“Heavy Date Over Germany” will be the next quarterly program of the North Texas World War II History Roundtable. Jewellee Jordan Kuenstler, director of the Museum of the West Texas Frontier in Stamford, Texas, will present the life and times of B-17 tail gunner Ray Perry. He flew missions over various Nazi targets in 1944 and 1945. The program will be at 7 p.m. April 25 at the Audie Murphy /American Cotton Museum in Greenville. Members and public are invited. Greenville Electric Utility System (GEUS) is the Charter Gold Sponsor for this program.
Perry, the father of former Texas Governor Rick Perry, joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1944 after high school graduation, hoping to qualify for a pilot’s seat. However, his top notch shooting ability learned from years of growing up on a farm in Haskell County earned him a seat as a tail gunner in the 4-engine Flying Fortress called Heavy Date.
The assigned craft flew hundreds of missions per week out of bases located in England. If an individual crew completed a certain number of flights, usually 35, they earned extended furlough and on to another assignment. Perry completed his missions with the 95th Bomb Group at Horham, England a month before the war in Europe was over.
In his rear position Perry got a wide angle view of missions and targets. At the same time he received much flak and German fighter attacks aimed at his position. The tail gun was no comfortable seat, even for a teenager; in fact, it required sitting with knees bent on a small bench, almost impossible to reach from the interior of the bomber. Seven to ten hour trips were to targets from Bochum to Leipzig to Hannover to Frankfurt and other unknown small towns where war machine parts were manufactured. All that time just to drop 15 minutes of munitions over factories. What a way to tour Germany! Unlike many, he came back alive and with no injuries.
Kuenstler bases her book on letters and photos saved by Perry, who was a neighbor to her family. The story weaves around the bomb tag information Perry kept. Adding in war source material, the book was produced by State House Press and distributed by Texas A&M Press. It is available in print or digital form. This is the fourth program sponsored by the Roundtable. Previously the studies have been on Hitler’s health problems, the generals hired by George Marshall, and the land attack through Italy by the 36th division. Now the view of WWII is from the air.