The 306th Bomb Group was activated Oct 9, 1942 at Thurleigh Airfield Bedfordshire UK. The four squadrons of B-17 Flying Fortresses flew a total of 341 daylight bombing missions dropping a total of 22,575 pounds of bombs over occupied Europe until Apr 19, 1945. In 1998 USAF Major Charles Westgate III wrote his masters thesis, The Reich Wreckers: An Analysis of the 306th Bomb Group During World War II. Appendix A of his paper is a table depicting a line by line mission summary of all 341 missions. The same year Major Westgate wrote his thesis I met Ernest T “Mo” Moriarty.

Line 25, Mission #25 in the summary details the following information:

8 March 1943. Enemy air defenses LIGHT. Flak defenses LIGHT. Weather conditions over the target GOOD. Bombing technique VISUAL. Target MARSHALLING YARDS, RENNES France. 21 Aircraft participated in the mission. 18 aircraft completed the mission. 2 aircraft aborted due to maintenance issues. 1 never returned.

Crossing the channel, the Buddenbaum crew noticed the No. 2 and No. 3 engines were not producing enough power and the aircraft had troubles keeping its position in the formation. Shortly after crossing the French coast a single Focke Wolfe snuck in at 6 o’clock high and let loose a hell storm of 20mm rounds severing the aileron cables and tearing into the top turret. Pilot Otto Buddenbaum struggled to keep the B-17 from banking uncontrollably but soon shouted the order to bail out.

At 22,000 feet waist gunner Mo Moriarty jumped from the doomed B-17, counted to 10 and pulled his rip chord. Mo and most of the rest of the crew landed scattered miles apart in various farmer’s fields. Pilot Otto Buddenbaum’s shoot failed to open. He was the only crew member to not survive the bail out. The surviving crew all attempted to escape and evade capture. All failed except Mo. In 1987 Mo, after shopping his manuscript to dozens of uninterested publishers, self published his memoir, One Day Into Twenty Three.

Early in 1998 I was researching the topic of escape and evasion for a story I was writing. I came across Mo’s book on a website and ordered a copy. The story was fascinating. The writing was terrible. Along with my book order Mo had included a hand written note thanking me for my order and expressing his wonder at a young fellow so interested in an old timer’s tale. He included his contact information and an open invitation to visit him. Later that same year I made the necessary arrangements and flew from Vancouver British Columbia to Orange Massachusetts. I spent an entire week with Mo and his family. I stayed at a friend of Mo’s home because, well, Mo insisted because Mo lived a very simple existence in a ramshackle house out in the boonies (Mo’s words). During that week Mo retold his story and a few others while I fumbled with my video camera and basically botched my first and only life interview.

Over the next year or so Mo and I kept in touch by writing letters to one another. Soon though, my scattered life moved in other directions and Mo stopped writing. Today, as I’ve done each year at this time, I was thinking of Mo. I did a little digging on the Internet and for $2.95 USD I was able to download this Worcester Telegram & Gazette clipping:

I miss you Mo.

Your friend,

Joe