Veteran Interview with Leon McCrary (D)
(5:58) Mr. McCrary discusses his experiences during bombing raids over Europe while sharing photos from his time in the Army during World War II.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Interview with Leon McCrary March 12, 2010 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood Clip 4 Leon McC...
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| Format: | Electronic |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/118 |
| format |
Electronic |
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| collection |
War Years at Home and Abroad Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
| publisher |
Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
| topic |
Military life |
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Military life Veteran Interview with Leon McCrary (D) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Military life World War 1939-1945; Airplanes, Military |
| description |
(5:58) Mr. McCrary discusses his experiences during bombing raids over Europe while sharing photos from his time in the Army during World War II.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library
Interview with Leon McCrary
March 12, 2010
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 4
Leon McCrary: This was our book. Here’s one of them; here’s the picture. Oh, our, our plane’s name was Homesick Angel. There’s that picture I was looking for.
Clint Alley: Okay, that’s the whole crew there.
LM: Yeah. Um-hm.
CA: Which one are you?
LM: That one.
CA: That one there. Okay.
LM: And the one next to me is that tail gunner I was telling you about.
CA: Um-hm. Did he just pass out that time? What happened to him there?
LM: Um-hm. He just passed out.
CA: Just passed out.
LM: When you’re above ten thousand feet you have to have oxygen.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: And if you don’t have it, you’ll just go to sleep.
CA: So did y’all primarily go after military targets or was it like industrial targets?
LM: Industrial targets.
CA: Industrial? Okay.
LM: The 8th Air Force did daylight bombing and, and people said that it couldn’t work, you know, and it didn’t work until the P-51 fighter plane was brought into service and that, that plane could go all the way to the target with us and after that, although one time, we were attacked by German jets and they flew right through my group. In fact, I was in the top turret and this plane flew right by us and, and I could see the pilot, in the German jet, and they just moved, they were moving so fast – we, you know, we could go like maybe 275 or 300; they could go 600 or something. But I, there’s no way I could have missed hitting that— I’m shooting at this fellow with a, with twin 50 caliber machine guns in that turret. I can see tracers going all around him and I don’t know if I hit him or not. I said, I asked the pilot later, I said, “Where did he go after he got through?” He said, “Well, when he went through he just turned and went straight down,” which would, could have been because he was hit and it could have been cause that was a good way to get away.
CA: Um-hm. Yeah.
LM: So I never knew.
CA: Wow.
LM: But, anyway.
CA: So were they still doing runs on Britain at that time, when you were there or had they—
LM: Yes.
CA: —stopped that? Okay.
LM: They were, the rockets, V-2s. I went to London one time during—I was only there like nine months, and I went to London one time and you could hear them coming, you know, and then they’d, when they’d start going putt-putt-putt, that’s when they were getting ready to crash. Well, London was just totally blacked out. I mean, you’d get down there and we couldn’t see anything and then suddenly somebody beside us said, “Would you like a cab or would you—“? But, every, everyone would head for the bomb shelters and us new Americans, we’d look, run out and see if we could see them. We, we never went to a bomb shelter, we didn’t know any better. Well, we did know better, but we didn’t.
CA: Eager to see it, I guess.
LM: No. Well, it was, it was dark so we couldn’t see it, well, we could have, probably could have if we’d have been watching the rocket, but, ah—.
CA: So they were, they were launching rockets; they weren’t doing fighter plane runs or anything?
LM: No. Unh-uh. No the fighter plane—I tell you, the British people were really something, you know that. They really were. I, I don’t know how in the world they beat the German air, air corps like they did. But, they were fighting over their homes, you know, and if they got shot down and were able to bail out, they’d just go get another plane. But I’m convinced that we had a lot of heroic people in the Ar—, in the United States services. But I can tell you how we won the war. We out-produced them. We produced thousands of planes and tanks and ships and everything and, and they could no longer, they couldn’t match it. All the nice women were out working in the factories and everything. This, this is, that’s the picture I found on my refrigerator. This is the one my friends always kid me about here. I remember when it was run they said, they’d say, “I can just see you up there in the open cockpit with a, your, ah,—”
CA: Scarf?
LM: “—scarf blowing in the wind.” Oh, me.
CA: That’s a, that’s a good picture. Well, do you know what kind of ordinance y’all typically dropped?
LM: I don’t, I tell you, I really don’t know. They weren’t ve—they weren’t, ah, terribly big, you know, as far as the blockbusters that you see sometimes.
CA: Wasn’t it about this time they were experimenting with, ah, was it the incend—, incendiary bombs that, that caused the firestorms and, ah—
LM: The, ah, they used that mostly, I think, in Japan.
CA: In Japan? Okay. Okay.
LM: Although, I think that one time, I think in Dresden one time they claimed that we fire bombed Dresden. I wasn’t on that mission, then. That was late in the war.
CA: Yeah. Okay. That, that’s your plane there?
LM: Um-hm. That’s it.
Rhonda Haygood: Did you have much communication with the people back home while you were over there?
LM: No. We couldn’t. We’d send, you sent e-mail, uh, it wasn’t e-mail, what did they call it?
RH: V-mail?
CA: V-mail.
LM: V-mail. V-mails. Yeah. These are actual photos right here.
CA: Now this picture here with all the planes, is that your, your entire group there?
LM: No, no. That’s a—we put up twenty-four planes and then we’ve, we’ve had a thousand-plane raids.
CA: Wow.
LM: I, in, in my top turret, I could see planes as far as I could see them, behind me.
Leon McCrary during World War II. CA: Wow.
LM: And here’s, there’s pictures of, of flak, ah, anti-aircraft. |
| title |
Veteran Interview with Leon McCrary (D) |
| titleStr |
Veteran Interview with Leon McCrary (D) |
| author |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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FLCPLwar118 |
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https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/118 |
| thumbnail |
http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/war/id/118 |
| _version_ |
1705462192716906496 |
| spelling |
Veteran Interview with Leon McCrary (D)World War 1939-1945;
Airplanes, Military(5:58) Mr. McCrary discusses his experiences during bombing raids over Europe while sharing photos from his time in the Army during World War II.Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryLeon McCrary2010-03-12sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishPart of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library CollectionMay be protected by U.S. Copyright laws. Contact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library
Interview with Leon McCrary
March 12, 2010
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 4
Leon McCrary: This was our book. Here’s one of them; here’s the picture. Oh, our, our plane’s name was Homesick Angel. There’s that picture I was looking for.
Clint Alley: Okay, that’s the whole crew there.
LM: Yeah. Um-hm.
CA: Which one are you?
LM: That one.
CA: That one there. Okay.
LM: And the one next to me is that tail gunner I was telling you about.
CA: Um-hm. Did he just pass out that time? What happened to him there?
LM: Um-hm. He just passed out.
CA: Just passed out.
LM: When you’re above ten thousand feet you have to have oxygen.
CA: Um-hm.
LM: And if you don’t have it, you’ll just go to sleep.
CA: So did y’all primarily go after military targets or was it like industrial targets?
LM: Industrial targets.
CA: Industrial? Okay.
LM: The 8th Air Force did daylight bombing and, and people said that it couldn’t work, you know, and it didn’t work until the P-51 fighter plane was brought into service and that, that plane could go all the way to the target with us and after that, although one time, we were attacked by German jets and they flew right through my group. In fact, I was in the top turret and this plane flew right by us and, and I could see the pilot, in the German jet, and they just moved, they were moving so fast – we, you know, we could go like maybe 275 or 300; they could go 600 or something. But I, there’s no way I could have missed hitting that— I’m shooting at this fellow with a, with twin 50 caliber machine guns in that turret. I can see tracers going all around him and I don’t know if I hit him or not. I said, I asked the pilot later, I said, “Where did he go after he got through?” He said, “Well, when he went through he just turned and went straight down,” which would, could have been because he was hit and it could have been cause that was a good way to get away.
CA: Um-hm. Yeah.
LM: So I never knew.
CA: Wow.
LM: But, anyway.
CA: So were they still doing runs on Britain at that time, when you were there or had they—
LM: Yes.
CA: —stopped that? Okay.
LM: They were, the rockets, V-2s. I went to London one time during—I was only there like nine months, and I went to London one time and you could hear them coming, you know, and then they’d, when they’d start going putt-putt-putt, that’s when they were getting ready to crash. Well, London was just totally blacked out. I mean, you’d get down there and we couldn’t see anything and then suddenly somebody beside us said, “Would you like a cab or would you—“? But, every, everyone would head for the bomb shelters and us new Americans, we’d look, run out and see if we could see them. We, we never went to a bomb shelter, we didn’t know any better. Well, we did know better, but we didn’t.
CA: Eager to see it, I guess.
LM: No. Well, it was, it was dark so we couldn’t see it, well, we could have, probably could have if we’d have been watching the rocket, but, ah—.
CA: So they were, they were launching rockets; they weren’t doing fighter plane runs or anything?
LM: No. Unh-uh. No the fighter plane—I tell you, the British people were really something, you know that. They really were. I, I don’t know how in the world they beat the German air, air corps like they did. But, they were fighting over their homes, you know, and if they got shot down and were able to bail out, they’d just go get another plane. But I’m convinced that we had a lot of heroic people in the Ar—, in the United States services. But I can tell you how we won the war. We out-produced them. We produced thousands of planes and tanks and ships and everything and, and they could no longer, they couldn’t match it. All the nice women were out working in the factories and everything. This, this is, that’s the picture I found on my refrigerator. This is the one my friends always kid me about here. I remember when it was run they said, they’d say, “I can just see you up there in the open cockpit with a, your, ah,—”
CA: Scarf?
LM: “—scarf blowing in the wind.” Oh, me.
CA: That’s a, that’s a good picture. Well, do you know what kind of ordinance y’all typically dropped?
LM: I don’t, I tell you, I really don’t know. They weren’t ve—they weren’t, ah, terribly big, you know, as far as the blockbusters that you see sometimes.
CA: Wasn’t it about this time they were experimenting with, ah, was it the incend—, incendiary bombs that, that caused the firestorms and, ah—
LM: The, ah, they used that mostly, I think, in Japan.
CA: In Japan? Okay. Okay.
LM: Although, I think that one time, I think in Dresden one time they claimed that we fire bombed Dresden. I wasn’t on that mission, then. That was late in the war.
CA: Yeah. Okay. That, that’s your plane there?
LM: Um-hm. That’s it.
Rhonda Haygood: Did you have much communication with the people back home while you were over there?
LM: No. We couldn’t. We’d send, you sent e-mail, uh, it wasn’t e-mail, what did they call it?
RH: V-mail?
CA: V-mail.
LM: V-mail. V-mails. Yeah. These are actual photos right here.
CA: Now this picture here with all the planes, is that your, your entire group there?
LM: No, no. That’s a—we put up twenty-four planes and then we’ve, we’ve had a thousand-plane raids.
CA: Wow.
LM: I, in, in my top turret, I could see planes as far as I could see them, behind me.
Leon McCrary during World War II. CA: Wow.
LM: And here’s, there’s pictures of, of flak, ah, anti-aircraft.http://server15947.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/war,118 |