index

Billy was a ball turret gunner on a B-24, in the 15th Air Force, 376th BG, 515th Squadron, flying out of southern Italy. He is kneeling in the picture above, to the far left. Billy was killed on April 4, 1944 in a bombing run over Bucharest, Rumania.

Yes, I knew Little Billy

From:  Donald Stone
       Cassville, New York
       January 1995

This account tells most of the happenings during World War II of the crew 
of which Billy Wayne Morgan was a member, and some of the things that 
happened after Billy was killed.

We were assigned to a crew at Clovis, New Mexico.  There we trained for 
about a month, then went to Biggs Field in El Paso, Texas for the second 
and third phases of training.  Shortly after we got to Biggs our first 
pilot, a fellow by the name of Clark, was killed in a crash.  About the 
same time the navigator was pulled off the crew and hospitalized.  They 
were going to check me out as 1st pilot, but before that happened Frenchy 
was transferred in from Blithe, California and he took over the crew.  
The next person to be assigned to our crew was Phelps.  We completed our 
training at El Paso and was transferred to Grand Island, Nebraska for 
overseas staging.  The only problem with that was we were a B-24 crew at 
a B-17 staging area, and they were mystified.  After taking about three 
weeks to straighten things out they loaded us onto a troop train and sent 
us to Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia.  From there we were loaded onto a 
British schooner, the H.M.S. ANDES, and we headed for Casablanca 
Morocco.  We ran along crossing the pond, then, one night we got within 
6,000 yards of a German sub.  Suddenly the skipper changed ends with the 
tub and just about dumped all of us out of our sacks.  It tooks us seven 
days to cross and we landed the 7th of December, 1943 at Casablanca 
Morocco.  From there we went to Camp Don Passage on the outskirts of town.

An Infantry Colonel was in charge of the area and it was apparent he did 
not have a high regard for Air Force Personnel.  He, in his zeal or glee 
or something overstepped his bounds, however.  But we stayed at the 
hellhole until January 1944 at which time they flew us to Italy on a 
troop carrier C-47.  We spent the first night in Bone NA and the second 
night at Gaila Sicily.  The next day we arrived at San Pancrazio, Italy 
which was on January 7, 1944.

A comical incident that I always got a kick out of happened one time at 
the conclusion of a 3rd time event.  When we landed at San Pancrazio a 
driver pulled up to take us to the Squadron and I knew the driver.  As we 
were talking on the way he was telling me about some other fellows we both 
knew that were in the outfit.  Later we were coming back from a mission 
in the west coast of Italy and we had plane trouble.  So we put in at a 
field near Naples to get it fixed.  They sent us into town to bunk, and 
when we got transport to go back to the field, that idiot driver took us 
to the wrong field.  When we pulled up to the gate there were a bunch of 
fellows waiting for a ride into town.  I knew some of them, and they told 
me about others on the base (one of them a real good friend of mine).  So 
we went in to see them.  The next and last straw came one day when we 
were coming back from Toulon, France, and a fuel transfer pump went 
out.  We could not get any gas out of the bomb bay auxiliary tanks.  As a 
result we picked out one of the bases on Corsica and set down to get 
the main tanks refueled.  The base transit crew parked us in a hardstand 
and we shut the engines down.  We were the first B-24 to land at the 
base and the ground crew came up to look us over.  It turned out that 
I knew most of them because I had helped train them before I went cadet.  
We got out of the bird and I was shaking hands and introducing them to 
the crew.  Little Bill said to Leo Bitting, "This damn Stone knows the 
whole US Army."  We always enjoyed the remark and have laughed about it 
often.  We had a real good crew.  It was a "Fluing, Fighting Machine" if 
there ever was one.  However, our radio operator was the weak link.  When 
the going got rough he would lose it.  I was very unhappy with him.  On 
the 7th mission he almost pushed Jake Stubbs out the waist window.  Jake 
didn't have his chute on either.  The radio operator wanted to get to 
where he could jump.  His performance on that mission was the final act 
as far as I was concerned. . . we didn't need him.  As a result he was 
grounded and we got another operator.

Little Billy was killed on his 23rd mission.  We were on our way home 
from Bucharest, Romania.  I have a copy of the Mission Diary that Frenchy 
kept.  Here is the way it reads:

04/04/44                  Mission 22 & 23       A/C88
Bucharest, Romania Marshaling Yard Rough.
Bad weather but managed to get through - good bombing - 
light flak - lots enemy aircraft, 30 to 40 engaged our group in combat 
for 45 minutes - lost 3 aircraft - many shot up.  
Little Billy Morgan, my ball gunner was killed in his turret by a 20mm shot.
Ship well shot up - felt as if flying a hearse home.  The rest (of 
missions) are all for Little Bill!!!
Led 2nd element A FLT.

Bucharest was a double credit mission due to the distance plus the 
distance into enemy territory.

French & Naomi
Phelps & Rose Marie
Vivian Baldt (widow)
Runnels & Naomi
Stubbs & Rosie
Bitting & Margie
Dominick & Leah
Audrey Woo (Garfield) (widow)
Stone & Anna Rose

Hintenach's and Johnson's crews didn't know Billy.  Hintenach's crew went 
through training with us and we flew together on the same mission the 
same day.  In fact, out of 8 crews that were assigned to our squadron 
from the group that went through together, our two crews were the only 
ones to finish up. . . . the other six went by the wayside.

Johnson's crew got over there in May 1944.  We took them on their first 
mission the 29th of May to Weiner-Newstadt, Austria.  We got roughed up 
pretty well.  They had a real "baptism of fire."  We could not stay in 
formation and Hintenach left the formation to escort us back out of enemy 
territory.  Five of Johnson's crew were lost on their 28th mission. They 
had to bail out over the Adriatic Sea while on their way to Munich, Germany.

This letter should give you some idea about things in those days of war.

Don Stone

Newspapers articles on Billy

Billy's Diary

Back Row, left to right: Lt Charles E. French - 1st pilot; Lt Fredric E. Phelps - Navigator; Lt Donald Stone - Co-pilot; F/O John R. Baldt - Bombadier.
Front Row, left to right: Sgt. Jack W. Garfield - Tail gunner; S/Sgt. W. L. Runnels - Engineer; Sgt. Jake Stubbs - Armor gunner; Sgt. Leo K. Bitting - Armor gunner; Sgt. James W. Sauls; Radio Man; Sgt. Billy W. Morgan - Asst. engineer.

376th Heavy Bombardment Group - 15th Army Air Corp
Black Sunday, A Ploesti Mission Tribute
B-24 webboard
The Internet B-24 Veterans Group

index