Amendola Air Base

[seesul]

Hi ya all,

does anyone from you guys have pictures of Amendola Air Base (Italy, near Foggia) taken during WW2, especialy in year 1944?

Many thanks in advance!

[soalebm]

I am currently researching the surrounding Foggia area including amendola. If you want some good information and have the names of the crews or missions go to the 2nd bomb group website and click on database. A man named Loy Dickinson who flew with them helped me out a bunch. He even wrote a wonderful book i'm in the middle of reading now. His email is on the site.
Brandon

[seesul]

Originally Posted by soalebm

I am currently researching the surrounding Foggia area including amendola. If you want some good information and have the names of the crews or missions go to the 2nd bomb group website and click on database. A man named Loy Dickinson who flew with them helped me out a bunch. He even wrote a wonderful book i'm in the middle of reading now. His email is on the site.
Brandon

Brandon,
That´s Loy and me in 2004 in my born town at the mass grave of 28 US airmen KIA on Aug 29,1944. I´m that crazy guy with the white T-shirt. Sorry for the poor quality of that picture. You can find this picture on by you mentioned web sites Second Bomb Group at War Stories, where there´s a pretty long article written by Loy after he got back from this visit. I´m still in touch with him and he probably will visit us next year again, when there´s a 65th aniversary of that battle over White Carpathian. Loy also bailed out on that day and landed few miles away from my born town.
That guy in my siggy (Joe) was in the same crew with Loy. Visited me here twice (2005 and 2007). That all thanks to Loy that got us in touch and thanks to Internet.

[soalebm]

Loy is a very helpful man. I am writing a book about the 463rd 773rd on Oct. 13th 1944. The plane in focused on was called "Never Satisfied" and I am in contact with six remaining crew members including the pilot. I found Loy because I was looking for a man named Thayne Thomas (i think thats right) who had gone to flight school with the pilot of never Satisfied. If you have read Loy's book there is a good part about thayne being rescued by Partisans.

[seesul]

Originally Posted by soalebm

Loy is a very helpful man. I am writing a book about the 463rd 773rd on Oct. 13th 1944. The plane in focused on was called "Never Satisfied" and I am in contact with six remaining crew members including the pilot. I found Loy because I was looking for a man named Thayne Thomas (i think thats right) who had gone to flight school with the pilot of never Satisfied. If you have read Loy's book there is a good part about thayne being rescued by Partisans.

OMG, the world is small. Thayne Thomas was the only survivor from the B-17G "BIG TIME" that went down the same day as Loy´s machine. Thayne landed 3 miles away from my house and escaped to Slovakia. On Sept 17, 1944 evacuated from Tri Duby Airport (near Banska Bystrica) back to Foggia base.
Attached the pic of the waiting pilots to be evacuated, few minutes before taking off. Thayne Thomas is standing 4th from the right side...
At http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/avi...blic-9882.html (August 29,1944- museum in Sanov, Czech Republic) you can see the museum in Sanov that is 2 miles away from Thayne Thomas machine crash site...a lot of pieces from his machine there...
Have heard Thayne passed away...

[seesul]

...few pics of Thayne Thomas ''Big Time'' wreckage...

[seesul]

....crash site today...
That man at the monument is a friend of mine mentioned in my signature.

[seesul]

...my friend on the way to the crash site...
August 2007.

[seesul]

BTW, I´m in touch with a nephew of Dudley Standrigde, tail gunner of this machine, KIA.

Nice weekend!

[soalebm]

The picture of Thayne waiting to be sent back is great! Let me fill you in on what I'm doing. I am 22 years old and a senior at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I have ben deeply interested in WWII for a long time. I have been slowly collecting German artifacts of WWII almost all my life. My love for collecting led me to take a college course called war without mercy focused on the American campaign in the pacific. For the course I was supposed to interview a WWII veteran. So my father works with a man who said his uncle was in WWII. I went to the mans house and interviewed him. It turned out that he was in the 463rd 773rd stationed at foggia. He was shot down on Oct. 13th 1944 in a plane called "Never Satisfied" #44-6261. He had been lving in England for many years and had just moved back to the U.S. After a little research I stumbled onto an article from a Utah newspaper mentioning the plane's nickname. It included an honoree bio about a man who turned out to be the pilot. His name is Gale Patterson (He is the one who went to flight school with Thayne) and I called the university. They gave him my number and I reunited the two of them. Since that time Gale and I have found seven of his crewmembers in the United States. I am now trying to record each of their stories for a book about the crew and Foggia, airbase. One year ago I never would have thought it possible for seven crewmembers to be alive but its true. Gale told me a great story about Thayne. He said he was walking around foggia one day and saw Thayne sitting on a suitcase. He said , "I thought you were shot down?" Thayne replied, "Yeah I was and I was rescued by Pertisans. I just got back and I am not allowed to tell anyone about what hapened." Gale and I had hoped Thayne was still alive but he died 7 years ago. His widow instructed me to call Loy. Now I decided that I want to record the entire events of oct. 13th for the entire 5th bomb wing. All the groups, 2nd, 301st, 463rd, etc. I want to record as many stories as I can. If you have any info please let me know.
thanks Brandon

[seesul]

Originally Posted by soalebm

The picture of Thayne waiting to be sent back is great! Let me fill you in on what I'm doing. I am 22 years old and a senior at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I have ben deeply interested in WWII for a long time. I have been slowly collecting German artifacts of WWII almost all my life. My love for collecting led me to take a college course called war without mercy focused on the American campaign in the pacific. For the course I was supposed to interview a WWII veteran. So my father works with a man who said his uncle was in WWII. I went to the mans house and interviewed him. It turned out that he was in the 463rd 773rd stationed at foggia. He was shot down on Oct. 13th 1944 in a plane called "Never Satisfied" #44-6261. He had been lving in England for many years and had just moved back to the U.S. After a little research I stumbled onto an article from a Utah newspaper mentioning the plane's nickname. It included an honoree bio about a man who turned out to be the pilot. His name is Gale Patterson (He is the one who went to flight school with Thayne) and I called the university. They gave him my number and I reunited the two of them. Since that time Gale and I have found seven of his crewmembers in the United States. I am now trying to record each of their stories for a book about the crew and Foggia, airbase. One year ago I never would have thought it possible for seven crewmembers to be alive but its true. Gale told me a great story about Thayne. He said he was walking around foggia one day and saw Thayne sitting on a suitcase. He said , "I thought you were shot down?" Thayne replied, "Yeah I was and I was rescued by Pertisans. I just got back and I am not allowed to tell anyone about what hapened." Gale and I had hoped Thayne was still alive but he died 7 years ago. His widow instructed me to call Loy. Now I decided that I want to record the entire events of oct. 13th for the entire 5th bomb wing. All the groups, 2nd, 301st, 463rd, etc. I want to record as many stories as I can. If you have any info please let me know.
thanks Brandon

The whole and pretty long Thayne Thomas story is included in the
2nd BG history book Defenders of Liberty. This might be helpful for you for the start. If I´ll find something about him I´ll let you know yet...

[wilbur1]

All i gotta say guys..........is thank you .....and please keep it up love what you guys are lucky to be doing ..[ wish i could it myself, running my own business and being the only mechanick there makes it hard]

[seesul]

It´s a pleasure for me Wilbur.
Anyway Brandon, here are 2 pics more.
On the pic, where there are 3 men, there are from L-R- Thayne Thomas,Jan Surovec (Slovak soldier) and Bob Donahue. Bob was the tail gunner on the crew of my friend Joe Owsianik, and managed to escape as well after he was shot down.
On the group photo there´s Thayne Thomas in the middle, think you´ll be able to recognize him.
All these pics you can find at USA-GB , you only have to scroll the page down.
BTW, there´s a nice book OSS Tragedy In Slovakia written by Jim Downs describing also that rescue mission from Sept 17,1944.
I´m also in touch with Jim Downs, if you´re interested, I could send you his e-mail address...

[soalebm]

I understand Wilbur because i'm currently attempting to work on this WWII project and restore a 1964 Dodge Dart 270. I finished it two years ago but was not happy with the restoration so now I'm painting the engine compartment and putting in the original slant six. However the little 6 will be 320 hp to a 3.96 gear and 11" tires so this light little car should have some kick. Mopar or no Car!

[soalebm]

As for the the pictures thank you very much I just recieved some pictures of the plane and crew I am researching. They are not with me so I will post them as soon as i can.