Update: Sadly, Sergeant Joseph Goode passed away on October 12, 2019. Please read below to see how his last birthday was celebrated and further down to learn more about the European bombing campaign and Sergeant Goode’s war record flying 36 missions (he also flew on 3 more that turned back early), 35 of which were over Germany as a flight engineer/top turret gunner aboard B-17s with the Eighth Air Force.

For those who heard the story about World War II veteran Joseph Goode asking for birthday cards on his 100th birthday (June 30, 2019) on this site or another, I wanted to provide an update.

The response was overwhelming. As of Friday 28th Joe had received over 5,000 birthday cards from every state in the union and a number of foreign countries including from the Court of Queen Elizabeth II, veterans, family of other veterans who flew with Joe, and children. His church the local American Legion and family threw Joe a party on Friday and a local tv station covered the event (linked below). The number of cards will undoubtedly grow as that total does not include those that arrived Saturday or the following week.

Here is a link to the story covered by WSET, Channel 13 in Roanoke:

https://wset.com/news/local/local-wwii-veteran-gets-5000-cards-from-all-over-the-country-for-100th-birthday

I am also posting a few photos:

If you want to learn more about Joe’s World War II service, I found out a great deal about his military record and I added some general information on just how dangerous it was to be an airman in World War II below. At the bottom is a log of the 39 missions in which Joe participated.

Thank you to everyone who sent a card.

Joe Goode and the European Air War in World War II

Background: The Early Phases of the Air War in World War II

Airplanes are an invention of the 20th century. In the First World War, they were relatively slow with a limited range, small payload capacity (100-200 lbs. at most) and often dangerous to operate. By 1939, the technology had matured. Bombers could fly hundreds of miles dropping two to three tons of bombs. Fighters flew in excess of 350 mph carrying heavy machine guns, 20 and 30 mm cannon or late in the war, rockets. The new capabilities opened up a slew of possibilities. Instead being limited to striking targets within a few miles of the frontlines, usually opposing armies, heavy bombers could fly hundreds of miles behind enemy lines dropping bombs on the enemy’s cities and factories.

In the interwar era, German strategists focused primarily on developing blitzkrieg (German for “lightning war”) tactics: fast moving tanks drove deep into enemy territory followed by mobile armies supported by air forces specializing in air to ground attacks on frontline units. The Germans had lethal fighters such as the Focke Wulf 190 and Messerschmidt 109 complemented by air to ground attack planes such as the Ju-87 Stuka. Long range bombing took a backseat in Germany.

Beginning in World War I, Allied aviation savants like British Air Marshall Hugh Trenchard, Italian General Giulio Douhet and Americans Benjamin Foulois and Billy Mitchell saw the potential for long range bombing. Consequently, by 1939, the Allies had far superior bombers in the British Avro Lancaster, Handley Page Halifax and the American B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator. These bombers eventually comprised the bulk of Anglo-American heavy bombing forces over Europe for the entire war. The Allies entered the war with the motto, “the bomber will always get through” envisioning heavily armed long-range bombers delivering lethal blows without the need for fighter escorts.

The Allies intended their strategic bombing campaign to destroy Germany’s capacity to wage war by crippling military, industrial, and transport sites to reduce war production capability while demoralizing the German public. Unlike the Germans, the Allies focused more on military and industrial targets though German civilians were targeted at times often with lethal effect (as many as 400,000 civilians died in raids on German cities).

A split between US and British commanders arose over the better approach. US commanders focused primarily on accuracy while excessive casualties concerned the British most with neither side willing to budge. As a compromise, the Allies settled on an “around the clock” bombing campaign. The British flew nighttime raids. US bombers of the Eighth US Army Air Force (based in England) and 15th US Army Air Force (based in the Mediterranean) started flying daylight missions in 1943.

The Bomber WON’T Always Get Through

The plan to fly bombing missions without fighter escorts proved disastrous. US bombing squadrons suffered high losses and casualties throughout 1943. On October 14, 1943, 351 B-17s and B-24s manned by over 3,000 US airmen attacked a ball bearing factory in Schweinfurt, Germany. In what became known as “Black Thursday,” the Eighth Air Force suffered appalling casualties. German fighters and anti-aircraft guns shot down 60 bombers; 5 more crashed; 17 returned to base damaged beyond repair; and many planes suffered some damage. Over 600 Americans died, a shocking 20% rate of loss.

Black Thursday was not an isolated event. For the month of October, 1943, the Germans downed almost 10% of the bombers flying over Germany, damaging 42% more to varying degrees. Even with all its resources and manpower the US could not hope to replace such losses in the long term. US commanders suspended daylight raids until a long-range fighter escort could be deployed.

Fortunately, a solution appeared quickly. The US P-51 Mustang came into service in February of 1944, capable of carrying drop fuel tanks extending the range of the Mustang enough to join bombers on most missions. The P-51 was a first-rate dogfighter capable of besting the Germans’ most deadly propeller driven fighters (no Allied fighter was a match for the jet powered ME 262, but not enough could be fielded in time to make a difference thanks to Hitler’s lack of understanding of the potential and limitations of jet propulsion).



Bombing raids into Germany began again in February 1944. In addition to adding P-51 escorts, the Americans fundamentally adjusted escort doctrine altering the nature of the air war. Senior Army Air Force commander Major General Jimmy Doolittle instructed fighters to fly ahead of bomber formations clearing the skies of German interceptors. Doolittle’s initiative was highly successful. German fighter attacks declined greatly by mid-1944 and by the end of the year would no longer be a significant threat.

Sergeant Joe Goode Arrives on the Scene

From May to July 1944, Allied bombing priorities prioritized roads, bridges and troop/tank formations in France to support the Normandy invasion. Bombers returned to German targets in August, as Sergeant Joe Goode arrived in England.

Joseph E. Goode was born and raised on a dairy farm in Bedford, Virginia. In January, 1941, he volunteered to join the US Army. Like many Americans, Joe recognized war was inevitable long before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He joined to do his part and because he believed voluntary enlistees might fare better than draftees. After basic training, Joe entered the Army Air Forces spending most of 1942 through early 1944 training. First, he became a certified air mechanic. Wanting to earn pilot wings, Joe attended flight school at Clemson College. Unfortunately, his eyesight did not meet standards and he was transferred to gunnery school.

Upon graduation, Joe began air training on B-17s in Louisiana. He then travelled to New York City, boarded the Ile de France for a 11 day voyage to Scotland. His sojourn finally ended at a former RAF base in southern England named Grafton-Underwood. By September 1944, Joe found himself assigned to the Eighth Air Force, 384th Bombardment Group, 41st Wing, 544th Squadron as a flight engineer and top turret gunner on B-17s.



Former RAF base Grafton-Underwood from the air, looking carefully, Eighth Air Force B-17s are visible in the light areas around the landing strips.

Joe had mixed luck in his tour. On the one hand, by August 1944 the Army raised the bar on completing a tour from 25 to 35 combat missions. Early in the war, a bomber crewman’s life expectancy averaged 15 missions, with only 36% completing the 25 missions necessary to go home. It may be surprising to learn that the US Army Air Force suffered higher average casualties than almost any branch of the service throughout the war—including island hopping Marines in the Pacific and Army infantry in Europe. An estimated 350,000 served in the Army air forces in World War II. Over 26,000 were killed in action with over 21,000 more wounded or captured. The Eighth Air Force suffered over half of all air force losses because of frequent raids into heavily defended Germany.

On the other hand, Joe began flying in Europe after the arrival of P-51 escorts and Doolittle’s tactics had taken effect raising the life expectancy of a bomber crew. By September 1944, only 1 in 61 planes were shot down on any given mission. By March it was 1 in every 222. The average lifespan of a bomber crew rose to 48 missions by the dawn of 1945, meaning Joe’s odds had improved to a 65% chance of surviving his tour even though it was extended to 35 missions. That said, the tail gunner in Joe’s original crew, Corporal Eugene Ozjowski was killed in action on another mission with a different crew on January 22, 1945. Waist gunner Corporal Gordon Wilbur Reed, also with a different crew, was shot down on January 8, 1945 and interned in a German POW camp for the remainder of the war. Joe’s original crew suffered 20% casualties overall so even without intercepting fighters, the Germans were still taking a toll in 1945.

Joe’s Tour Begins

Although German fighters no longer bedeviled Allied bomber formations, flak remained a consistent danger. The Germans concentrated thousands of their infamous 88 mm anti-aircraft guns and larger caliber guns around high value industrial targets in and near German cities. Nicknamed “flak guns” these cannon fired a shell with a fuse timed to detonate at the altitude where the bombers flew. A hit did not have to rip off a wing to be effective. Exploding shells cast thousands of small metal fragments 60 to 200 yards from the point of detonation. Just one of the thousands of metal shards could cripple or down a bomber if it a hit a fuel line or another key component. Flak also frequently inflicted wounds or even death to any airman struck.

B-17s flying over Germany usually took some flak damage on every mission. Nevertheless, American airmen gained great respect for the rugged nature of the Flying Fortresses which endured seemingly catastrophic damage but kept flying. By war’s end most of the Eighth’s surviving bombers had flown over 50 missions, some over 100. It is a tribute to the hard work and technical skills of the unheralded US ground crews that these bombers took a continual beating and still performed at a high level. Of Joe’s 39 missions, only two had to turn back early due to malfunction (one was grounded due to bad weather). Ground crews rarely received much recognition but they deserve as much credit as anyone in the war effort for keeping the planes aloft.

Due to the shortness of time, I did not get a chance to research all of Joe’s missions in depth. However, I found a source that provided all of his missions and the planes in which he flew. I have attached a table of those missions below. All but one mission targeted sites in Germany. Most took place against the German industrial heart in the Ruhr Valley. Installations in and near Koln/Cologne were the most frequent targets. 13 missions also flew on oil production sites which were a high priority.

Joe and his crew typically flew 2 to 3 missions a week. The days were long and typically went as follows:

Joe woke at 4 am, dressed and then went to breakfast. B-17’s cruised at 25,000+ feet where temperatures could dip to -60 degrees F. At that temperature, exposed skin froze instantly to any metal touched. Airmen put on long johns under their uniforms over which they wore an electrically heated suit and boots covered by a coat with fur lined gloves. They also wore a parachute harness and an uninflated yellow life vest (Mae West) in case a damaged plane needed to ditch in the English Channel. Once over Europe, crewmen donned a 30 lb. flak vest and protective helmet. At 10,000 feet, the thin air required the airmen to wear oxygen masks.

Stars and Stripes correspondent Andy Rooney, best known as a member of CBS’s news show 60 Minutes, flew several combat missions and described the danger of losing oxygen on a flight at 25,000 to 30,000 feet: “[Navigator] Lt. Owens was having trouble with his oxygen and Lt. Phillips’ fingers were nearly frozen. . . . Finally the valve of the navigator’s air intake froze completely and the next thing [Owens’] head had dropped to the top of his caliber .50, and his face was an unlovely greyish purple. . . . We fitted [a different] mask to Lt. Owens’ face, [and] revived him.” [1]

A mission briefing followed from 6:00 to 7:00 am where the men learned about their target for the day. Crews then entered their assigned craft and took off around 7:30-8:00 am. After take off, the planes had to gain altitude and circle waiting for the rest of the squadron to form up. The bombers flew in 3-dimensional box formations often at three altitudes stacked one on top of another. Getting into formation could take two to three hours especially for larger missions of up to 2,000 bombers and 1,000 fighters.

Once in formation, the mission began. Joe’s varied experience as a mechanic with pilot training served him well as the flight engineer. He sat behind the pilots and helped manage fuel consumption and perform equipment checks. Joe and the pilots had to carefully monitor gauges and equipment to make sure the B-17 was in good working order. To gain altitude and reach a German target required consumption of 75% of the plane’s fuel. The crew had to switch to different tanks as one exhausted its fuel. To return safely, a B-17 needed 25% of its fuel supply. So it was vitally important to monitor fuel consumption detecting any possible leaks which could doom a bomber later in the mission.

When continental Europe came into view, Joe climbed into the top turret to man twin Browning 50 caliber machine guns and keep a lookout for enemy fighters. His flights did not encounter many fighters thanks to Doolittle and the P-51s. Flak remained a dangerous threat though. Pilots flying in mass formations stacked on one another had limited ability to maneuver. They often had to fly right through flak. One pilot compared this necessity as intentionally charging into an artillery barrage. Joe’s plane was likely hit by flak on most if not all missions.

Joe flew his first mission aboard the B-17 Pleasure Bent on September 25, 1944 targeting railroad yards in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His next mission took place the next day aboard an unnamed B-17 (serial # 43-38615) against a steel factory in Osnabruck, Germany. After that he participated in 36 more missions receiving combat mission credit for 34. Two had to be aborted shortly after takeoff and no credit was received. On all but one flight, Joe served as the flight engineer/top turret gunner. For unknown reasons, Joe is listed as the ball turret gunner for the 4th mission to attack the Luftwaffe base at Handorf Airfield in Cologne. This assignment could have been a typographical error. Joe himself has reported he flew in 35 combat missions, but USAAF records show 36. I have no explanation for the discrepancy.

Two missions stand out as worthy of special mention. On his 8th mission on October 7, 1944 against a synthetic oil facility in Leipzig, Germany, Joe was aboard the same unnamed B-17 (serial # 43-38615) that he flew on his second mission. After dropping bombs, flak ripped through the left wing gas tanks and one engine shut down. The second engine had to be shut down and feathered to re-start. The right two engines could not maintain altitude resulting in a crash landing near Brussels, Belgium.

Entering the war at a later point provided another piece of good fortune. By October of 1944, Allied ground forces had advanced well into France and Belgium. Early bomber crews faced great peril if they could not return to England. Crash landing in Nazi occupied Europe meant almost certain capture.

Joe and other crewmen released the bottom turret so the B-17’s underside would be flat in case the landing gear failed. As they landed in a field, the left wing struck a greenhouse and the plane broke apart amidships coming to rest on railroad tracks. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. Belgian civilians came to the Americans’ aid and soon a truck picked them up. Flown back to England, Joe was back on his next mission a week later aboard The Rebel participating in a raid on a railroad field in Saarbrucken, Germany.



The second notable mission took place aboard an unnamed B-17 (serial# 44-8608) on February 3, 1945 against Tempelhof railroad marshalling yards in Berlin. Missions to Berlin were long (a 16 hour day from pre-flight briefing to post flight briefing) and especially dangerous.

2nd Lt., bombardier Joseph Hallock described his experiences on the same day in a different B-17. This raid was one of Hallock’s first missions. Inexperienced, he did not appreciate how harrowing a bomb run over heavily defended Berlin would be. When the B-17s approached a target, the pilot put the plane on autopilot to ensure a straight path—standard operating procedure for B-17 bomb runs. For the experienced, those few minutes seemed like an eternity and Hallock heard them muttering: “How much longer?!?” and “Come on, come on!” He found soon out why they grumbled so anxiously:

“Bad weather often obscured targets. I might have only seconds to spot the objective and get my crosshairs riding steady on it before bombs away. Short runs hurt accuracy, but clouds did keep German flak gunners from getting a visual fix on us. Amazingly, that day the skies over Berlin were clear. I used the Norden’s telescope from far enough off to have a nice long run at those railroad yards. Great for me, and for those flak gunners.

. . .

Approaching Berlin, I looked up from the bombsight, and my stomach roiled. We were about to fly into a huge field of flak. Bombers from the group ahead were falling out of the thick dark cloud—some burning, some disintegrating, some exploding in balls of flame that added their black smoke to the infernal cloud. Dying planes were spewing dozens of parachutes, some of them afire. I glued my eye back onto the bombsight. I had to get my mind off the ride into hell.

That didn’t help, because now we were in it, and when you can see flak burst black in a Norden’s narrow field of view and feel near-misses rock your B-17 and hear shards of flak punch holes in your plane, you know you’re in hell. ‘How much longer?’ I heard myself mutter. “Come on. Come on.’” [2]

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Above: Some of the other B-17s in which Sgt. Goode flew (I believe the “Lead” in The Lead Banana refers to the metal not its place in line based on the fact that the plane was originally named “The Led Banana.”)

Joe still had three more missions to fly. He completed his last aboard Ruth (only co-pilot Taylor H. Jackson from Goode’s original crew flew with him) on February 19, 1945 bombing a coking plant in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. His tour complete, Joe left England in March returning to the US on a 30 day leave. He then shipped to California to begin training on a B-29 for the Pacific. Thankfully, the war ended before Joe could be deployed. He came home to Bedford, earned a degree from Virginia Tech through the GI Bill, and taught high school for a year before returning to dairy farming where he worked until retirement.

Aftermath and Impact

It is often reported that the bombing campaign failed in its primary mission but that is misleading. German war production did increase in 1944 and 1945 but focusing solely on industrial output does not tell the whole story. The bombing campaign still had a significant though unintended effect that did cripple the German war effort in more indirect ways.

Because of the all-out bombing campaign, the Germans withdrew the Luftwaffe to Germany to defend the homeland giving the Allies air supremacy in Normandy and France. The damage at home also stretched German construction companies (Todt Organization) to the limit. In 1944 as Rommel desperately tried to shore up defenses on the Atlantic Wall, he lacked the manpower because many repair crews had been withdrawn to Germany to service damaged installations, factories, transport hubs, etc. Incomplete defenses on the Atlantic War and no German air support likely saved thousands of lives on D-Day.

German Admiral Karl Donitz claimed in his postwar autobiography that Allied bombing delayed the manufacture of the revolutionary Type XXI submarines which could have had a significant impact on Allied shipping. The delays meant the Type XXI came into service too late and in too small a number to have the desired effect. Further, the bombing campaign created other problems. German jet fighters, the ME-262s often came off the assembly line with warped fuselage plating. Shortages and production delays set the German war effort back. In order to keep their war industry going, the Germans had to cut corners and neglect other areas that contributed to their defeat.

Attacks on oil assets was arguably the most impactful on war production. Bombers attacked frequently and by December 1944 out of 91 German oil refineries only three were operating at full capacity with 29 partially functional with the remaining 59 refineries totally out of action. The lack of petroleum severely limited the Wehrmacht as the war progressed, particularly at the Battle of the Bulge. Fuel shortages increasingly restricted the Luftwaffe’s effort to defend German cities as well. Joe’s 13 missions against oil facilities played a part in crippling production of gas and oil, the lifeblood of the German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe.

Sgt. Joe Goode and hundreds of thousands other airmen may not have performed a dramatic singular action, but they strapped on their equipment every day and bravely took to the skies knowing there was a good chance they may not return. They chipped away at the Germans day after day, doing their part in defeating Nazi Germany. For that, it is not too much to ask to create a simple birthday card.

On behalf of myself and my family, Happy Birthday Joseph Goode . Thank you for your sacrifices and your service. We are eternally grateful and wish you many more birthdays.

Sgt. Joseph E. Goode’s Mission Log (all targets located in Germany except mission 17 on November 9, 1944 where the 544th bombed frontline German positions in France).

Source for above log: https://384thbombgroup.com/_content/_pages/person.php?PersonKey=1390

Quotes

[1] War correspondent Andy Rooney from Stars and Stripes article “How it Feels to Bomb Germany” published February 23, 1943. https://www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/reporters/rooney/wilhelmshaven.html

[2] Hallock, Joseph, http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/b17.htm originally published in the New Yorker Magazine on August 12, 1944, republished in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces ;Pitt, Barrie (ed.) (1947).

Sources

This site includes all of Sgt. Goode’s missions and links to sortie reports and photographs of the bombers in which he flew: https://384thbombgroup.com/_content/_pages/person.php?PersonKey=1390

https://www.8thafhs.org/old/new/

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/wwii-weapons-the-german-88mm-gun/

http://www.smithmountaineagle.com/society/article_92cc97cc-2324-11e4-ac5d-0019bb2963f4.html

Crawford, Bruce, Death on the High Road: The Schweinfurt Raid. May 24, 2019. https://www.historynet.com/world-war-ii-eighth-air-force-raid-on-schweinfurt.htm

Hallock, Joseph, http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/b17.htm originally published in the New Yorker Magazine on August 12, 1944, republished in The New Yorker Book of War Pieces (1947);Pitt, Barrie (ed.) (1947).

Kugel, Herb, Daylight Precision Bombing: Dangerous Doctrine of the Eighth Air Force. December 21. 2018. https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/daylight-precision-bombing-dangerous-doctrine-of-the-eighth-air-force/

Morrison, James W., Bedford Goes to War. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.

Rooney, Andy, from Stars and Stripes article “How it Feels to Bomb Germany” published February 23, 1943. https://www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/reporters/rooney/wilhelmshaven.html

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