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Aud Brown

Posted 08.28.06 at 11:06 AM

Transcript of Oral History

NAME: Aud Brown
ADDRESS: Maxey, Texas
BRANCH OF SERVICE: U.S. Army Air Corps, 321st Bomb Group, 446th Bomb Squadron
DATES IN SERVICE: 1941-1945
LOCATIONS SERVED: North Africa
INTERVIEWER: Allen Williams
DATE OF INTERVIEW: November 30, 2005

Williams: First of all Mr. Brown, I would like to ask you to tell us where you were living when World War II started?

Brown: I was living with my parents in the Maxey community. I knew I was going to be drafted so I decided I would volunteer for the Air Force and if I got washed out, of course I would be in some other service. I didn’t wash out though and I got my wings.

Williams: So you volunteered, enlisted in the Air Force?

Brown: Yes, I did.

Williams: Okay, do you know roughly when that was?

Brown: Yes, 1941. I don’t remember the date exactly but, 1941.

Williams: Was it before Pearl Harbor or after? Do you remember?

Brown: I don’t remember - I think it was after Pearl Harbor but, I’m not positive.

Williams: You joined the Air Corps. Do you remember where they sent you first for training?

Brown: Yes, I think so. I went to Victoria and then to San Antonio at Randolph Field and did my basic there. I got my wings there and then I went to South Carolina to check out in B-25’s. I wasn’t happy about it, but after I got there, after I realized the B-25 was a good, stable airplane. Naturally, I wanted to go to fighters, but they put you where they needed you at that time.

Williams: So you ended up getting lots of hours in a B-25, which is a twin engine bomber?

Brown: Yeah, there were a few crashes there but I think the guys that instructed us had very little time, as training was being sped up in order to get us overseas.

Williams: Do you have a guesstimate how much time you were in flight training until you shipped out overseas?

Brown: I don’t think we were there over three months. I didn’t go over as a pilot, I went as a co-pilot. You know the co-pilots came to be the pilots as the missions went along.

Williams: Did you have any aviation experience before you joined the Air Corps?

Brown: When I was going to Paris Junior College I went and got enough time to solo in a Piper Cub airplane. One of my cousins and one of my friends were also interested. In fact, I think one of my instructors went on and taught basic and then later flew for the airlines.

Williams: You went to PJC before going into the military?

Brown: Yes.

Williams: I’ve heard stories that PJC had a flying club. Do you remember that?

Brown: Yeah, that was after I left. They didn’t have one before. I know I talked to a guy that used to fly here some. I think I may have gotten a total of twelve or fifteen hours here. I don’t know, but I think that’s about all I got in the Cub.

Williams: Do you remember where the airfield was? I’ve heard it was somewhere on 19th Northwest, behind where Flex-O-Lite currently is.

Brown: Yes. I remember because I walked to it several times.

Williams: And so that is where you flew most of your time in the Piper Cub?

Brown: Yes, all of it.

Williams: So you probably already had dozens of hours when you went into the Air Corps?

Brown: No, I wasn’t able to fly a whole lot in the plane. I did buy a few hours in the plane, but I was going to school and had to have money for tuition.

Williams: After you went into Air Corps, how long did you spend in training before you were shipped overseas?

Brown: Probably six months or so, but I don’t remember. I have a log at home that I haven’t looked at it lately. It will have that information. Anyway, you either passed or you washed out. If you didn’t wash out, you went from primary to basic to advanced flight training. After advanced, you got your commission. We were then sent to a B-25 outfit. After a while, we were shipped out. Down to South America, then on across to the Ascension Islands, which were a little spot on the map. If you were to miss those islands, that would have been the end of it.

Williams: That’s when you hope the navigator was awake during this training!

Brown: Yes, we had a few commissioned navigators and they had good radios. So you weren’t likely to miss it.

Williams: Do you remember the time-frame when you got to North Africa?

Brown: I do not.

Williams: Sometime in 1943 or late 1942 perhaps?

Brown: Late 42 I think.

Williams: Were you placed in action quickly?

Brown: They didn’t want to waste any time. It seemed we began action soon. We were just out in the boondocks of North Africa -not close to any large places at all. That’s probably the way they wanted it.

Williams: Do you remember your first Combat Mission?

Brown: Yes, I remember that after we dropped the bombs, guys wanted to go every direction. You were to fly straight and level on the bomb run. When the man ahead began to open his bomb bay door, we did the same. Our bombardier quickly learned his job and, after we gained experience, we didn’t get so wild after we dropped our bombs. There was often flak near the target. Some flak hit close. You received a few small holes in your aircraft from the flak. We always had flak. We were fortunate enough that a P-38 fighter outfit often went with us and took care of the enemy fighters.

Williams: What was a typical target in North Africa that you were sent against?

Brown: Rail yards and bridges. We bombed quite a few rail yards. We carried five-hundred pound bombs as our biggest load. Bridges were important targets because the Germans needed them for supply lines. Our missions were some two hours long maybe two-and-a- half - not really long missions, and we never flew over maybe five or six thousand feet.

Williams: Being that close to the ground I bet the flak was pretty intense?

Brown: Well, we thought that the German flak was always after you! Williams: How many missions did you fly?

Brown: We flew fifty missions there because it wasn’t as intense as in England. Those guys flew a lot higher than we did and they went a lot further, too. Our missions were typically much shorter. Because of this, we flew fifty missions and then they sent us to the States.

Williams: You were in the 321st Bomb Group?

Brown: Yes, the 446th Bomb Squadron of the 321st.

Williams: Which Air Force was that?

Brown: That was the 12th Air Force, I believe.

Williams: All of your missions were in North Africa?

Brown: Yes.

Williams: After you flew fifty missions, you were sent out of there. You didn’t have to fly combat missions anymore?

Brown: They sent us to the States and they assigned me to the ferry command.

Williams: At that point, once you flew your 50th combat mission, did that release you from combat?

Brown: Right, they sent us to the States.

Williams: That’s still a lot of missions I don’t care what the conditions were!

Brown: Well, yeah but they were fairly short as I said because maybe three hours was the longest mission and some were shorter than that. Our group moved up one time so we would be closer to the front. Some guys went by road, some by train and some were flown up. This was done to save fuel. Our missions were shorter once we moved up. I don’t know how far we moved up. Perhaps a couple hundred miles, maybe three - I’m not sure.

Williams: Did you ever have any close calls?

Brown: Oh, one time a fighter hit us and knocked out our hydraulic system, but nobody was wounded. We were able to crank the landing gear down manually before touch down, but that was all there was to that. Flak-you always had flak. One time we lost about three feet of wing tip but it was no big deal - the plane still flew fine. We arrived back at the base and they fixed it back up.

Williams: I have talked with other pilots and they usually mention how good their air crews and mechanics were. How would you respond to that?

Brown: Yes very good! As soon as we got back off a mission they took over and they did any patching that was necessary on the plane. And, if the pilots had anything they needed checked about the plane, they did that. There were the guys that loaded the bombs, mostly the five-hundred pound ones, but there were other sizes, too. The ground crews did all of that and had the aircraft ready to go. If they did something major to it you would test-fly the plane to see it was OK and then, it was ready for the next mission.

Williams: After you completed your 50th mission, they transferred you to your ferry duties. This was still the middle of 1943?

Brown: Yes, but could have been first part of ‘44. I don’t remember. I know there was a lot of training I had to do because most of my time was on B-25’s. If you were going to be any good to the ferry command, you needed to fly whatever they had that needed transferring. I had to check out in those airplanes. That’s what I did. I checked out in a P-38. I flew it enough so I could deliver it if I needed to. I checked out in a P-51. I got to deliver one of those to New York, and that was the only P-51 I delivered. I delivered several bombers to Savannah, Georgia and some B-17’s to different places. I don’t remember all the different places I delivered planes to.

Williams: So that’s six or more aircraft you were able to fly? That took a lot of skill!

Brown: You looked at the material and you sat in the airplane. You had to familiarize yourself with all the controls and locations of controls. And, that was before you ever flew it. Then when you were ready, you would just take off. You were familiar with it. Like in the P-51, they wanted you to put the trim tab over a little on take off. You could have taken it off all right, but the guys that had flown it knew that and so I took their advice.

Williams: You didn’t have a chance to fly those planes with someone else?

Brown: Yeah, mostly by yourself.

Williams: How long were you on ferry duty?

Brown: I got out in 1945. I believe in June. When the war was over they said you could go on. Some guys took a lower rank and stayed in. I didn’t know for sure what I wanted to do.

Williams: After you left North Africa and flying with the 446th, then you spent the rest of the war ferrying those planes?

Brown: Yes.

Williams: So, do you know how many flying hours you had?

Brown: No, I don’t have the total figure. My Air Force records might have that information, but a fire at the St. Louis records office destroyed those files in 1973.

Williams: Yes, I heard about that fire. It destroyed a lot of WW II veterans records! I bet you have several thousand hours of flying time, if I was just guessing.

Brown: You know, it was interesting flying different aircraft. Kind of a challenge. I had good depth perception and never had problems making decent landings. The practice kept us in shape.

Williams: What was your favorite airplane to fly?

Brown: I believe the B-17. Seemed like a safe old plane. It was just so stable. I didn’t do acrobatics in a P-38 or P-51. We were supposed to take it from point A to point B and so that’s just what I did.

Williams: It wasn’t your job to put through the plane through its paces, was it?

Brown: That’s right. If I had been assigned to fighters like that and spent a lot more time in them, then I would have. That would have been part of the thing. But I didn’t have that much time. And I just did the thing I was supposed to do. I thought that somebody needed that airplane, somewhere.

And I could have screwed up somewhere if I had wanted to be foolish.

Williams: Uncle Sam wouldn’t have been happy!

Brown: Not at all. He probably wouldn’t have given me an Honorable Discharge, at the time either.

Williams: So you were able to get out about when the war ended?

Brown: Yes, I did.

Williams: So you weren’t affected by the point system. I suppose you probably had enough time and flight hours to be discharged immediately?

Brown: I stayed in the Reserves for a little while. But not for a long time. I would drive to Love Field for duty. And, if it had been a month since I had flown, then someone had to check me out. I’d fly the airplane there. But you know, I was trying to work at home and eventually I just wanted to get along with my life.

Williams: After World War II, did you join any veteran’s organizations or did you keep up within the people that you served with?

Brown: Not as long as I should have. One guy that I co-piloted for a while lived up in Michigan and I didn’t go through the effort I should have to correspond with him.

Williams: Have you ever been to any reunions or anything?

Brown: The answer is no, and I don’t know how well our outfit has done. I’ve got a friend that was in the Navy and he’s been to several reunions. But, as far as I know, our outfit has not had a reunion.

Williams: Is there anything that you would like to add?

Brown: Well, not really. It’s just that you don’t have to be anything super to fly airplanes but you do need good depth perception and you don’t need to be afraid of altitude. Those two things are very important.

Williams: With that, we would like to conclude the interview. I would like to thank you for coming and making your story available because this is very important history and will certainly help people understand that era.

Brown: Thank you.