Walter Mattson said he was never afraid while flying 35 bombing missions over Europe during World War II.



Not when his engineer was hit by enemy flak, not when three of four engines failed and he made an emergency landing minutes before flying into a mountain, not when a hole was blown two feet from where he was sitting.





He felt he had a guardian angel, Mattson said recently from his Camp Hill home. He absolutely believed that a prayer sent by his sister-in-law would keep him safe.

“I wasn’t scared,” he said. “I didn’t have time to think. I had things to do, I had to get my crew back.”

Like many in his generation, Mattson didn’t talk much about his experiences after returning from the war.

But now, at the age of 92, he has published a book about his experiences.

“About ten years ago, I was checking through old letters, diaries and stuff I had in trunks,” he said. “I started to put it in writing.”

Called “Lone Wolf in Enemy Skies,” his book is published by Aperture Press, which specializes in military history. It is available from Amazon.com. Mattson has been doing book signings and will be speaking Sept. 18 at the Eisenhower National Historic Site during their World War II weekend.

In the past few years, people have been anxious to hear the stories of World War II soldiers, Mattson said. Many say they have parents, uncles or grandparents who fought in the war, but they don’t know much about it.

“They feel they missed something,” he said.

One of those taking an interest in Mattson’s story is Ken Menut of northern York County, who wrote the foreword to “Lone Wolf in Enemy Skies.” Menut met Mattson on the honor bus which was taking veterans to the World War II monument in Washington D.C.

Menut described Mattson as “a real gentleman with a quiet confidence about him” who has encouraged other veterans to tell their stories.

Mattson said he had always wanted to fly. He took an exam in 1939 for aviation cadet training, but failed miserably. So he took himself back to high school to take the math and science classes he needed, signed up for night courses in aeronautics and meteorology at a local college and joined a civilian pilot training program.

“I was desperate. I wanted to pass that exam,” he said

The next time, he passed with flying colors.

After training state-side, he was sent first to England and then to Italy, where he served with the 15th Army Air Force as a B-24 pilot. The 15th Air Force mainly operated out of bases in southern Italy and bombed targets in nine European countries. Nearly 22,000 pilots and crewmen from the 15th Air Force were killed, wounded, missing or taken prisoner.

Mattson named his plane the “Princess Carole” after his niece, who was born hours before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Mattson said one of his toughest missions was to Poland near the Auschwitz concentration camp. Enemy fire knocked out an engine and shrapnel pierced the floor and hit the engineer. Mattson and his crew were escorted to safety by two planes flown by the Tuskegee-trained black pilots.

Mattson was eventually chosen as a “lone wolf” pilot based on his expertise in flying with instruments. The lone wolves flew by themselves instead of with a bomb squad, often when the weather was bad and visibility poor.

Mattson lost the Princess Carole in December 1944, during a bombing run to northern Italy. Flak took out two engines, and Mattson told the crew to throw out everything that wasn’t tied down to help the plane get over the mountains. It wasn’t enough.

The enemy continued firing as the plane lost altitude, blowing a hole through the fuselage two feet from Mattson’s head. Visibility grew worse, hiding the mountains. Mattson started looking for place to crash land along the beach when the navigator saw a grass air strip. The third engine caught fire as they landed.

All the crew was safe, but the plane was destroyed. Mattson salvaged only the plane’s clock, which he still has.

Even during that incident, he was not afraid, he said. After all, he had a guardian angel.

“It was just one of those things. I knew everything would be all right,” he said.

During his missions, he also never thought about the people he might be bombing.

“We were there to destroy targets. We couldn’t see if people were getting killed,” he said. “We couldn’t think about what happened to civilians.”

Menut said Mattson felt “the better he did his job, the sooner everybody could go home, which would save more lives.”

Mattson returned to the U.S. in 1945 at the end of the war and married his sweetheart, Constance, a month later. They have been married for 66 years and have two sons. Mattson served again in the Korean War, but not in combat. He moved to Camp Hill in 1957 when he got a job as an engineer with the state highway department. After 20 years in that position, he started an international trade consulting business with his son, traveling through eastern Europe to trade shows.

Eventually, he figured it was time to write a book.

“It’s important to let people know what happened during that period,” he said. “Remind them that a lot of our boys sacrificed their lives.”

Cookie Grugan of Camp Hill spent a year and a half helping him get the book on the computer. At first she thought her skills would only be needed for a couple of hours.

“I felt his story needed to be told,” she said. “He was so patriotic, gave so much to his country, and he’s so sincere. He always felt lucky. Maybe his guardian angel was pulling me in, too.”

Mattson never flew again after he came home, although he had a job offer from TWA. He’d had enough, he said.

Until two weeks ago, that is.

He was invited by the Collings Foundation, an educational non-profit specializing in transportation history, to pilot a restored B-24 for 20 minutes between Altoona and Selinsgrove.

It felt very familiar.

“I managed to keep it straight,” he said.

WW II WEEKEND:

WHAT:

Author Walter Mattson will speak as part of the World War II Living History Weekend

WHEN:

1 p.m. Sunday

WHERE:

Eisenhower National Historic Site near Gettysburg

COST:

Entry to all displays and features, $7.50 for adults, $5 for kids 6-12 years old, free for children 5 and under

MORE INFO:

THE BOOK:

“Lone Wolf in Enemy Skies” is available from Amazon.com and at book signings

INTERACT:

Mattson also welcomes inquiries at

or by calling 717-737-6886