Annual Air Expo July 17-18, 2010

This weekend, Cliff will join other WWII veteran VIPs at the Air Expo, Flying Cloud Airport, Eden Prairie, MN.   This family-friendly, educational, fascinating event celebrates airplanes and the people who fly them, love them, and are just plain enchanted by the miracle of flight.

The annual Air Expo is presented by Wings of the North—along with many generous sponsors and volunteers—“to preserve and present aviation history.”

Stop by to greet Cliff and his buddies at the 8th Air Force table in the exhibition tent. Ask questions of the vets and listen to their stories. They are the living history of our country. And Cliff will have with him signed copies of his book—both hardcover and paperback.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, enacted near the day of reunification after the Civil War to honor soldiers who died in that war. Memorial Day was expanded after World War I to honor dead Americans from all wars, and became a federal holiday in 1971.

Cliff Digre continues to remember his crew members and friends who lost their lives during World War II. He is also grateful that his own life was inexplicably spared.

The co-pilot on the William T. “Robbie” Robertson crew was Cliff Henrickson, a native of Jasper, IN. In his book, Into Life’s School: My World War II Memories, Digre devotes pages 44 and 111-117 to describing Hendrickson and the formation of The Cliff Hendrickson Crew on which Digre was to be the radio operator. Digre writes, “Cliff had been a P-51 pilot in the Canadian Air Force before joining the US Army Air Corps and training in B-17s. He had a striking resemblance to the famous movie star, Clark Gable. He even had the same groomed Gable mustache. He was often mistaken for Gable, and Cliff enjoyed every minute of it, especially the attention from women.”

On December 19, 1944, Hendrickson’s crew expected to fly together to bomb the designated target, Gemünd, Germany. However, in the middle of the night, “someone in operations decided that Hendrickson should fly as the pilot for a new crew on their very first mission.”

The flight took off in dense fog with nineteen other planes. After completing the mission, the returning planes were diverted to southern England due to persistent poor weather. Pilot Robertson flew back to England and was in radio contact with Hendrickson until “Cliff’s plane descended into the clouds and out of sight.” Digre learned later that day that Hendrickson “had crashed into a grove of trees near Oxford and that all nine aboard had been killed.”

Before heading home from the war, Digre visited Hendrickson’s grave in Cambridge. In 1998, while researching information for his book, Digre learned more about Hendrickson’s fatal crash. “The accident report concluded the accident was caused by a combination of weather conditions and pilot error.” And in an ironic twist of fate visited upon three men who shared the same first name—Clifford—the sole survivor of the crash was Clifford Heinrich!

Cliff Digre admits to pondering the fate that “stepped in and took me off that aircraft and mission sometime during the night of December 19, 1944. Now I wonder, had I been on that aircraft, would the one survivor have been Clifford Digre? Probably not!”

Father’s Day

Father’s Day is traditionally celebrated in mid June. Author Cliff Digre and his wife of 60+ years are the parents of four adult children, but when Cliff was in the Army Air Corps, he was a single man—as were most other servicemen. However Earl Rinehart, the engineer/top turret gunner, was married and his wife was pregnant with their first child. Cliff writes on page 45 that, Earl “…was the tallest at 6′ 1″ and the oldest at 28 years. It wasn’t long before we dubbed him “Pops.” As an engineer, I doubt there was anyone better. Robbie (the pilot) said he was the best engineer he had ever known and knew the B-17 better than he.”

On page 70, the author describes the September 12, 1944 mission to Ruhland, Germany. When they were 30 to 40 minutes from the target, they were hit by “light but accurate flak. When we passed the flak pocket, Robbie called for an oxygen check starting with: tail gunner—OK, waist gunner—OK, ball turret—OK, radio operator—OK, but then no answer from top turret. Earl’s intercom had been intermittent so Robbie asked that he turn the turret if he was OK. Still no response, so copilot Cliff Hendrickson left his seat and went back to Earl. He was still standing upright in his turret position, but when Hendrickson gave a slight tug on his trousers, he slumped down. He was completely unconscious; when Cliff saw the severed oxygen hose, he knew what had happened. Cliff, with Elmer Mankin’s (the navigator) help , brought him up to the nose. They loosened his clothing and put him on pure oxygen. While Elmer was working on Earl, we were struck by a fierce fighter attack consisting of an estimated fifty fighters (ME-109s and FW-190s) as well as new jet-propelled fighters. At one instant I saw three B-17s hit and going down end over end in flames, and from those three planes I saw only three parachutes open. It was a horrible sight, one I’ll never forget. Our group lost a total of twenty-eight men that day, either killed or missing in action.

“When we returned to Glatton, we were given priority landing and medics met our plane. Immediately, they put Earl on a respirator and rushed him by ambulance to the nearest hospital. Later that evening they reported to us that he was dead. Earl was one super person and an extremely capable engineer. He knew his aircraft. On occasion he would make suggestions regarding the engines to Robbie and Robbie listened. He was good and had the utmost respect from all of the crew members. Earl was the “Pop” to our crew—the oldest at age 28. Earl’s hometown was Romney, Indiana. Earl, I’ll forever remember you.

“We are off to a rough start—yesterday Carbery was injured by flak; today Earl was killed. What’s ahead? You never know.”

D-Day

June 6, 2009, is the 65th anniversary of D-Day. That is the day in 1944 when the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, occurred. An air assault by American, British, and Canadian airborne troops landed shortly after midnight and more than 5,000 ships delivered Allied infantry and armored divisions along a 50-mile stretch of coastline at 6:30 that morning. 

What was Cliff Digre doing on June 6, 1944? On page 43, Cliff recounts that he and the other members of his B-17 crew had just been selected by pilot William T. “Robbie” Robertson. They were training at McDill Airfield near Tampa, FL. On page 48, Cliff writes, “We knew from the very first day we were going to have intense training—six days a week for twelve weeks—a portion of each day flying and a portion in ground school. Each day was something new to give all ten of us the training we would need for the real thing—combat….Much of our ground school was spent on aircraft recognition. It was imperative that we would be able to to instantly identify all aircraft—both friendly and enemy.”

Signed Books

Many people request when they order a book that Cliff sign the book. His intention is to sign each book—paperback and hardcover—sitting uncharacteristically still for quite a while until a pile of books bears the autograph of Cliff “CB” Digre. Of course, when you read the book, you will discover Cliff’s childhood nickname, used by longtime chums from Hendricks, MN, when they order their books or send a note. Cliff is delighted to hear from friends, family, crew members, and their families! Please continue to write. Cliff thanks you.