Willoughby, Col. Albert M.
Col. Albert M. Willoughby: World War II
Nancy P. Manzo (Student Interview)
Interview Date: February 13, 2004
Abstract
Colonel Albert M. Willoughby served in the army air corps in World War II as a bomber pilot. He speaks of his years as a teen in the late 1930’s listening to radio reports of Hitler and the eminent threat of war. His recollection of the report of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the reaction of his family and friends when hearing of young Willoughby’s enlistment is also discussed. Col. Willoughby tells of the conditions under which he lived and worked while in the service as well as his most memorable experience while serving. In conclusion Colonel Albert M. Willoughby has words of encouragement for the youth of today.
Q: Colonel Willoughby, when and where were you born?
A: I was born December 4, 1922 in a little town in Georgia, Union Point, Georgia; that’s about eighty miles east of Atlanta.
Q: I see. When did you first begin thinking that the U.S. might get involved in WWII?
A: It was in the late 30’s. We used to…my parents used to turn the radio on early in the morning and quite frequently they would be broadcasting speeches by Adolph Hitler.
Q: Oh, my!
A: . . . and then the commentary from reporters who were at the places where he was speaking indicated that it was, that he was very aggressive and probably it would lead to war which certainly, it did.
Q: So this was even before the attack of Pearl Harbor?
A: Oh, yes, yes, this was in the late 30’s. I was, was just a youngster at the time but I remember it quite vividly.
Q: OK. So even before Pearl Harbor you were pretty well certain that we were headed for war?
A: Oh yes, yes, that’s right.
Q: What was your reaction and the reaction of your family and friends when Pearl Harbor was attacked?
A: Well it was surprise, disbelief, ah, puzzled. Why would they do something like that? But I was in college at the time and I remember on a Sunday afternoon several of us were out on the dormitory grounds throwing the football around – just – and somebody ran out and said, “Hey, the Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor!” And I remember one of my friends says, “Where’s Pearl Harbor?” So we all went in a gathered around the radio and listened to it. And, of course, the next day they had the address by President Roosevelt declaring war and giving facts about the bombing and how many casualties we’d suffered. So it was quite a vivid day in my memory.
Q: I’m sure after that time everybody knew where Pearl Harbor was, didn’t they?
A: That’s right, that’s right, you’re right.
Q: How old were you in December of ‘41?
A: I was nineteen
Q: Nineteen.
A: Yes.
Q: And, ah, so you were not already in the military?
A: No, no, I enlisted in September of 1942, after I finished the junior college where I was going to school and, ah, I joined the army air corps in September, 1942.
Q: And, ah, so you did enlist?
A: Yes, yes, I enlisted.
Q: And how did the other men in your area feel about serving in the military?
A: There was a unanimous, ah, feeling among all of my contemporaries that we’ve got to get in there and fight these people.
Q: That is very encouraging isn’t it?
A: Oh, yes, I don’t think we’ve experienced anything like that quite today. The attitudes have changed, but back then it was amazing how patriotic and proud the people were of the country.
Q: How did your family – I don’t know if you were married at the time?
A: No, I was not married.
Q: OK, how did your family and your friends feel about you going off to war?
A: They were encouraged, they encouraged me. They were proud that I had chosen to do that and they were especially proud that I had qualified to be a pilot and go through pilot training.
Q: Exciting! How exciting!
A: Yes, I had had an uncle who had been a WWI pilot, and they were very proud of him and, ah, I sort of carried on the family tradition in their minds, I think.
Q: Oh, that is exciting! Yes! So what branch of the military did you serve?
A: I served in the army air corps. That was before the air force became a separate service.
Q: OK.
A: It was part of the overall United States Army, United States Army Air Corp.
Q: OK.
A: That’s what I was in.
Q: And where did you undertake basic training?
A: I took my initial training at Maxwell Field, Alabama. Montgomery, Alabama. They call that pre-flight training. And then my flying training was conducted in three phases. First phase was primary flying training in Union City, Tennessee. Then Secondary training was at Newport, Arkansas and then my final training before I got my wings and commission was in Blytheville, Arkansas.
Q: Blyville?
A: Blytheville, Arkansas, yes.
Q: And what was this training experience like, being in training?
A: Oh, it was very interesting. We had sort of a hazing system there. The upperclassmen would haze the underclassmen, and they made you feel glad when you got to be an upperclassman and could . . .
Q: You could do the same to those. . .
A: . . .return some of the favors. It was a very well-planned training system they had, It had some good instructors. We had civilian instructors when I was in primary, but the military instructors were responsible for the secondary and then the advanced training. So, it was good.
Q: OK. What about your interactions with men from other parts of the country? How were their feelings?
A: I think it was more or less a unanimous feeling wherever they were from. I had classmates in my training period from all over the country and we’d kid each other about the Civil War, for example, and being a Yankee or a Rebel and so forth, but they were very patriotic – everyone was – and looked forward to getting to flying combat missions.
Q: After basic training where did the military send you?
A: When I – after I finished my pilot training I was sent to Sebring, Florida, to train in B-17 bombers. The B-17 was a WWII bomber – a very, very famous airplane. I went through training for it and when I completed that I went through an operational training program, also in Florida, and then went to England and was assigned to the Eighth Air Force.
Q: OK, and were assigned. . . ?
A: To the Eighth Air Force in England.
Q: OK. In what capacity did you serve in WWII?
A: Well, I was primarily a bomber pilot. When the war ended I was in for a few more months. I didn’t know whether I wanted to stay in or not and I finally ended up in a some administrative position – just sort of make work, because they had so many people they didn’t know what to do with at the end of the war. So I got out in January 1946, and went back to school at the University of Georgia. And in the mean time I was offered a regular commission, and my folks weren’t quite as agreeable about going back in as they were originally, but, ah, I prevailed and I went back in after having been out a year and ended up retiring in October 1973, after serving thirty-one years and one month.
Q: Oh, my!
A: It was a wonderful experience, and, ah, but my primary duty during the war was my bombing missions over Germany. I flew 35 combat missions and I was reading a statistic recently that the number of people who finished their designated quota of missions was in the vicinity of about twenty-five per cent, so I guess I was one of the lucky ones who got through.
Q: Wow! Yes, you certainly were! In terms of your own experience during WWII, under what kind of conditions did you live and work?
A: Well, being in the air corps we were pretty well taken care of – we – at the base in England, for example, we had the Quonset huts – those are the round topped huts, but they were well heated, and, ah, we had good facilities, ah, good food, good amenities to support us when we were flying missions. And, ah, the, ah, ground forces – we seen how they had to live in the mud and the snow and ice – it was, ah, we were far better taken care of then they were because we had different organization and a different mission than they had.
Q: I see. What kind of contact did you have with people back home during the war?
A: Well, they had v-mail that they would – you would write a letter and they would photostat copies of it and mail it and free postage. So I corresponded regularly with my closer friends and my parents and other family members, ah, probably two or three times a week and mail from them came quite regularly on schedule.
Q: OK. The military didn’t have any limitations or restrictions on their correspondence?
A: They had a censorship program. An officer censored his own mail. . .
Q: I see.
A: . . . but enlisted people – they’d have to have some – have an officer review theirs . . .
Q: I see.
A: . . .and he just looked to see if he was putting any locations or . . .
Q: Yes.
A: . . . and details of missions that weren’t supposed to go in. I never had any problem with any of my crew members. Most people knew what they were supposed to do and did it.
Q: If you feel comfortable talking about combat, could you describe the combat experiences you had?
A: Yes, ah, the Germans were formidable opponents. They had tremendous weapons systems and munitions and they had anti-aircraft – flak we called it – which was quite accurate. And then they had tremendous fighter planes that . . .
Q: Anti-aircraft what?
A: Anti-aircraft artillery, they called – which was called flak – f-l-a-k.
Q: F-l-a-k. OK.
A: Yea. And then we had – the fighters were quite active. They’d shoot down a lot of our planes. We just accepted that as something we had to do. I don’t – don’t want to minimize the fact that we were afraid. . .
Q: Yes. Yes.
A: . . . But we had good successes in our missions, so that’s one of the things that lead to their finally having to give up their fight.
Q: What was . . .(tape cuts out) . . .otherwise?
A: I think it was Christmas 1944. The Germans had invaded the Ardennes Forest area with a tremendous tank attack. They caught us sort of off guard. And the weather was so bad we couldn’t fly. So they were just massacring the infantry and ground troops. Finally, on New Year’s – I mean on Christmas Eve – the weather opened up and we put all of our bombers and fighters and other aircraft – combat aircraft – and just cleaned them out. They had to give up after that, but that period was the most memorable one because we had no opposition. They had concentrated all of their fuel into their tanks so the airplanes – their fighters couldn’t fly.
Q: I see.
A: So we went in at lower altitudes than usual and we could see our targets better and knocked out their critical supplies. And that was my most memorable period of combat.
Q: So how long did you serve during WWII?
A: Well, from September of ’42 to past the end of it. I – the war ended in September in Japan and I stayed on in until January. Then I got out and went back to school.
Q: After serving during WWII, then where did the military send you? Of course, you said you left for about a year, is that right?
A: Yes, I got out and went back to school for about a year.
Q: And then?
A: When I came back in I was assigned at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.
Q: OK.
A: . . . flying B-29s – bombers. And after being there three years then I went – they sent me away to school. Then I went back and was one of the first air force B-47 pilots for the last few years before I got out of the flying business.
Q: I see. And that was in the early 70s?
A: Well, no, that was in the early 50’s.
Q: Oh! OK, alright.
A: And then I got assigned to staff work in about 1958. I still flew, but not – I didn’t have a combat crew any longer - just proficiency flying.
Q: Just what?
A: Proficiency flying, yea.
Q: Ok. So what kind of a reception did you receive when you got back in the United States?
A: Wonderful! They had them parades and if you went to church somewhere there was gonna be people invited you to come home and have Sunday dinner with them. It was just unbelievable the support that you felt from the citizenry.
Q: In terms of your war experiences, how did those experiences affect, if at all, your relations and interactions with your family or your friends?
A: I – I really don’t think they affected it at all. I mean, I didn’t have any problem at all with being unable to sleep or cope with the situation. I think my upbringing and my faith helped me through a lot of those times and I just carried with me – I carried it with me when I got out. I didn’t have anything over my head.
Q: Yes! Did you still keep in touch with some of the people with whom you served?
A: Yes. We still – my organization that I was in in the Eighth Air Force has a re-union every two years. The last one was last October in Houston, Texas. We go to different parts of the country. And, ah, although we are getting older and greyer, ah, it’s always great to get back together and reminisce. The war stories get a little bit better each year.
Q: Yes!
A: But it’s always a lot of fun. We still maintain a Christmas card list with all of those people. We hear from them every year and they hear from us.
Q: How has your WWII experience impacted your life? Did it affect any of your views of other wars the U.S. became involved in after WWII?
A: Well, it affected my attitude about the Vietnam War. That was more of a political war than it was a patriotic war, as far as I’m concerned. We had a lot of people making decisions in that war that were adverse to what a military-trained individual would have made. So. . .
Q: I see.
A: . . .I think it was very poorly handled. I sympathize with some of those people who were so affected mentally and psychologically from that war. I know it’s a heavy burden for them to carry, but it never did affect me personally, thank goodness.
Q: What kinds of general observations and conclusions do you have about WWII and your WWII experience?
A: I think it was a justified war, if there ever had been one, that was it. I was just looking back – I was just wondering why it took us so long to recognize that threat that Hitler, and Mussolini, and Japanese were developing. And we waited a long time to get in there and eradicate it, I guess. Of course, I was too young to be a part of the solution in those days, but I’ve thought about it many times since I’ve been an adult. Why did we let them get away with it? Especially Hitler – he – what he did to Germany. . .
Q: Yes.
A: It’s such a beautiful country and the Germans are such intelligent people. And how they could be completely befuddled by him, I just don’t understand. They are so smart. But he was – he must have been a tremendous motivator. But I’m glad we – we, ah – when I say “we” I’m talking about the United States people – could prevail in that situation.
Q: Yes. Do you have any additional comments or anything you would like to say?
A: One comment I will say. When I talk to young people nowadays, as sometimes I have an occasion to, I don’t hesitate to tell them the advantages of a military career – of serving their country and the educational advantages it provides and so forth, and what pride it gave me and that I like to see other people continue through those generations.
