resumed bombing missions over the islands of Pantileria, Lampidusa, Sicily and then Italy in preparation for the ground troops to be able to arrive. As was usual the flying crews were initially told they would fly 25 missions and as that milestone neared the mission count goal would grow to 30, then 35 and finally to 55. Russ’s 55th and final mission was a night bombing run on September 11, 1943. “At that time General Cannon at our Tactical AF Headquarters needed a pilot to fly him around in his private B-25. I did this until October 7 when I was ordered to return to the States. Back in the States I was sent as a Test Pilot to Eglin Field, the AAF Proving Ground, a very large base with a main landing field, 9 auxiliary fields, several bombing ranges, etc. located 30 miles east of Pensacola, Florida.

There I was assigned to the Heavy Bomber Squadron. So, for all of 1944 and 1945 I flew tests in B-17’s, B-24’s and B-29’s. The B-29 was the only plane we had with a pressurized cabin. I also had considerable time flying B-25’s, B-26’s, C-47’s, A-20’s and others. Couldn’t ask for better Stateside duty than that. One fun thing I got to do at Eglin Field was to fly MGM’s camera man around while he made the air to air shots that were made while they were filming the movie “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” on our Auxiliary Field #9 where the Doolittle Raiders had trained for their carrier take offs. To do this we removed the tail turret from a B-24 and MGM installed a tripod there in place of the turret, and the cameraman stood back there in that open space with nothing to hold onto but the camera. Scary! MGM gave me one of the Flight suits their actors wore in that movie and I also got to meet all the principal actors. Found out that Van Johnson and I were the same age. After V-J Day came on August 15, 1945 many in the armed forces wanted to get out of the military and back into civilian life as soon as possible, so the War Department established a point system that permitted those with more points to get separated before those with less points. I had a lot of points so I got separated and after serving my terminal leave became a civilian on January 1, 1946.” Russ was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and 9 Air Medals as well as the 12th Bomb Group receiving the Presidential Unit Citation. “So, in 10 months out of the States I had flown 55 combat missions, many of them quite harrowing, but never lost a plane. Although sometimes we were shot up so badly that we almost didn’t make it back to the base. I never was injured, never lost a crewman. We were extremely lucky since 50% of the men I flew overseas with never made it home.” There were two occasions, however, where luck surely did play a role.

(THE REST OF THE STORY; http://tri-statewarbirdmuseum.org/documents/TSWMTakingFlight2012August.pdf )