From the March 1, 2021, Sun Herald (Mississippi) "Humble World War II veteran tuns 100 in Gulfport. 'The Lord has blessed me.'
George Roberts served as a radio operator during the war, in the U.S. Army Air Force and completed 31 bombing missions over Germany and received the Purple Heart.
He immigrated to Pennsylvania from England with his family while still a toddler in 1924 and was drafted into the Army Air Force. From a base in an English village, he flew the 31 missions over Germany in 1843 and 1944.
He remembered one raid on October 14 over Schweinfort on ball bearing factories as Black Thursday because Allied airmen suffered such high casualties. His 367th Bomb Squadron was known as "The Clay Pigeons." "Something that gets shot down -- that was us," he said.
Roberts and other airmen slept in corrugated metal structures known as Nissen Huts. They kept a gallery of small photographs of each man living in the hut. When one was shot down, they removed his picture then a new man would move in and up would go his picture.
Roberts also flew in a lead group on D-Day at Normandy, but said, "It was easy. We had command of the air."
--GreGen
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