CONTRIBUTED PHOTO -Harold “Hap” Houlihan, middle, pictured with the rest of his B-24 crew. After his service in WWII, Houlihan moved to Marshalltown and worked for the MPD from 1951 until his retirement in 1976.

May 25, 1944

Harold (Hap) Francis Houlihan, small town Iowa grocery man, only five years removed from his high school graduation, found himself 85 miles north of London, England in the rural English countryside at Old Buckenham air base turning in early to get ready for his 5:30 a.m. breakfast call before the 6 a.m. briefing for his 12th mission of the war the next morning. More than 100 of his buddies in the 453rd Bomb Group, 733rd Bombardment Squadron shared his corrugated metal barracks that looked like a tin can split lengthwise.

The barracks, which were 16 feet wide, eight feet high in the center, and 30 feet long were cold in winter and hot in summer and crowded as only officers had single cots while enlisted men were double-bunked. Since Hap knew he was flying the next day, the base bar and nearby small town pubs were off-limits so perhaps he journeyed to the post theater which showed movies 5 days a week or maybe a trip to the Aero Club, operated by the Red Cross which had a snack bar and games. He also may have stayed in the barracks thinking about the fresh eggs and hot cakes for breakfast the next morning.

Since the 453rd had recently gotten a new operations officer, the food had improved and that was just one of the reasons the troops liked the officer, a tall lanky fellow originally from Pennsylvania but lately from California — a guy by the name of Jimmy Stewart whose quiet confidence and tremendous flying skills were already becoming equal in the troops’ view to his movie star reputation.

Hap ready for duty.

Hap had entered the Army Air Force in late 1942 and had trained first as an aerial gunner at Tyndall Field in Florida and then was sent to Wendover Field in Utah where he had his first actual flight on Nov. 7, 1943 in a B-24 Liberator bomber that would become his vehicle for 31 missions in the war. After continued training flying over and around the mountains in Utah, Hap was promoted on Dec. 1, 1943 to Sergeant.

In February 1944, Hap joined a crew to ferry a shiny unpainted B-24H bomber over to England. His crew picked up the plane in Kansas and flew to South America and then to Dakar, Africa and then on to Old Buckenham Air Base.

His dreams of flying that spanking new shiny plane into combat were dashed as soon as the crew arrived at Old Buck where they were informed that they would be flying one of the flak-damaged beat-up planes already there just as soon as one of them could be repaired. The 453rd was riding the crest of the greatest industrial military build-up in history and the influx of planes, material, and men were overwhelming the available bases. Lending urgency to the late winter and spring build-up were the preparations to support the expected invasion of Europe which meant that the 453rd would not only continue their strategic bombing of Germany’s war factories but also would increasingly target tactical areas like railroad yards and fighter airfields to prevent German responses to the upcoming invasion. A separate targeting area also was beginning to emerge as intelligence began getting reports of German rockets (V1s at first and then the more deadly V2s) that could be fired from French sites and rain explosives on London and other English targets.

The Hot Stuff B-24 bomber that Hap flew.

In the early years of the war, the decision to conduct strategic bombing was made despite the knowledge that the losses of planes and men would be high because the bombers lacked fighter planes that could escort them all the way to and from Germany leaving them vulnerable to German Luftwaffe fighters and deadly anti-aircraft fire called “flak”. On Hap’s first mission (April 8, 1944 to bomb factories in Brunswick, Germany), his outfit lost seven planes out of 32 ships dispatched.

The seven planes and crews lost by the 453rd that day were only one part of the story. The 2nd Air Division put up 350 planes that day. Of these, 303 bombed their target, dropped nearly 800 tons of high explosive bombs and claimed 58 German fighters shot down, 9 probably shot down, and 32 damaged. In the process the 2nd Air Division lost 30 B-24s with 300 crewmen MIA. It was a bad day! Fortunately for Hap, the Army Air Force was getting more and more of the P-51 Mustang fighter planes which had the range and ability to cover and protect the bombers all the way to and from Germany which lessened the Luftwaffe’s ability to target the bombers. Of course the Germans still had the deadly anti-aircraft guns that protected most of the targets.

A fellow 453rd officer named Jones recalled the grim reality of flying missions in the spring of 1944: He said, “We knew the ‘Angel of Death’ rode with us on every mission. Yet we managed in one way or another to cope — mainly, I think, we just believed it would not be our time – or we just learned to sweat it out.”

Jones explained, “Planes and their crews were lost in many ways: some didn’t make it on take-off — overloaded, under-powered, mechanical failure, foggy, icy runways — others collided when flying up to the formation altitude or while making the assembly before heading for the continent. Others were lost to GAF fighters or to anti-aircraft fire.”

“But” he said, “the most sickening sight I ever saw was the loss of two B-24s and their crews on one of our missions. Our formation was making its way toward the target, encountering some flak, but nothing unusual. Looking out the pilot’s window, watching the other bombers, moving along, seemingly O.K., then I saw that one B-24 was drifting toward the rear of another to its right. I was aghast! The plane continued its drift; the other showed no awareness of the event. Then the plane just drifted into the rear end of the other plane and chewed its way right up to the trailing edge of the wing. Then both airplanes went down. What a nauseating sight! The terror those men must have felt when they realized the two would collide – and then were chewed up by the propellers. I can’t imagine why that happened. Perhaps the pilot and co-pilot were both killed or incapacitated.” After telling of this dreadful event, Jones paused for a long moment, sighed deeply and muttered, “Awful, awful.”

Hap’s position as a waist gunner on the B-24 in a crew of 10 also served as an armorer to the other gunners and he ensured that a steady supply of ammunition was available to all. The right and left waist gunners had no turret — just an open window. The window fastened overhead when open. On the forward edge of each waist window, a deflector lessened the effect of the 150 mph wind stream. It was difficult to hold, aim, and fire the gun. The gunner, as did all gunners, had to be careful not to shoot off parts of the plane and not to hit another plane in the formation. The gunners’ standing positions were opposite each other. At times they bumped each other when in action. Spent shell casings littered the floor during action and at times, caused a gunner to slip and fall.

On the morning of May 25, 1944, Hap joined the other crewmen of the B-24H named “Hot Stuff” for the briefing on where they were headed, and after take-off, joined up with other planes from the 453rd and then settled in for what became a 7 hour and 6 minute flight, about average length for most of his missions. A description of what the crews faced from fellow 453rd officer Jones on the typical flight was as follows:

“To fly high, the crews needed oxygen. Oxygen was piped to every crew position. Portable oxygen canisters were also located within the aircraft for use when a crewman had to leave his station.

No heat was provided in the plane. It was always cold at operating altitudes — minus 40° or lower. On early missions, frostbite had been a serious problem. One of the measures taken to solve this problem was to require crewmen to wear protective clothing. “First we put on our regular long-john underwear, then electrically-heated blue long underwear and heated shoes. Over the electric underwear went the flying suit. This was a dark green “Ike” jacket and matching pants. We plugged into a socket located at our crew positions. Next we put on heavy fur-lined boots, and, of course, we had fur-lined gloves. As if this wasn’t enough to immobilize us, we also wore or carried a “Mae West” (to inflate in the event we ditched at sea), a parachute harness, an escape kit, and other items. Some wore steel flak helmets but I wore a fur-lined cap or helmet. Believe it or not, we got along pretty well with this apparel. But, frankly, it was a hell of a nuisance if one had to urinate, and even worse, God forbid, if one got the “GIs” while on a mission!” “That happened once and I made the guy clean up the mess. I also excused him from the debriefing upon our return to base, for obvious reasons.”

The May 25 mission encountered bad weather over the primary target at Troyes, France and diverted to the railroad yards at Terrenes, France. An account of the mission was reported in an historical review of the 453rd as follows:

“On 25 May 1944, 24 Libs in two combat squadron formations of 12 each, led by Major James M. Stewart, pointed their blunt noses toward the marshaling yards at Troyes, France. Each plane carried 10×500 lb bombs. The first squadron flew past Troyes and bombed Terrennes due to the interference of weather. The second squadron held their lethal cargo until Bretigny airfield, the secondary target, appeared in the bomb-sights. Bombs rained on the center of the target as briefed. Despite moderate accurate flak, all planes returned safely.”

Hap was probably in the first squadron of that mission. He continued to fly missions thru the end of July attacking a variety of targets in France and Germany, including 2 missions over Munich. The 453rd support for the D-Day invasion was evident in missions over France on June 4, June 6 (D-Day) and June 7. His total of 31 missions flown in 3 and ½ months was slightly higher than the normal 25 missions required of an airman at the time and on July 25, 1944 he made his last flight over St. Lo, France giving him a total of 181 hours and 59 minutes of combat flying time. The day before, July 24, 1944, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (the Army Air Force’s 3rd highest medal at the time) by Colonel Charles B.Westover. In typical Army fashion, the award commendation was screwed up, calling him a nose gunner rather than the waist gunner he actually was, but I doubt Staff Sergeant Hap Houlihan cared much, he knew he was going home soon!

After Hap’s discharge, he returned to western Iowa and resumed his grocery career, eventually moving to South Dakota and then coming to Marshalltown. In 1951, he joined the Marshalltown Police Force and met and married Harriet Konken, a nurse originally from Grundy County who also had served overseas in WWII as an Army nurse. Together they had four children. During her war service, Harriet ended up being promoted to a 1st Lieutenant position and she later liked to point out that she out-ranked Hap!

Harriet Konken Houlihan also served as an Army nurse during WWII.

He served as a policeman until he retired in 1976. He had numerous exploits as a policeman, including surviving a police car crash during a chase that killed a fellow officer and becoming the force’s first school resource officer and bicycle safety officer. He was well-known in the community from that and his service as Saturday morning traffic director at Main and Center streets, which allowed him to interact with the community which he so loved. After retirement from the police force, he resumed his grocery career part-time at Hy-Vee and enjoyed his kids and grandkids. He died in 1996 at the age of 74.