Atlas Twp.-Thirty-four times World War II Air Force gunner Eugene Honea and his B-24 crew flew bombing missions deep over enemy territory?34 times they returned.
‘Never fired a shot’never saw an enemy plane,? recalls Honea, now 85-years-old and a township resident. ‘I made it home.?
A Hornersville, Mo. native, Honea moved to Flint in 1925 with his parents and attended Flint Northern High School. After graduation in 1943 he was drafted into the Air Force.
‘About every male in high school was at the train station in Flint just a few weeks after graduation,? he said.
Honea reported to Fort Custer near Battle Creek. Then travled via railroad to Biloxi, Miss. and Keesler Air Force Base.
‘I washed out as a cadet in just a few weeks, but stayed on at a gunnery school,? he said. ‘We learned the silhouettes of aircraft’German, Japanese or American’I could identify the airplane by just an outline’there were hundreds of planes in the air.?
Later in 1943, Eugene, still stationed at Keesler, married Dorothy, a recent graduate of Bendle High School in Burton. The couple lived in the Biloxi area until he was moved to Boise, Idaho and Mountain Home Air Force Base. She moved back to the Flint area.
‘That’s where I met my crew in Idaho,? said Honea.
Honea was one of a 10-man crew on a B-24 Liberator aircraft. Powered by four Pratt & Whitney 14-cylinder radial engines with a 110-foot wingspan, the aircraft could deliver eight 1,600 pound bombs. The airplane also included eleven .50 caliber machine guns: three in the nose, two in the belly turret, two in a tail turret, two in a dorsal turret (just aft of the cockpit), and two in the waist.
Honea, then 18-years-old was in the front turret shooting one of the .50 caliber machine guns.
‘We practiced by shooting skeet with shotguns,? said Honea. ‘We also fired at ground targets’I was in the nose of the plane and worked on tracking targets.?
In early 1944, Honea and his crew flew from Idaho on the northern route through Ontario, Newfoundland, and Greenland to England.
‘When we landed in England they were in the middle of an air raid,? said Honea. ‘We lived in quonset huts near Rackheath airfield and flew missions out over occupied France and Germany. My crew flew 35 missions and I was only sick for one mission. We made it back safe through them all’there was a lot of flack shot up at us at 21,000 feet. The Germans would shoot up at us and the bombs would go off near us’that’s how they knew where to shoot. It was like a marker in the air to see how close they were getting to us. I saw planes get hit and crash from my vantage point in the front of the plane I had a great view of what was going on down below.?
‘We flew in groups on missions over a target and were kept safe by the P-51 Mustang, a long-range single-seat fighter aircraft. Those boys were wonderful’they did such a good job of keeping the Luftwaffe off us’although they were hurting pretty bad in the later stages of the war, I never saw a single German plane.?
‘We would fly our six-hour missions during the day while the RAF would fly at night. My crew was like a family? there was never a mean word between us, never any fighting.?
‘I never fired a shot from my .50 caliber through all those missions,? said Honea. ‘I would have enjoyed myself more during the war had I known I would make it back safely’I envisioned a telegram arriving for my wife and mother telling that I was killed in action. I thought too about how hard she would take it, but it just never happened.?
Honea recalled a bombing mission that was shortened due to a malfunction in the ordnance release mechanism’the problem forced his plane to fall out of formation and return to Rackheath airfield with two live 1,000 pound bombs still on the aircraft.
‘I was in the front turret when we landed, there were emergency vehicles all over the airfield,? he said. ‘When we touched down, one of the bombs dislodged from our airplane and bounced down the runway’it never detonated. I’m still here aren’t I??
‘Our crew was then known as the crew who bombed our own airfield’it was the big joke.?
In May 1945, Honea returned from Europe via the Ile De France, a converted French ocean liner.
‘Many slept on deck, I had a hammock to sleep on inside the ship.?
‘When I returned the women had taken all our jobs,? he said.
Honea and his wife Dorothy raised three children. They moved to the township 29 years ago.
‘The crew stayed in touch through the years’I think just our captain and I are still alive.?