Frank Pehrson arrived in Great Falls last week to make a stop at an old friend, or more accurately, to make a stop at a friend of an old friend.
Pehrson, the retired tire shop owner in Chinook, will celebrate his 100th birthday next October. Its century of life looks like an American epic; grew up in poverty during the Great Depression, helped build the Fort Peck Dam and the U.S. Pentagon, expanded a business and raised a family, earning the respect and admiration of his friends and neighbors.
However, one of Pehrson’s most notable achievements, which he spoke of recently, was his military service in World War II. From April 1943 to August 1944, Pehrson served as a flight engineer and gunner of the upper turret aboard the “Jersey Bounce”, a B-25 Mitchell bomber attached to the 489th Bombing Squadron, 340th Bombing Group of the 57th U.S. Air Force Bombing Wing. Body.
Last Friday, he had the chance to raise his signature to the list of other World War II veterans who signed the bomb bay gates of “Maid in the Shade,” some other B-25s he assigned to fight on the Italian peninsula. The terrorist demonstrated last week at Holman Aviation in Great Falls.
At the age of 24, Pehrson was an “old man” in his squadron. Many of the men he stole from were still teenagers.
During his 17-month combat, Frank Pehrson flew missions. All were evacuated from U.S. air bases on the French island of Corsica and clashed in some of the fiercest fighting of the Italian campaign.
“During this operation, the 340th bombed road and rail bridges, viaducts and tunnels, and created barricades,” says an account of the 57th Bomb Wing Association.
But according to Frank’s son, Frank, Jr., his father rarely, or never, talked about the war after returning home. Talking about the things you saw and did wasn’t something many World War II veterans did once the battles were over. It’s better to quit and go on living.
“I’m ashamed of that, I’ll tell you,” Pehrson said of his military service in an interview with the Tribune in 2017.
“They were after speed and maneuverability,” Pehrson said describing what made the B-25 such a great war plane. “Get in and get out.”
Its versatility has allowed the B-25 to serve as a high-level bomber and sail in low-altitude machine gun missions. It has become one of the most popular Allied aircraft of World War II. About 10,000 were built, and used through the British and Russian Air Force, as well as through the U.S. Army Air Corps.
As a flight engineer, Pehrson’s position was directly the cockpit. When Luftwaffe fighters attacked, or the Jersey Bounce carried out its attack, it fixed on the turret of the upper gun, a plexiglass shield attached to the most sensitive of the aircraft’s main frames.
“The upper turret rests on a rail in a bicycle seat,” Frank Pehrson, Jr. said, describing one of his father’s most memorable bombing missions. “I had three bulletproof vests underneath to keep the anti-aircraft fire from rising. When they returned to the ground, the turret completely collapsed and there were bullets and projectiles all over the ground. It had no claws.”
Of course, all the flight crews were very lucky.
“The 340th bombing organization probably suffered the loss of more aircraft than any other average bombing organization during World War,” reads on the Air Force Historical Research Agency’s online page.
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Some of the 340 largest victims occurred on 12 and 13 May 1944 when the German Luftwaffe introduced two wonderful forays at Corsica air bases. The raids destroyed 65 aircraft, killed 24 soldiers, wounded 115 and blew up allied fuel tanks. German incursions into Corsica were the Luftwaffe’s last wonderful good fortune in Western Europe. Frank Pehrson there to see them.
“God, they were all tough, ” said Pehrson about his missions.
“The gunners on the floor, that’s where we understood it,” Pehrson said of his flight to an anti-aircraft prey. “They were often waiting on the bomb line, and they were concentrating on us as we crossed the bomb line. We had a lot of planes fired under us. There were many who didn’t. I didn’t succeed and a lot of the planes were unsuccessful. I was lucky.”
Pehrson’s fortunes lasted his 17 months in Corsica, but he finished for Jersey Bounce without delay after his departure. Two days after completing his 61st project, the well-loved B-25 was shot down during a project on Gerguy-occupied France. One guy died, but the other five team members checked to escape. They were hidden through the loose French and, despite everything, were able to safely cross the Allied lines about a month later.
Pehrson admits to suffering a feeling of “survivor guilt” following the loss of Jersey Bounce.
“I was so angry with myself and the world and to each and every one of the others,” he said of the weeks after the August raid, “but at the same time, I had done my part. It was just one of the things that happened. wasting planes almost every day. I didn’t feel bad about the relay, but I felt bad for them.”
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Pehrson returned home unharmed and on Thanksgiving 1945 married his girlfriend, Jane. The couple began to start a family. Frank put the war on him.
Last week, an old friend of Frank Pehrson arrived in Great Falls for a visit. Both the type and the aircraft that carried him were honorary visitors to a grateful nation.
David Murray is a reporter for agriculture and herbal resources at the Great Falls Tribune. Touch it with comments or article ideas; Email [email protected] or call (406) 403-3257. To maintain deep, quality journalism in north-central Montana, subscribe to the Great Falls Tribune.