Nicholas Sawicke served as a Flight Engineer/Top Turret Gunner with the 306th Bomb Group.

He was the 5th enlisted man to complete tour in May 1943. He flew on Raymond Check crew. He completed 25 missions.



On 27 October 1942 in B-17F-20-BO 41-24508 while flying in a 2 ship low level formation mission, aircraft hit trees. Pilot R. Check was able to make a safe landing and all returned to action.



Nicolas spoke about his service and his life during a recent visit to IWM Duxford:



EARLY LIFE

My father had a farm in New York State and you walked to the country school and the one teacher would teach all of the grades 1-8, then they bused kids after that to the high schools – if you hadn’t had that then I’d have just stayed on the farm.



In the Depression era, I worked on the farm and my father did the best he could to keep it going and then I went to school. After high school I went to a larger city and got a job in a factory – in woodwork – I made ladders and chairs. Salary? You’d be lucky to get a dollar a day.



I had one older brother and one younger sister. My brother was seven years older and my sister seven years younger. My father died when I was 12 years old and my mother ran the farm but it was hard, my mother went to work on other farms and I had to work and that went on for about five years.



THOUGHTS ON ENLISTING

Then Pearl Harbor came along and I went and enlisted and thought at least I wouldn’t have to buy my clothes and food. When I first enlisted I was on 21 dollars a month, it was not much and you were confined about when you could spend it, after you got paid there were a few rich ones and they were many poor ones – that was down to the poker games. Many men were crying because they lost! I had the sense to leave the money in my pocket. Later, as a Tech Sergeant I got a pretty good salary. They paid you extra for flying and I could send a check to my mother and my sister.



STATE-SIDE SERVICE

I enlisted at Syracuse, NY, and took an exam so that the US Army could decide which branch I could best serve in – I was assigned to the US Army Air Forces.



I did basic training in Biloxi MS. This was to learn the basics of being in the military - the marching, the saluting, the rules and then after that it was schooling.



Early in 1942, I was given the role of Flight Engineer when I was over to Wendover, Utah. There they filled crew positions to make up full crews. When there was a gap for a Top Turret Gunner/Flight Engineer, they put you in a crew and when there were ten of you, you were all set to leave. This process took about 3-4 weeks.



Educational periods were pushed up - you'd take three quarters of a course and they'd think you were ready. They needed the personnel and wanted to get crews overseas. We were over in '42 pretty soon after the war began – the aircraft were built, crews were trained, supply routes sorted out – they did a good job.



THE JOURNEY OVER

I boarded the Queen Elizabeth and crossed the Atlantic and landed in Scotland and took a train or truck, I can’t remember which, to the air base. On the Queen Elizabeth we came over on a zig-zag to avoid the submarines. There were bunks on three walls so that everyone had a place to sleep - in three shifts - the bunk was only yours a third of the time. I was along the rail and felt fine - the others were sea-sick or were 'feeding the fish' over the rail, as we put it.



FIGTHING FROM ENGLAND

At Thurleigh, the men from the Queen Elizabeth would find their pilot and were reunited with the rest of their crew.



Bombing started along the French coast because that's where the Germans had their submarine pens and these submarines were interfering with supply lines. There were a lot of people in the 306th that weren't flyers - cooks and laundry guys and engineers - they needed the supplies - so we were stopping the Germans disrupting the supply lines.



We had been given a rifle and ammunition in Scotland so that we could defend ourselves if there was a German attack. But we didn’t have to use them, they just sent bombs over - they liked London better than anywhere.



I sent a letter home to my mother and they always edited the mail so you couldn’t say much – maybe if you had a flight today, this happened and that – but you couldn’t say much. I didn’t get much mail and sometimes none because my mother didn’t know what to say or how to say it and my sister was young.



LONDON AT WAR

I was in a bar in London and when you spotted the bombers coming, the sirens went off, the lights went out but I didn't go down to the subway while there was still a bottle on the bar! Then the lights went on and it was a sign that it was over.



We went into London for R and R - for Rest and Recuperation – but there was not too much of the rest part - there was a lot going on there in comparison to Bedford places – those places didn't have refrigeration or good toilets and that kind of thing. So you went to London.



MISSION DAY

You’d be woken at 3 or 4 in the morning, you’d get dressed, sheep-lined fleece jacket and gloves, mess hall for breakfast, to the briefing and you’d learn what your target would be for the day and the secondary target in case you couldn’t make your primary because of the weather.



When we were back, we went to the debriefing room – we’d be asked what kind of mission it was, were there a lot of aircraft fighters, did you see enemy aircraft go down or US bombers go down? They’d ask for suggestions for improvements – for additional firepower or bigger bomb load.



DEVELOPMENTS TO THE B-17

There was a lot of development during my tour. You know the gun turret in the nose of the B-17 – we never had that - and in the waist area there were two gunners there and they had a open window on both sides and their gun would swing in and out of this window but it was so cold up there that it was too cold for the waist gunners so they changed it from a solid window to a flexiglass window and the gun on each side was mounted into the flexiglass to keep it a bit warmer.



ON THE BOMB RUN

It was somewhat warmer where I was, there were engines on both sides of us, I didn’t get frostbite. At 10,000 feet everyone got on oxygen, then we’d climb to 25/30,000 altitude, enemy aircraft would try and stop us and when the bombardier took over for the run we received most anti-aircraft fire. They’d pick us up with the radar and you’d run into the AA shells – a lot of time the shells might explode and hit a not-so-vital part of the aircraft. Once I caught sight of the shrapnel going past the side of my finger and hit the glass but it didn’t hit me.



My crew pretty much didn’t have an injured person on my crew. I was with the same personnel for 22 missions and no one was injured. On the way back you’d encounter some AA fire but you’re a bit faster on the way back. You’re flying with a lead plane and in elements – the elements could swing to the left and to the right to avoid flak but guessing by the enemy could work – they could hit you. The P-51 single engine fighter and the P-38 twin-engine would escort us but they didn’t have the capacity to accompany us all the way. They fitted extra gas tanks on P-51s and that allowed them to come and then carry on and get a little further – but this was after my time.



Once we were getting within a few miles of the target, everyone gets into position, everyone is an observer at that time, and there’s an observation system – 12, 3, 6, 9 o’clock and if you saw a fighter plane you’d alert the crew as to where the fighters were coming from, ‘three enemy fighters at 12 o’clock’ and you fired your gun. You had to shoot ahead of the fighters and had a tracer every fifth shot –you could see where you were shooting so could adjust based on the tracer. You could see the tracer in daylight. Ours were always in the daylight. Usually it was a 7am start.



LOCAL CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND

There was very little entertainment, in the pubs there was no refrigeration, you could only have hot ‘milds’ and hot ‘bitters’, toilet facilities weren’t there, London was the exception. There was a lot of dried milk and dried eggs – that was the only way they could do it at that time – our meals were not that good, they had to rely on the sheep a lot at that time, if they were preparing lamb mutton in the kitchens you’d know - a bad odour came off from them.



We got occasional food packages and boy you’re ripping that to see what’s in there – maybe it would help me out and make me smile instead of eating that stuff we had no appetite for. Cookies were the biggest thing.



We received a carton of cigarettes, I didn’t smoke so I could trade them for other things like with a farmer for eggs and if you went to a bar and put a packet of cigarettes on the bar they’d fill a few glasses and I didn’t have to pay for many drinks. Clothing was just the standard dress clothes, you could get replacements every few months. I had a heavy coat for the cold.



We had barracks to sleep in but we had to go out for our toilet facilities, out for our showers. We were not in the best conditions – transportation for getting around not very good, our own trucks would drop us off in a little village and pick us up and take us back so no hope for a good meal or a good drink!



The English were pretty friendly and treated us good, sometimes you were invited into a home and the living conditions they were living under were not that good – no water, no heat– one home I went in they were cooking and I hoped I’d get a good meal, but they were warming rocks for heating up the bed.



Our US drivers had to get used to the different side of the road and to give you a thrill they’d swerve to the wrong side of the road. The heating system in our barracks wasn’t there, it was damp and cold – the leather and sheep-lined clothing kept the heat in the body and you’d walk around base just to stay warm. There were bicycles about but they were at a premium and you had to pay for one yourself.



COMING BACK HOME

After my final mission I got called in and they said they were going to give me a DFC and pack your stuff and get ready because you’re going back home. I came back on the Queen Mary, it was a comfortable journey but they found me and said I’d have to do guard duty over soldiers – some black, some white. I didn’t see any black men in the Air Force. Down in the Africa area, when they were coming up north through Italy, that’s where they had this Tuskegee group and they were doing an excellent job and bombers would request them they were so good.



On returning the States I was welcomed as an instructor, it was June-ish 1943. I married my wife Patricia in 1944. We’d gone to the same country school when we were young. My mother had moved off the farm and into Auburn, NY and I tried to help her along but she was unwell after that and the checks stopped after I was discharged so she had to get along on her own. I helped her and she worked some.



CORNELL

When I was discharged, my wife was pregnant and I worked jobs in factories here and there but I didn’t see any future there so I saw one of my high school teachers and he took me to Cornell. He wrote a recommendation for me and I was accepted at Cornell. I took advantage of the GI Bill and I got a degree. I was part of the class of ’50. Some of my life will go into a book about the lives of other Cornell vets of the 1950 class.



FAMILY LIFE

Our first child was not alive when it was born - I have a different RH factor to my wife and this caused the child to be stillborn. We carried on and had two girls and they were delivered by caesarean. They graduated from elementary and high school. One daughter wasn’t much interested in education and got a job and the other daughter was interested in education and I thought she’d never quit! She got her degree and her masters and her PhD. That daughter is Janis [who was sitting in on the interview].



We were camping with Janis’s sister Patty and her husband [James Sheils] and on the way home the camper van overturned and my daughter and her husband died.

It’s down to the two of us now – my daughter’s looking for retirement and I’m around.

I’m in New York and she’s in New Jersey and we go on vacations together – I’ve been fortunate, I’ve seen a lot of Europe, Hawaii, China, Russia, all of the National Parks out west. Back when I was vacationing with my wife, we’d go west – San Diego, Las Vegas.



Most of my life I’ve been in construction work and highways and I had my own construction business for 20 years. I sold it and retired in the early 1990s and after that my wife passed away in 2002. The accident with my daughter was in 2005.



I live alone in my home now and I like to work outside, I like tending to the flowers, keeping the property up, I go on trips like this, to South America – that was educational and entertaining. I went to Uruguay and Brazil. Physically, I have a problem with my balance, that’s why I have a cane but I make it around alright. I’m okay walking and I’ll continue on that basis for as long as I can.



I would say that my family got interested in my history about 2 years ago.



His daughter Janis: I think it's a little longer. When the WWII memorial in DC opened in 2004, my dad said it was important to be there with Patty and Janis and he started talking about his past.



LOOKING BACK ON HIS SERVICE

I know about it but I can also forget about it. It happened and I was there and I’m home. I always thought don’t sit there and dwell on it and ruin yourself.



THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE

When I was working in the early years I was lucky and made investments and I can live off them now, there were good and bad years but they’re helping me and I have my social security so I have no problems continuing on. What I’m doing these interviews for is so that this generation’s going to get a better picture of what happened, when it happened, what it was like so that future generations will know. There’s a lot of research going on and good books being written so I hope they’re used in schools.



REFLECTIONS

The positive thing that came out of World War II for me was the education – I wouldn’t have got an education without it and it wasn’t easy after I got in – I had been away from books for 6 years. I was fortunate that I had a good marriage and good kids. We tried to do as much good as we could. We were married 58 years.



His daughter Janis: I remember my father would say as we were growing up ‘I’ve been lucky’ and I think that came from his World War II service. He also learnt at a young age to be responsible to his family and to his country.