Benton's Bombardier
Lt. Bruce Crawford
I had heard about Bruce Crawford's bombing run of the Borough of Benton in the latter part of August, 1943, but never directly from Bruce. When I asked him about it as we sat overlooking Painter Den pond he said, "That was quite a deal. I could tell you the story if you have a minute or two." I certainly did have the time. I pulled up a chair and listened, and you might as well do the same. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and we'll let Bruce tell the story as I remember him telling the story to me.
Bruce enlisted on February 4, 1942, and received training at Kessler Field, Mississippi; Lowry Field, Colorado; San Antonio Aviation Center, San Antonio, Texas; Big Springs, Texas and Dalhart, Texas. Bruce, 25, was a member of the U.S. Army Air Force stationed in Texas. "We were getting ready to go overseas from Texas and we had to stop in St. Louis to pick up a brand new B-17 there to take it overseas." The plane they picked up that day was the Boeing "fortress 'Smokey Stover,'" with a hundred-foot wingspan. The plane under the direction of Lt. Crawford flew 20 missions and shot down one enemy fighter.
Bruce began his story simply: "So the first place we went was down into Nashville, Tennessee, because that was the navigator lived. It was a big city, so we just flew over the city. When we got through there, the pilot said, 'now what and I said now lets fly to Benton, Pennsylvania.' " Bruce described finding the town as like looking for "a pimple on a map. Anyway, by golly, we came."
The flight to Benton was a simple one for Bruce. It was nothing like it was during combat. The bombardier when not doing his primary job or if the plane was under attack by fighter planes could use hand-operated guns in socket-like flexible gun mounts in the Plexiglas nose and small side windows on either side of the fuselage. At flying altitude, heated-flying suits were a necessity since temperatures at high altitudes could drop to 40-degrees-below-zero. The bombardier sat in the nose of the plane and issued instructions via an intercom. Bomb-bay doors were versatile and could accommodate bombs from 100-pound to 2,000 pound bombs. The success or failure of a mission depended directly on the accurate and effective bombing during the short actual bombing run. The bombardier was in absolute control of the B-17 when he took over for the run on the target and his word was law until he announced "Bombs away."
A bombardier had to consider...
• Altitude, which partially determined the length of time the bomb fell.
• True airspeed, which gave the bomb its initial forward velocity.
• Bomb ballistics, of size, shape and density of the bomb.
• Trail, the distance the bomb impact is behind the airplane
• Actual time of fall, the length of time the bomb is in the air.
• Groundspeed, the speed of the airplane in relation to the earth's surface.
• Drift, determined by the direction and velocity of the wind."I had written a note," Bruce remembered. The note, dated Sunday, August 26, 1943, was handwritten shortly after noon. In the note, Bruce wrote, "If everything goes right, you will get this sometime this afternoon. Right now we are over Ohio and heading that way. You must excuse this writing because these clouds are pretty rough. I hope you all are home when we get there and that I get to see you."
Bruce began to show his anxiety as he penned, "We are now crossing the Ohio river and it won't be long until good old Pa. is under us." He must have thought of his uncertain future, as he then wrote, "I can't tell you where we are going, but this is so long until about a year from Christmas unless we finish the war in less time." He then hastily wrote a final page in which he promised to bring back a souvenir, fretted about his mother paying bills for him while he was gone, told others "not to fall off your bicycles," and promised his wife that he would be back as soon as he could. He concluded by expressing his love for his wife and family. He then placed the two-page note in an appropriately marked air-mail envelope and wrote "The Crawford Family" on the outside.
Bruce placed the note in a weighted sack with a six-foot yellow tail identified as "U.S. Air Corps Troops," with the additional notation "Official Business Only," and addressed it to Harry Crawford, North Street, Benton, PA. The Government container was marked "Penalty for private use $300."
Bruce Crawford holding the U.S. Air Corps sack
he used to drop a note on his parent's houseA flume behind the weighted envelope was so "when it came down people could see it," Bruce continued. He had written the note to his wife, Cecelia, then living on East Butler Street, Shickshinny, and to members of his Benton family while passing over Columbus, Ohio.
Bruce remembers, "So we got to Benton and the pilot said 'I'm going to have to circle this place to see if we have room left to get up out when we are down low.' So we flew around the town and then flew down over Maple Grove. When we got down there, I said follow the creek. We were about 15, 20 feet over the treetops and we had the four engines wide open to get all the speed. The indicator showed about 205 miles per hour--that was top speed for the plane. When we got to Becky's place, I said 'see that alley there'--follow it right up to my house." Imagine the surprise on the faces of the residents of Benton as the huge plane with the white, five-pointed star--the insignia of the American air forces--flew at tree top-level north parallel to Main Street.
The parents of Bruce Crawford, Harry and Della Mazie Crawford, lived on North Street at the northern end of McHenry Alley.
Bruce continued, "I was in the nose of the plane, but the tail gunner had a small window that he could pull open in the back. I had given him this package and as we were going up over the tops of those trees they said the chickens came right up out of the chicken coups. I yelled 'drop it.'" He threw the sack and the message out of the window and by golly the sack landed right in the yard. Right in the yard! And then we left here and went to Bangor, Maine, then to Gander, Newfoundland, and from there we flew to Scotland. So that was the story of that."
Bruce paused and then continued, "The first thing that I heard from Benton was a small article in the Stars and Stripes, a war-time paper that they put out, saying 'The Axis better look out. We may want to write notes and program sacks'." A Wilkes-Barre paper noted that "Bruce Crawford proved the effectiveness of his bombing eye and sights when he dropped a weighted container holding letters directly into the yard of his Benton homestead." Even the Associated Press picked up the story, with a byline from Back Home in Benton, PA. The AP wrote, "Bombardier Bruce Crawford scored a direct hit while flying over this Central Pennsylvania town in an army bomber. He dropped a weighted letter into the backyard of his home.
The note that Bruce wrote sixty-three years ago was written high in the air in what Bruce described as "bumpy air" and delivered at 205 miles per hour. His pinpoint accuracy wasn't just confined to the airspace over Benton. Lt. Crawford received citations for meritorious service, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and three clusters. He completed 20 missions.
Now that you have read about one of the accomplishments of Bruce Crawford during World War II, you might want to view a video of another flying feat.
