Today is Bail Out Day – the day in 1945 when my father -in-law – Bill Kallam – bailed out over Yugoslavia after his B-24 was shot down. Below is his story, dedicated to all veterans everywhere.
MARCH 14, 1945
“BAIL OUT DAY”
The WWII war time experiences and reminiscences of
Lt. William Lee (Bill) Kallam
Dedicated to the veterans of WWII, the friends and family of the Kallam clan and especially to William Kallam Ashmore, age 7, who is Bill’s namesake and only grandchild and who was present during the narration of these events.
Compiled by:
Durant Ashmore
March 21, 2004
Durantashmore@aol.com
BAIL OUT DAY
Bail out day has always been a tradition in the Bill Kallam family. According to Bill’s oldest daughter, Julie Turner, the tradition has been to coax out from Bill just what exactly the hell happened on the fateful day in question. Every March 14 Bill would quietly make a comment “It’s bail out day”. This was basically the extent of the celebration. Bill was always too shy or too reticent to discuss the details of his military service. In fact, he has been downright bashful. He seemed to feel that people would not be interested in his days as a member of the United States Armed Forces during World War Two.
Bill has seemingly always considered himself to have had typical wartime experiences that were not particularly special. All of the veterans of his era could tell the same types of stories that he could. What Bill has not given a lot of consideration to, however, is that he offers a unique perspective on a momentous period of American history. It is important for present generations to understand the values and events of the World War Two generation. These values and events continue to shape the world in which we live today. It seems odd to think that a WWII bomber pilot would ever be shy, but that’s Bill Kallam.
On March 8, 2004 Bill Kallam celebrated his 81st birthday. At a gathering of friends in honor of this occasion, “bail out day” was mentioned. The consensus of the group was that fully fifty-nine years after the occasion nobody really knew the details of what had occurred. Minds started thinking and wheels started spinning. The idea evolved that a celebration and narration of these events was past due. As a result, a dinner party was planned to get the whole story out. Rick and Connie Sumerel were the masterminds and gracious hosts of this event (I think it was Connie’s idea first!).
On the fifty-ninth anniversary of “bail out day”, March 14, 2004, Bill gave his narration of events of his wartime experiences. Rick Sumerel obtained a map of Europe and pinned it to the fireplace mantle. This was crucial to understanding the geography of the area in which the events occurred. A model B-24 plane was used for further clarification and explanations.
Present that evening at the Sumerel’s house were Bill Clarke, Marty and Ruthi Lutz and their daughter Gabby (13), Rick and Connie Sumerel and their sons Clarke (16) and Hughes (11), Billy and Julie Turner and Durant and Ann Ashmore and their son Kallam (7).
Most of story contained here comes from this narration, although some information is from follow up interviews and two of the definitive books on the subject. These books are Robert F. Dorr’s B-24 Liberator Units of the Fifteenth Air Force and Duane L. and Betty J. Bohnstedt’s 460th Bomb Group History.
World War Two started on Sept. 1, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Bill was sixteen years old at the time. He was visiting in Timmonsville, SC with his father who was a tobacco warehouseman. Bill’s father (Fletcher Lee Kallam) spent six weeks a year in Timmonsville and Bill would usually spend a week or so there every year.
The bloody war continued throughout the rest of Bill’s high school years and on through his college days at the Citadel. He was a member of the Air Corp Reserve while a student. In 1943 he was “pulled in” to the Air Force as one of 200 Citadel cadets requested for service.
Bill was sent to flight training school at Ocalla, Florida. There he learned to fly. He had his first solo flight on Nov. 26, 1943 and has been flying ever since for the past 61 years. The first plane he flew was a PT-17, which is a trainer.
As part of Bill’s training he was sent to three flight schools, each one successively more advanced. These were the primary, basic and advanced schools. After Bill completed advanced flight school in Valdosta, Ga. he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the United Stated Air Force on May 23, 1944.
After that Bill was sent to Maxwell Air Force base in Alabama. This was a transition school where he learned to fly four engine planes. Next, Bill was sent to Chatham Field in Savannah to learn to fly the B-24. He had practice bombing runs over the ocean. This training lasted for six weeks.
After that Bill started training with nine other airmen who would be his crew in combat. These men trained together in the B-24 for an additional six weeks in order to get to know each other and, just as importantly, get to know the plane.
After all this training, the crew was deemed ready for combat in the European theatre of war. They were sent to Mitchell field in New York on Feb. 12, 1945 where they picked up a brand spanking new B-24M airplane made by the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan. Bill remembers the Ford logo stamped on the wheel yoke.
Lt. Kallam and crew were on their way to war. They flew from Mitchell field to Bangor, Maine, then Gander, Newfoundland and then to the Azores. From the Azores they flew to Marrakesh, Morocco and then to Tunis. From Tunis they flew around Sicily and landed in the center of Italy in a town named Goia. Upon landing Lt. Kallam was given a receipt for the plane he had just flown halfway around the world and delivered in satisfactory condition to the United States Air Force. Bill remembers someone telling him sometime that a new B-24 cost $185,000.
Lt. Kallam and his crew were members of the 460th Bomb Group, which was a part of the Fifteenth Air Force. The Fifteenth Air Force was a massive military organization which was based in central Italy. The purpose of the Fifteenth Air Force was to bomb Nazi Germany into submission. The Fifteenth Air Force in Italy in conjunction with the Eighth Air Force in England could bomb any target in any territory controlled by the Axis enemy forces.
The bases that the Fifteenth Air Force occupied were just recently occupied by the Italian Air Force. The United States forces in North Africa had pounded these bases for months before central Italy fell under Allied control. As a result, living conditions were poor. There were no amenities. The manpower levels grew at faster rates than the Air Force could build bases. Living in tents was the common practice, and the weather in central Italy in the Winter of 1945 was not particularly hospitable. In fact, as we will see later, the bad Winter weather in that part of the world in 1945 will have a direct bearing on central features of this story.
Lt. Kallam and his crew lucked out on their living quarters. They were a replacement crew, one sent in to fill in the gaps in squadrons in which crews reached their milestone 35 missions and were rotated home, or when crews were lost due to enemy combat. The day after they arrived one such crew rotated home and sold their quarters to Lt. Kallam’s crew. It was a concrete building with a heater in it. While not very fancy, it did keep the crew warm and dry. It cost the officers $50.00 apiece to purchase this abode.
In 1945 Adolf Hitler and his “Thousand Year Reich” were rocking back on their heels. One of the darkest chapters in 20th century history was coming to a close, but it wasn’t over yet. The Nazi onslaught which at one time controlled North Africa, Italy, France, Northern and Central Europe and one third of Russia was now reduced to controlling only parts of Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia and Austria. Hitler committed suicide on Apr. 30, 1945. The Russian Army was converging on Berlin from the East and the British and American Armies were converging on Berlin from the West. They would meet in May and the war would be over in Europe. In the meantime, thousands of POWs, Jews and political prisoners were dying every day in Nazi concentration camps.
The plane that Lt. Kallam flew was the B-24M “Liberator”. It was designed for one purpose and one purpose only. It was designed to bomb the Third Reich into submission, and it was very effective at its job.
The architectural adage “form follows function” was aptly illustrated in the design of the B-24. It was not a pretty aircraft. It had an enlarged fuselage which was out of scale with the rest of the plane. This fuselage carried bombs, and it carried a lot of very heavy ones. It could either carry ten 500 pound bombs or six 1,000 pounders. With its complement of four 1,900 horse power Pratt and Whitney engines it could also carry these bombs further and faster than any plane the Air Force had at its command.
The B-24 had a distinctive twin rudder tail. According to Bill, this twin rudder system added to the stability of the aircraft. When friend or foe saw this big plane approaching it was readily apparent what type of craft it was due to the enlarged belly of the plane and the twin rudder tail configuration.
The B-24 bristled with 50 cal. machine guns. There were twin 50s in the nose turret, twin 50s in the tail turret, twin 50s on top and twin 50s on bottom. On the side of each plane were waist gunners who manned single 50 cal. guns. These machine guns covered any angle of approach that German fighter pilots could use to attack the plane. The German pilots knew that any time they had a chance at firing at a B-24, the B-24 had an equal or greater chance of firing back. When the B-24 was flying in convoy the combined firepower of these planes was a formidable defense.
It took a crew of ten to fly the B-24. The pilot, co-pilot, navigator and bombadier were the officers. The enlisted men were the nose gunner, tail gunner, two waist gunners, top turret gunner/ engineer and bottom turret gunner.
According to Robert F. Dorr in his book B-24 Liberator Units of the Fifteenth Air Force (Osprey Publishing Limited, Oxford, 2000) the B-24 was not designed for comfort or safety. Only the pilot and co-pilot had seat belts. The rest of the crew was apparently expected to just hold on tightly in case of flak explosions, crash landing, heavy turbulence or any number of other jolts, quakes and bounces experienced by aircraft in combat situations.
A particularly hazardous assignment on this plane was the station of the belly gunner. The belly gun turret was raised and lowered during take-off. There wasn’t enough clearance for the plane to land with the turret extended. After the plane was in flight the belly turret was lowered by hand with a winch into position. The other crewmen manned this winch, the gunner had no control over it. This meant that if the other crewmen were injured in combat or passed out due to lack of oxygen, the belly gunner was left alone, suspended beneath the belly of the plane with no one to help him in his predicament. More than one belly gunner died when, on a crash landing, no one was there to raise his turret and free him from his confines.
The B-24 was built before the era of pressurized cabins. In fact, it was open to the outside air. The waist gunners manned open windows with the wind whistling through during the entire flight. The bomb bay doors weren’t sealed and a great deal of noise and wind rushed through them.
What made this open air system so bad was that the B-24 was designed to fly at high altitudes. It regularly flew above 20,000 feet. The air temperature at 20,000 feet is cold. It is very cold. In fact, the air temperature at 20,000 feet ranges from 0 degrees to minus 60 degrees. These temperatures are below the tolerance levels for humans.
To combat the cold conditions the crew wore heated flight suits. These were like coveralls with wires running through them They plugged in at the seat. On top of the flight suit fleece lined jackets and other clothing was worn. The boots were not heated, and Bill says this was the roughest part. Inevitably, the feet would get bitter cold.
In addition to the heated flight suits, the crew had on oxygen masks. Once the plane reached 10,000 feet these masks were strapped on. Otherwise, the air was too thin to breathe. With the oxygen masks on and the noise of the plane, communication between crewmembers was a difficult task.
According to Bill, flying these aircraft in convoy was no easy task. Each pilot had to maintain his position in his “element”, which consisted of six aircraft flying in a tight configuration. It was a never ending push and pull on the throttle and rudders to keep in correct position. The pilot flew for thirty minutes and then turned over the controls to the co-pilot for thirty minutes. It was physically exerting and very stressful trying to keep in formation and look out for enemy fighter planes at the same time. The missions were for hundreds of miles over hostile territory and would last for eight hours or so. The B-24 had no bathrooms.
It was also difficult to turn the B-24, particularly when flying in formation. This took a great deal of planning and strenuous execution to be successful. Usually, the group flew fairly straight to the IP. IP stands for Initial Point. Once the aircraft reached the IP, they followed the coordinates to the target.
The B-24 flew before the era of precision bombing. The B-24s practiced “carpet bombing”. The pilots would follow a lead plane. This pilot had higher rank and more experience than the following crews. If this plane experienced difficulties and had to turn back there was a second in command. When the lead plane dropped its bomb load the other planes followed suit. It was hoped that the bombs hit their target.
Another factor entered the picture when the planes reached the IP. This is usually when the flak started. Flak is German anti-aircraft fire. Flak was fired by the 88 millimeter cannon which was the German Army weapon of choice for air defense. This powerful gun could shoot exploding shell five miles straight up into the air.
Bill says you could see the shells exploding in black clouds. At first they would explode below. The next ones would be a little higher. Soon, they would be exploding at the same altitude as the plane. The gunners below would calibrate their ordnance so that the shells would explode in the midst of flying convoys.
As the territory of the Axis armies was shrinking, the concentration of anti-aircraft guns would increase. When the Germans retreated they moved their guns first and the Army would follow behind. In one picture of a B-24 flight over Vienna, 50 flak bursts can be seen in the immediate area in which a B-24 is flying.
Part of the Fifteenth Air Force’s mission was to destroy German industrial capacity. Railroad marshalling yards and oil refineries were targeted in particular. Also targeted were German aircraft facilities. The Fifteenth Air Force was so successful at this particular job that by 1945 they had destroyed the Messerschmitt aircraft factories to such an extent that there were no more fighter aircraft to contend with over the skies.
However, this did not lessen the danger of flak. A direct hit would destroy an aircraft. A near miss could do serious damage. Two and three inch pieces of shrapnel could slice through the metal skin of a B-24. On one mission Lt. Kallam and crew counted 90 holes in their plane from flak shrapnel. The sound of shrapnel was likened to someone beating on the side of the plane with a baseball bat.
All of these factors of world events, condition of the B-24 aircraft, weather in Italy and a tall lanky boy from Winston-Salem intertwined together to produce the events that led up to “bail out day”.
Apparently, the first mission for young Lt. Kallam is not memorable. For a man who can remember all the dates given in this story ( he has referred to no notes at all in his narration), he can’t remember the first time he flew in combat. Perhaps the events of his second combat flight so overshadow his first flight that he can be forgiven.
The second mission for Lt. Kallam and his crew was to fly to Nove Zamke, Czechoslovakia and bomb the railroad marshalling yards there. The closer the plane got to the target, the heavier the cloud cover became. This part of Europe was notorious for poor weather conditions. Veteran Fifteenth Air Force pilots rank poor weather on an equal footing with flak and enemy fighter planes as the most serious obstacles they faced in dealing with completing their missions.
The attack on Nove Zamke is described by Duanne L. and Betty J. Bohnstedt in their book 460th Bomb Group History (Taylor Publishing Co., Dallas, 1996). “14 Mar 45 — Forty-one scheduled aircraft were dispatched to bomb the Nove Zamke Marshalling Yards in Czechoslovakia. The Red Force consisted of twenty one aircraft; the Blue Force had twenty planes…. One aircraft of each force returned early …
The Blue Force of nineteen planes penetrated to the area of the IP (initial point) for the primary target. Due to haze and clouds, it was impossible to establish positive identification of the IP or the target itself, which was close to the Russian line. The formation proceeded to the first alternate target, Szombathely Marshalling Yards, but here again weather conditions were unsatisfactory for a visual run. They then attempted to make a visual run on the Zagreb West Marshalling Yards, but this target was also closed in. Since many of the aircraft were now low on gasoline, seventeen returned to the base. One plane landed at Zara to refuel, and one ship was missing. A 460th pilot had heard the aircraft in contact with the Big Fence (a radar installation), saying it was over the Adriatic and low on gas. Big Fence had recommended a heading of 185 degrees. Due to fuel shortage and damage sustained in the target area, the William Kallam crew (760) was forced to seek an emergency field. Because of navigational handicaps, attempts to locate the Zara field were unsuccessful, and the crew was forced to bail out in the area of Trojir, Yugoslavia. They were immediately picked up by Partisans and peasants, who guided them to a nearby British Mission. On 17 Mar 45, they were flown back to Bari on a C-47. Members of this crew were: William Kallam, Edmund Kay, James Unger, Robert Rooney, James Kingman, Norman Shepard, Israel Ellenburg, Dannie Ross, Richard Pachico, and Henry Berry.”
On the Nove Zamke mission, flak destroyed engine No.1. This is the engine located on the far left of the pilot. Lt. Kallam cut the fuel and feathered the propeller blades. Feathering the blades is a process in which the blades are turned into the airstream as opposed to against the airstream. When a pilot “pushes the red button” (Kallam) the blades rotate 90 degrees and have no effect on the flying of the aircraft.
Lt. Kallam continued to fly his plane after being hit, searching in vain for the emergency airstrip located in Zara, Yugoslavia. The cloud cover rendered visibility impossible. At some point Lt. Kallam jettisoned his bomb load over the Adriatic. This would make the fuel last longer, as well as being much safer in case of a crash landing.
While searching for Zara, the fuel to engine Nos. 2 and 4 ran out. It was apparent to the crew that the only alternative was to “bail out”. The crew jumped one by one from the open bomb bay doors. The last man to jump was Lt. Kallam, and for the first and only time in his life he pulled the ripcord on a parachute. The parachute opened and he was drifting through space. It was at this time that the scariest part of the whole ordeal occurred. The plane was continuing to fly, but only on the No. 3 engine. With no one at the controls this engine began turning the plane in a circle. The plane was falling at the same rate of speed that Lt. Kallam was, and it started to come right back at him. Bill shrugs his shoulders and says “it missed me” and he continued to float toward the ground.
The plane crashed into the side of a mountain in Yugoslavia. It burst into flames. The crew could hear the 50 cal. machine gun rounds exploding as the heat from the fire reached them.
When Lt. Kallam reached earth he landed on his back. Upon landing some cartilage on his ribs was torn, but this did not prevent him from flying nine more missions before the war ended. When this cartilage damaged was later repaired it led to a six month hospitalization due to infection.
Communist Yugoslavian Partisans watched the parachutes float to the ground. They drove around in a truck and collected Lt. Kallam’s crew. Bill states that within an hour the crew was all back together and on their way to a British mission from whence they were sent back to their base at Goia. Within two to three days they had another plane and were again flying missions.
Bill says that he was worried that the brass would give him a hard time about losing his aircraft, but that he never got a negative word about it. He was surprised that there was even a rumor that he would receive the Distinguished Flying Cross. In his bashful way he states that all he did was just jump out of an aircraft.
Lt. Kallam flew 9 more missions before he was recalled to the United States. He flew missions to Ganz, Vienna, and Regensburg. He flew to northern Italy to help the ground forces which were still battling German Army holdouts. At some point during this time 2nd Lieutenant Kallam was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.
In May of 1945 the war in Europe was in its last days. Lt. Kallam was recalled to the U.S. to train in the new B-29. This was a massive plane which would continue to carry out the war against Japan. Invading Japan was a daunting task. It was estimated that it would take an army of one million men to do so.
On Aug. 6, and Aug. 9, 1945 atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The Japanese emperor capitulated and the war was over. If not for the A-bomb, Lt. Kallam would have continued to fly combat missions.
After Bill spent six months in the hospital for his injury, he was discharged. The Air Force simply didn’t need him any more. He had signed up for the duration with no idea when his discharge would occur.
After the war Bill was a member of the Air Force Reserves. During this time he was promoted to Captain.
Bill finished his college days at the Citadel, and then started working with McLean Trucking Co. He was originally assigned to Indiana, where he met his future wife, Patricia Lee Yount. Bill’s love of airplanes was connected to his love for women. Pat Yount worked for Eastern Air Lines. Apparently due to some embellishments by Bill’s brother, Ted, the true story of how they met has been as clouded as the true story of Bail Out Day. Perhaps it will take another dinner party (with map and other props) to get to the bottom of this story.
Bill was later transferred to Greenville, SC. He married Pat in Indiana on Dec. 19, 1953 and moved his new bride down South.
Bill and Pat had three children. These are: Julie (b Sept. 14, 1955, m Billy Roy Turner Apr. 6, 1988), Bill, Jr. (b Jan, 22, 1958) and Ann (b Oct. 11, 1959, m John Durant Ashmore Dec. 26, 1993). Bill has one grandson, Kallam (b Dec. 26, 1996). Sadly, Pat died on Feb 19, 1997.
Bill liked Greenville a lot. He decided to go into the restaurant business here and in 1963 decided along with Ted to open up a Little Pigs Barbecue restaurant which became a famous Greenville eatery until Bill retired in 1996.
On a clear day look up into the sky. That little plane you see up there flying in lazy circles has an eighty-one year old pilot. It’s Bill, and he’s checking things out. He’s flying North to check out Julie’s horse farm, or he’s heading South to check out Ann’s greenhouses. Wherever he is, he’s enjoying himself.
This tale is told for future generations. It is particularly hoped that Gabby Lutz, Clarke and Hughes Sumerel and Kallam Ashmore are cognizant of just how special a narration they heard at the Sumerel’s house on March 14, 2004. They heard a first hand accounting from an eyewitness to history.
All of these youngsters will be living in 2045. They will be in their 40s and 50s. Remember March 14, 1945. I hope that you will be able to retain the facts of this story and pass it on. You will be able to relate first hand information to future generations from 100 years in the past.
Even in the year 2045 your life will be directly affected by world events which were occurring on March 14, 1945 – “Bail Out Day”.
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