Shot down 30 November 1944 in B-17 #4338059. Evaded.



Paul Shull

Flight Engineer/Gunner, 34th Bomb Group, Mendlesham, England



Paul’s story is somewhat unique in that 1) he flew missions in both B-24 Liberators and B-17 Flying Fortresses*; and 2) he was shot down in both types, actually a total of three time all together.



The first two times Paul was shot-downs would more properly be called crash-landings. The first came early on when his Liberator was limping home with major battle damage. Unable to make it to any base, the pilot put the ship down on an English beach on the Channel. Crash-landing or ditching (water-landing) a Liberator was risky business and loss of life was common. In this incident Paul survived, but with a broken arm.



After being returned to duty Paul was again flying as Flight Engineer in a B-24 when the D-Day invasion was staged in Normandy. To support the massive invasion, the 8th Air Force hit targets behind the coast to slow or stop the flow of men and war material to the German defenders. With the short distance to targets, some 8th Air Force groups flew multiple missions per day during the week of D-Day. Although they normally only flew day-time missions, these multiple-mission days sometimes involved returning to base after dark.



June 7, 1944, the day after Operation Overlord (D-Day) began, the 34th Bomb Group was returning from its second mission on the day as night fell. Unknown to them, two German raiders** were trailing the formation back to their base. On ground-based radar they would have appeared to be a couple of stragglers with battle damage. The intruders waited until the B-24s were over their home base near Mendlesham before opening fire. One crewman on the ground watching the groups return he said he saw the muzzle flash of gunfire in the sky. He had no sooner commented on this to his buddies when the much brighter, and louder boom of 20mm cannon fire erupted over the base. Immediately, a Liberator burst into flames, made a slow arc over the base and crashed into the quartermaster building.



The radio call went out to planes still in the air that there were raiders in the formation and to land elsewhere. Search lights lit up and anti-aircraft gunners scanned the darkness for the intruders. Paul’s plane was the next to be hit by the raiders. With the plane on fire the pilot pulled up high enough for the crew to parachute safely and rang the bail-out bell. Only Paul and the two pilots remained in the crippled Liberator as they made an emergency approach to a neighboring 8th Air Force base near Eye, England. Once again the pilot was able to crash-land the B-24 and all escaped. ***

Paul’s last mission would be one deep into Germany, after the group had transitioned into B-17 Flying Fortresses. They would be fighting for their lives virtually all the way to the target and back. Paul’s plane was badly hit by flak and once again the pilot rang the bail-out bell. This time they all left the burning plane, parachuting into Germany. There would be no escaping through the ”underground” for Paul as he was captured by enemy soldiers immediately, landing almost in the middle of a group of them. Later he would find this to have been his only good fortune of the day. He was locked in a shed with another crew member for a while. Later they were marched out under guard and shown the bodies of several of their crew who had landed near a group of German civilians and been pitch-forked to death. Paul was then transferred to a jail and then a prison camp where he would spend the rest of the war.



Paul would survive the war and go on to own a small chain of grocery stores in Kansas City. With this experience, he was tapped to run the 34th Bomb Group’s PX at reunions. Here they sold shirts, caps, mugs, patches, pins and items related to the group. My parents became good friends with Paul and his wife Pauline, working with them at each reunion. Paul was interviewed on the Discovery Channel and featured in the 8th Air Force Historical Society’s video “Behind the Wire”.