Thirteen/WNET New York WLIW 21
New York War Stories : Your Memories. Your Words.

Untitled

Submitted by: Sylvia Berlin

A hot August (1943) sun was blistering my father's car roof as my parents and my sister and I were riding down to the Jersey shore (from Jersey City) to visit my aunt. My father felt that using the rationed gas would be good for my sister who was extremely worried about her husband who was a tail-gunner in a B-24 airplane in the European theatre. At one point in the car trip, my sister commented, 'I have such a funny feeling about Jack (her husband) today' and she shivered slightly.

I would remember that comment some weeks later when my sister received a cablegram from the government telling her that 'her husband was missing in action'. Subsequently, many months later, he was declared dead. Eventually, we found out that my sister's husband's plane was one of those that were shot down over the Ploesti oil fields in Romania is the beginning of August, 1943.