Bonny Rushbrook/The Putnam HeraldSamuel H. Holdren, 89, of Hurricane was an armor gunner during World War II. He was based at Shipdham Air Base, 100 miles North East of London. He participated in bombing missions over Germany, France and Holland.
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by Bonny Rushbrook
The Putnam Herald
January 15, 2010
HURRICANE -- Samuel H. Holdren, 89, enjoys watching and reading the news at his home in Hurricane. He likes to keep up with what is going on in the world; particularly the war news.
Although several decades have passed since he was a young soldier, he can identify with the men and women who make up the military service today, especially the Air Force, because 65 years ago he was performing some of the same jobs as a tail gunner on B-24 Bombers.
In 1942, Sam Holdren was working in the coal mines at Cabin Creek. Miners that year were beginning to leave their jobs to join the service. Not wanting to be left at the mines by himself, Holdren decided he would join the Marines. His parents, though, were skeptical, and talked him out of it because they were afraid he would get hurt. However, he developed a minor health problem that gave him a reason to join the military.
"I had a sinus problem and the doctor told me I should get out of West Virginia. I told them (the Army) they could draft me," he said. Two months later, he was a member of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Following basic training in Tullahoma, Tenn., he spent nearly a year and a half in the in the 80th Infantry.
"We had six months of training, but were not supposed to go overseas so we had six more months of training. We had bayonet practice, rifle practice, machine gun practice, and 20-mile hikes. I enjoyed it," Holdren said.
He even signed up for boxing.
"I didn't know what I was getting into. I thought I was going to learn how to box," he said. Without any period of instruction, he was sent into the ring.
"The other guy was even more scared than I was," he said, chuckling. During that year and a half, they were told they could retake their IQ test to see if they qualified for the Air Force. He passed and prepared to make the switch.
He took machine gunners school in Las Vegas and attended engineering school. They were about to put their engineering skills into practice, when they were called to become replacements for those who had been killed or wounded.
Before he left the country, however, he needed a little surgery on his tonsils. Without anesthesia, that surgery was unlike anything he had ever experienced. "The nurse wouldn't even help (the doctor)," Holdren said. "She stood over in the corner. She said, 'You should have screamed.'"
After that inauspicious beginning, he flew to Maryland in a B-24 bomber known as the "Liberator." From there he went to an air base in Canada and then to Ireland. In Ireland, he was put on a boat for Shipdham Air Base located on the English coast about 100 miles northeast of London, where he participated in bombing missions over France, Germany, and Holland. He was now part of the 8th Air Force, 2nd Division, 44th Bomber Group, 68th Squadron. He would remain at that base until the end of the war.
Holdren, who was a staff sergeant, said the typical day for the crew when they were leaving on a bombing mission began about 4 a.m. when they would meet for a briefing on the targets they were scheduled to bomb that day. The crew would leave Shipdham about 6 a.m. and return at 3:30 or 4 p.m. Although they usually flew about 20,000 to 25,000 feet when bombing targets, on one low-level supply mission over Holland, they flew just 500 feet from the ground. Because they were dropping supplies instead of bombs, they were sent without ammunition.
"We were on a low-level mission to take supplies to some paratroopers stranded in Holland. We could look down on the ground and see Germans shooting at us with pistols, rifles, everything they had. I had a bullet come so close to my neck, I had a man check to see if I had been hit," he said. Fortunately, he had not been.
"I was lucky; we were lucky," he said. Holdren said because they had to concentrate on what they were doing, neither that incident nor any of the others frightened him.
"There wasn't time to be scared," he said. Holdren said they had a saying that if the plane upon returning had 100 holes, it was a rough mission; if the plane had 15-20 holes, they counted that as a milk run. This one definitely was not a milk run.
"That plane was hit so many times it looked like cottage cheese. They had to junk the plane when we returned," he said.
All missions were conducted during the day. The B-24s usually had a nine-man crew that included the pilot and co-pilot, a navigator, a bombardier, one nose gunner, one or two waist gunners, a radio operator, a mechanic and a tail gunner. Holdren might work as a waist gunner and then switch to tail gunner. The waist gunner was required to stand for the entire mission in the middle of the plane and look out the window. At times it could be extremely cold.
"They didn't have Plexiglas windows, so they didn't have windows. It would be 60 below zero. We had uniforms that were two inches thick like sheepskin. Over that we had suits like coveralls with electrical cords that plugged into a socket," he said. The suit became like an electric blanket.
At 10,000 feet they needed oxygen, which could present a real problem at those incredibly low temperatures.
"Our oxygen masks would freeze over. Cubes of ice would form and block the oxygen. Every two hours we would have to remove the masks and squeeze the ice cubes out and put it back on quickly or we would die," he said.
Half way through each mission, he would be put in the position as a tail gunner.
"I would flash a light so the other planes could get into formation. I would have to flash that light the whole time," Holdren said. They would have been sitting ducks if the Germans had not been running out of fighter planes.
"The Germans had lost most of their fighter planes and couldn't attack us," he said. For this reason, they were only attacked once with a jet.
"I couldn't fire at him because if I did, I would shoot one of our planes down," he said. Later, he did get a shot at the jet, but was never sure if he had gotten the plane.
"He went into a dive and we could not see if we had hit him," he said.
On one other mission, some of the planes missed their target and got out of formation to return for another try at the target. When this happened, German planes came out of nowhere.
"German planes came from out of the sun and destroyed those ships," he said.
Holdren's group was only sent on special missions because of their accuracy. On one mission in particular, they received a citation on a flight over Hamburg because they were the only plane to hit their targets for that day.
"We had 500 or more artillery hitting us. Out of 30 planes, our ship kept on target. We got a citation for that," he said.
But the bombs didn't always fall as they were supposed to fall.
"On one bombing mission, one of our bombs got stuck. I had to go open the bomb bay and work it loose from where it was attached. I got it loose and it dropped. I don't know where it dropped," he said.
Defeating the German radar was handled the best way they could.
"We threw metal sheets out to divert their radar. We'd throw them out by the handful. It worked for us," he said with a chuckle.
Holdren said parachuting was not part of his training, although they had parachutes on the plane. However, a soldier on another bomber was wearing a back chute. It saved his life when he was hit by a bullet.
"Then we all started wearing them," he said.
In addition, each man was given an escape map that showed where they were and how to get out if they were shot down over France, Germany or Holland. The men could use these maps, hopefully, to find their way back if they survived a crash. Holdren still has his map.
They were also given pistols in case they were shot down. However, no one carried them.
"If you landed, you were probably dead and couldn't shoot," Holdren said.
Sometimes they would have to contend with anti-aircraft.
"They would shoot 155 millimeter shells at us. Anti aircraft would have to get to certain altitudes. The guy would say, 'Here's their elevation, set your shells at that elevation.' There were 500 pieces shooting at us. They were exploding one after another all around me. I would brace myself because the plane would swing from left to right. I saw a bullet hit within five feet of our engine. The shell evidently went down instead of up. I let out a breath then," he said.
The men were required to participate in a specific amount of missions before going home.
Pictured is an escape map given to Sam Holdren and the other members of his crew for use during World War II bombing missions over Germany, France and Holland. The maps were to help the men find escape routes from Germany in case their plane went down and they survived.
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"I spent 30 days in the hospital. A bullet went in my jaw and ricocheted in my mouth. It destroyed my partial plate and sheered one tooth in half. They took a piece of flak out of my jaw. My face was swollen something terrible," he said.
He got out of the service in June or July of 1945, met Eileen in 1948, and married her in 1949. She told him it was the dimple from his war wound that first attracted her to him. After leaving the Air Force in 1945, he attended West Virginia Tech -- now WV University of Technology -- for two years majoring in engineering, and received a degree from WV State University a few years later.
He worked on the West Virginia and Kentucky turnpikes, and five years for the State of Indiana as a project engineer. He also worked three years for a construction company in Chicago. He later retired after 13 years from Hobet Mining in West Virginia. He and his wife, who died in 2006, raised two children, Samuel H. Holdren Jr. of Winfield and Barbara Adkins of Charleston. He has four grandchildren -- two boys and two girls.
Holdren is a member of the VFW, where he served in the honor guard at veterans' funerals. He has also marched in two Veterans Day parades in Hurricane. He and one other crew member are all that are left of their crew.
He said some things about the war never leave him, like the sound of five or six hundred shells exploding.
"When you go into a target, the ship is shaking, and schrapnel sounds like it is raining on your ship. It's on my mind all of the time. You don't forget it," he said. However, he said he enjoyed the time he spent on the bomber.
"I enjoyed it. Even when they were shooting at me, I was having a good time," he said.
© Herald-Dispatch
Pictured is a citation for meritorious service for a World War II bombing mission over Hamburg that was given to Samuel H. Holdren, now 89, of Hurricane. Holdren's airplane was the only bomber on that day that hit its target.