As I have said before, one of the things that I love about working on this site is helping people to make connections.  Earlier this year, I was contacted by the daughter of an instructor who taught at a Radar School in Boca Raton.  Her father – Tom,  mother –  Elizabeth and aunt – Eileen struck up a friendship with Raymond Christensen of the 417th during his time training in Boca Ratan.    In her possession was a telegram, photo and letter sent by Ray to Elizabeth and Eileen and she wished to pass these items along to someone in Ray’s family.  That connection has now been made and I have copies of these items to share with you.

The telegram was sent by Ray shortly after he left Boca Ratan for Kissimmee.  At the time, he was on orders not to reveal what he was doing and eventually secretly sailed to England.

A letter from Ray to “the girls”  Elizabeth and Eileen.

This is a transcript of what I believe the letter says:

Dear Elizabeth and Eileen,

It’s been months since I’ve heard from you children.  Am I on your casualty list?  Frankly I feel very much alive.  From time to time we work a bit hard or at lease put in a devil of a lot of time trying to make somebody think so.  We have high hopes of a let up soon and a bit of vacation.

By now I have become quite accustomed to the ways of the English and find it quite pleasant to live here.  Socially, I should say – the food is not so hot.  I’ll even forgive some of the stuff we used to get back at Boca Raton.  The food really isn’t so bad but so much of the same.  At present I’m not on good terms with the potatoes.  It seems I’ve seen entirely too much of ‘em.

Aside from that everything is even better than I had expected.  I can almost dance like a good Englishman.  Can’t waltz as gracefully and there’s a number of folk dances I look silly at but I have oceans of for trying.  There are some pretty decent ballrooms I’ve located and some good music.  Loads of girls even in camp we have enough WASPs to hold quite a good sized party.  Not like our stay in Florida and ???.  Not a single Net(?) Cadet.  How wonderful.  Even so, I wish I was dancing with Pompanos Belles in yea old service center cadets or no cadets. Regards to your parents.  Ray.

And finally a photo with a message on the back that is quite poignant , “Somebody has to go up there”

Raymond Christensen and his pilot Joe Leonard failed to return from their mission on May 13th, 1944.  You can read more about Raymond Christensen in the Letters, Diaries and Tributes page of this website.

Happy 2021 everyone!

I’ve been a bit remiss in getting these additional photos from Peter Fitzgerald’s collection up on the site.  Not a great start to 2021 for me, eh?  Finally, here they are.

The photos were taken in Kassel, Germany.  I don’t have a lot of information on the others in the photos but the building behind the 3rd shot down looks to be the same building in several other photos located in the Faces of the 417th gallery (1st gallery about midway down).   I’m guessing this was a popular spot to have a photo take at camp.

If you spot someone you recognize, please get in touch so that I can update the photographs.  Note, I have also added these to the Faces of the 417th gallery.

Merry Christmas to all and too all a good night.  Best wishes for a safe and happy 2021.

Something that I love about this website is that it enables connections.  For me, this is increasingly important in a world that is dealing with the impacts of Covid-19,  social distancing and a divisive election.  I believe that reaching out and making connections with others help us keep perspective.

This month the website connected me  with the son of Peter Fitzgerald, a member of the 417th.  After a quick exchange of a few emails,  I had a bit more about Peter’s time in the 417th and some great, new pictures to share.

Here is what Peter’s son had to share about his father’s time in the 417th:

Peter Fitzgerald  enlisted on January 15th, 1943 and arrived in Scotland on January 13th, 1944.  His main job during the war was a truck driver hauling bombs and other things and was attached to the chemical warfare group. The mission of which was to be at the ready in case the Germans decided to use chemical weapons. Peter landed in Europe on D Day +3 with his truck and trailer on the beach.

Later in the war, Peter was assigned to the 417th and worked as the crew chief on Markey/Hade’s Lady.    Here is a photo of Peter in the cockpit of the plane:

At the end of the war, Peter was assigned to demolition duty destroying planes.  Here are several photos of that demolition, including one that has roughly 43 planes in the pile:

Here are two more photos of Peter, but it is not known if the individuals with Peter are from his time with the 417th or earlier in the war.  In the first photo, Peter Fitzgerald is in then center:

Peter is on the left in the photo below:

Peter Fitzgerald was discharged on January 31st, 1946.

I will add these photos to the permanent galleries (Faces of 417th).  If anyone can identify the individuals with Peter or wishes to get in contact with Peter’s son, drop me a note and I will help make the connection!

Cheers- Jackie

Sorry for being away for so long.  Like just about everyone I have been distracted by other things going on in the world right now.  Anyhow, I am back at it with  a couple of updates.

The first update relates to my post in March of this year about the crash and rescue of a 418th crew in Dutch New Guinea in 1944.

The update is that the book is now available as is a website (details later in this post).   The book is titled “KAIS: A true story of a daring rescue in the swamps of New Guinea, summer 1944″

Here a summary of the story:

On Thursday 27 July 1944 a B-25 bomber of the 418th Night Fighter Squadron is on a routine mission over the waters surrounding New Guinea near the Birds Head Peninsula. The crew sights a Japanese schooner and start their attack run, flying low and fast over the water. The attack succeeds but the bomber is hit and it’s pilot, 2Lt Ira M. Barnett, cannot fly it back to base. He decides on a crash landing in a remote swamp area, some 300 miles behind enemy lines. Barnett puts the plane down safely, air gunner Harold “Chief” Tantaquidgeon takes over command in the swamp.

Navigator Tom Wright wrote: “At the second attempt he slid over the water and grass and we heard tsching, tsching, bushes hitting the wings. Suddenly the plane swung to the left, breaking in two just behind the bomb bay. Chief and Pete were thrown out. The wing had hit a tree, too thick to break”

A rescue team, led by Dutch 2nd Lieutenant Louis Rapmund and Australian Army Captain ‘Mac’ Gillespie sets out from the island of Biak to save the crew. Flown in by Catalina flying boat, river Kais is their only way in and out of this green hell of jungle and swamp. For three weeks their small group of Allied soldiers use the Kais to fight both their human enemy and nature to find the crew and bring them back to safety.
This is an extraordinary story of survival and heroism of Allied soldiers and air men; American, Australian, Dutch and Indonesian, supported by the local Papua’s.

In 2019 the author followed in the footsteps of the rescue team, trying to find the wreck of the bomber. With a group of five he travelled up the Kais river and into the swamp. It resulted in an unexpected meeting.

The book is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle version at this link:

KAIS: A true story of a daring rescue in the swamps of New Guinea, summer 1944

You can also find more details on the website that is dedicated to this expedition Airwarnewguinea

A second expedition is planned in 2021.  How cool is that!!!!

A big thanks to Bas Kreuger, the author of the book, for getting in touch with me thru this website and allowing me to publish details of this story.

As for my second update, here is a teaser:  “A 12 year old finds the “army issued” personal diary of his father, a member of the original 417th NFS….”

Stay tuned as I get the details of this diary uploaded & posted on this site.

Cheers and Stay Safe!

Jackie