B-24 Radio Operator Duties?

Hey all,

I am doing some research on a friend's grandfather. He was a radio operator in the 8th Air Force on a B-24 and had his first and only mission in February 45. His plane developed engine problems after the bombing run and they were forced to crash land in occupied Holland. He was captured and spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft 13D and Stalag 7A. He, along with the thousands of other POWs, were later liberated by the 14th Armored. Patton himself visited the day after, pearl handled pistols and all.

My questions is regarding the specific duties of a radio operator. I have found a number of vet's stories regarding this, but no specific duties. Some of the duties I have found include:
The job of the radio operator on a B-24, besides radio communication and alternating with the flight engineer on manning the top turret guns, included checking for bomb hangups in the bay after the bomb run.

Releasing chaff to mess up the German's radar. I don't know if all B-24 radiomen did this along with the crew engineer, which is why I am asking for clarification.

I found the duties of B-17 radio operators and I am wondering if all radio operators had the same duties:
Render position reports every 30 minutes.
Assist the navigator in taking fixes.
Keep the liaison and command sets properly tuned and in good operating order.
Understand from an operational point of view:
Instrument landing
IFF
VHF
and other navigational aids equipment in the airplane.
Maintain a log.


If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated. From what I have read, the radio operators didn't do all that much in comparison to the rest of the crew, but I'd like to have a more concise list of duties and responsibilities. Also, can you please clear up what the 10 positions were on the B-24? A pilot, co-pilot, navigator, bombardier, radio operator, crew mechanic and 4 gunners? Thanks!

 

B-24 Crew positions:
Officers:
Pilot
Co-pilot
Navigator
Bombardier

Enlisted:
Top Turret Gunner
Nose Gunner
Tail Gunner
Ball Turret Gunner
Left Waist Gunner
Right Waist Gunner


Among the six enlisted crewmen, each crew typically had three specialist:
Flight Engineer, Radio Operator and Aircraft Armorer. The Flight Engineer typically manned the top turret as it was closest to his station, but that was not an absolute. Sometimes the flight engineer would be one of the waist gunners. The Radio Operator was usually one of the waist gunners, but sometimes the nose gunner (hardly ever the ball turret or tail gunner as those positions would limit access to the radios). The Armorer was usually a waist gunner, but he could be assigned to any gun position. The Armorer was trained in maintenance of all of the gun positions, bomb racks, etc. He along with the Bombardier was responsible for arming the bombs. Many times the other gunners were rated as Assistant Flight Engineer, Assistant Radio Operator, etc.

Lead Crews (and deputy leads) would have a dedicated Radio Operator at the position at all times. They would handle radio communications for the Group. In other crews in the formation, the radio operator would only be at the radio if necessary, if the aircraft had to leave the formation, for instance. He would be responsible for setting up the radios for each flight but would not remain at the radios. The pilots could monitor the command frequencys so it would not be necessary for the radio operator to remain at the radio station. He would be manning his assigned gun while in hostile territory.

Chaff was dispensed by the waist gunners, who might or might not be RO's.

The Radio Operator's Information File that "Opanapointer" gave you the link for will give you much informaton regarding what they were trained to do, but unless he was on a lead crew, he probably didn't do all those things on each flight.

Do you have the Missing Aircrew Report for his flight?

 

Thanks for that link. I have the

Pilots Information File
Bombardiers Information File
Navigators Information File
Radar Observer's Bombardment Information File

but had not found that one.

The information files above along with other AAF documents can be found here:
WWII Army Air Forces Collection

 

Yes, I was actually able to find the missing action report!

MISSING AIRCREW REPORT: #12658 AIRCRAFT: #42-95241 "JOLLY DUCK" "G-Bar" 37th Mission

AIRCREW: WALKER * SQUADRON: 578th

CREW POSITIONS AND STATUS:

P 1/LT Walker, Joseph R. EVD
CP 2/LT Casstevens, Ralph C. EVD
B-N l/LT Donohue, John J. EVD
NG S/SGT Shea, Harold A. POW
R/O SGT Nagle, Francis J. POW
EnG S/SGT Hicks, Allan W. POW
WG S/SGT McCormick, John E. EVD-KIA
WG S/SGT Lingle, John A.H. POW
TG S/SGT Duerr, Elmer E. EVD
MISSION LOSS CIRCUMSTANCES: Lt. Downs, Pilot 578th, gave this brief account after this mission: "(Pilot) reported over VHF that he was low on gas and had #3 feathered; time 1454 hours, 20,000 feet. Said he would try to make Belgium. Later the 2nd Air Division reported they (Hqs) had received an S.O.S. from this plane". German Report #KU3721, Hqs Soesterberg, reported the crash landing site of this aircraft as being (4) kilometers south of the village of Lieden, Holland, (near the North Sea coastline) with the plane 70% damaged. Crash time was 1518 hours. Supplementary German reports to this one noted additionally that (9) of the crew members had been accounted for with (4) taken prisoner almost immediately, and the remaining (5) were still at large by evading capture. The names of the evading crewmen had been obtained from the prisoners according to these reports. (Later it would be confirmed that one of the evading members, Sgt. McCormick, had been killed by enemy forces on 29 April 1945 while attempting to aid an underground partisan).

INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS OF CREWMEN FATES: Lt. Walker, the Pilot, later after returning from Evadee status, gave a brief account of what did happen to him and his crew during and after their crash landing. He indicated their plane left the Group formation over the Zuider Zee in Holland and "because of light arms fire (subsequently experienced) from the ground, no one bailed out and we rode her down". He noted the plane had landed about (12) miles north of Voorbury, Holland and every crew member was in his correct position at the time of the crash landing. He indicated that he knew but little about most of his crewmen as "not many of the boys I had were from crews that I knew" (Casstevens, the Co-Pilot, it is noted was also on the Lt. Kaiser crew that had the airborne emergency and abandoned /crash landed a ship on the 1 January 1945 mission to Engers). Lt. Walker in continuing his report stated that perhaps some of his crew men had sustained some minor injuries during the crash episode, but none serious as far as he knew. He noted that he, his Co-Pilot Casstevens, Bombardier- Navigator Lt. Donohue, Waist Gunner McCormick and Tail Gunner Duerr were able to escape capture and succeeded in getting picked up in the Dutch underground network and evade. He knew (ostensibly through his partisan contacts) that the other members had been taken prisoner shortly after their crash landing. He also noted as well that, Sgt. McCormick, later, and just a few days before V-E Day, on 29 April had been killed by the Germans while attempting to help a Dutch woman resist arrest. Much later, a letter dated 3 March 1946 and written by Sgt. McCormick’s Father to Hqs Army Air Forces, Washington D.C. related the following: "I herewith enclose the enclosed for me pertaining to First Lieut. John J. Donohue, 0-769106, Bombard. Nav, which apparently was sent to me by mistake and could not be intended for my late boy - S/Sgt. John E. McCormick, 3056668-who was killed in action in Holland on the 29th day of April 1945. He was reported as missing since Feb. 22nd. That was the date on which his plane was brought down in Holland due to low fuel, Lt. Donahue was one of the other members of the crew. According to Mr. A. Van Der Poel, Le Ylingerhorstlaan, 13 Wassenmaar near The Hague, Holland, my boy was the first to jump out of the (crashed) plane, and who stated that he disappeared suddenly and hid in a hay barn for (4) days. He did not want to give himself up. I am enclosing a letter Mr. A. Van Der Poel sent to the War Department, Washington, D.C., and it was sent to me together with an illustration (diagram) of where the plane came down. He saw it coming down and went over to see them. I am enclosing that illustration together with a clipping about my boy’s heroic action. I Remain Sir, Very Sincerely Yours, (signed) John McCormick, 746 Madison Avenue, Scranton 10, PA." Click here for "The John McCormick Story".

BURIAL RECORDS: S/Sgt McCormick is buried in the courtyard of the Dutch Reformed Church in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands, next to Dutch resistance fighters Jacob van Rij (who was killed in the same firefight) and Cornelis van Eerden and Jan Hoorn (both killed on May 4, 1945). The four men share a headstone with a Dutch epitaph that means "Faithful to their Fatherland."

NEXT OF KIN DATA IN WWII: No record available in this crew MACR.

 

Also, I have found information stating that on a B-24, the R/O and Engineer would alternate manning the top turret. However, I'm sure they would also man waist guns if needed.

 

Standard B-24 crew assignments were as my previous post. However, the 392nd Bomb Group was one of the 8th AF groups that removed the ball turret from B-24s late war. The 392nd crews flew without a ball turret gunner but included a radio operator not assigned to any gun position. As such, it would make sense for the RO to cover the top turret when the flight engineer was performing duties as F/E, but this was not SOP otherwise.

Chaff was tossed out the waist windows through much of 1944. Late in that year, B-17's had chaff dispenser chutes installed in the radio compartment, and B-24's had chutes installed in the waist. Most B-24 groups still had the waist gunners dispense chaff. The 392nd practice could have been different.

Nagle had apparently just made Seargent. The AAF pages of the MACR refer to him as such, but the KU reports (German capture notifications) within the MACR refer to Nagle as Corporal. His ID must have still listed him as CPL, as this is what the Germans would have reported from.

The 392nd listing of the MACR is incorrect in that the next of kin data is included in the actual MACR.

 

Where was the radio equipment located? Aft of the bomb bay like in the B-17? Seems like crewmen would have to run back and forth through the bomb bay to man various stations.

 

The B-24 had the radio table and equipment just aft of the flight deck, ahead of the bomb bay.

 

The radio station was behind and below where the copilot sat on the starboard side.

 

So, as of what I have found, it is safe to assume unless a radio operator was on the lead plane, they didn't do all that much. So, and correct me if I'm wrong, their main responsibilities were:
Keeping the radio on the correct frequency. I read from one account that, for the most part, radio silence was practiced.
Listening to transmissions from lead planes and relaying it to the pilot (I assume?)
Manning turrets/waist guns when necessary
Helping dispense chaff (not always and depending on the crew)
Making sure all of the bombs dropped out of the bomb bay.

So, other than sending out an SOS or letting the formation know that had to leave the formation, when would they transmit? After the bombing run to headquarters? I guess my main question now is when, if ever, would the radio operators who were not the lead of the formation transmit? Also, what would they be listening to on their radios then if they for the most part practiced radio silence?

From a Vet's account:
My duty was mainly to observe and listen to the radio, except when I would man the top turret in place of the engineer. All of our communication with the base would be by code only. As would be typical, German radio was broadscasting in plain English on some radio bands, telling us we were losing and so on. But for us radio silence was required on most of the mission. Other than knowing that my radio equipment was working and on the proper frequencies I rarely ever transmitted during our missions. I would only transmit during an emergency or unless we were lead crew, which only happened twice, at which time we were responsible for a couple of notifications to base and other crews. I am not sure of which missions we were lead, but the two times we did I had contact with home base on a specific frequency and reported when formed, when all groups in formation and headed for destination, then radio silence until leaving target when I would report that the mission was accomplished. I guess it might have been considered an honor to fly lead but I'm sure we all felt safer when in the middle of the formation.

My duties during the bomb run also were dangerous. Normally I maintained radio contact with the base and would alternate with the engineer in manning the turret guns when enemy fighters appeared. But not when we were on the bomb run. On the bomb run I would be at the bomb bay to make sure all the bombs dropped.


Funny story that I actually read in an Ambrose book on B-24s, one radio operator who, per protocol, was changing frequencies so the Germans couldn't find it, actually stumbled upon a German transmitting to a fighter squadron about the approaching bombers. Since he spoke German, he actually transmitted to them to disregard the orders and return to base. Apparently, this happened a few times in the war.

 

The pilots could monitor and transmit over the voice radio and would normally be set up to the command frequency. The radio operator might be tasked to monitor other frequencies, say the escort fighter's freq, etc. They would also help listen for mission recall code words, etc. Any coded messages sent over the radio-telegraph would fall strictly in the RO's domain. Also, he would operate the direction finding equipment as needed.

It appears the 392nd used the dedicated radio operator as an assistant to the navigator, bombardier and flight engineer as needed. SOP in other groups was to have the RO man one of the six gun positions during normal circumstances.

Practices varied from group to group. Normally, the F/E was also the top turret gunner. I know of one 15th AF bomb group that flew with a dedicated F/E and a separate top turret gunner.

 

Thank you so much for all of this great and very helpful information!