ROWE MISSION #8 - 3 October, 1944, Tuesday

22
Classification - Preflight - Primary - Basic - Advanced - B-24 Transition - Crew Assignment - Flight to Europe
Corner) on any map of Ireland. It
was, however along the east shore of
Lough Neagh, not far from Belfast.
Total flight time on this trip was
5:00 hours. It is indeed a small
world. After checking in and being
assigned a billet, I passed a stranger
who shouted "hey Clemmie". There
were so many "Johns" in my school,
I was known by my middle name.
He was not however a stranger, but
an old friend, Leslie C. Jantz, from
grade school days in Monroe, South
Dakota whose family had moved to
McPherson, Kansas in 1931. I was
8 years old in 1931 but he
recognized me at age 21 in 1944.
Crews were in essence ferrying
airplanes to Europe as replacements
for aircraft shot down or lost over
enemy territory or damaged beyond
repair and we never saw the
" G r e m l i n ' s
Roost" after
leaving it in
Ireland.
F r o m
G r e e n c a stle,
Ireland we
proceeded via
ship across the
Irish Sea and
then by rail to
S t o k e - o n -
Trent, England.
Here we were
j o i n e d b y
thousands of
other American
servicemen for
a p a r a d e
through the
streets of the
city to the
John Rowe & Jim Scanlon at Liberal, Kansas B-24 Transition Training
School. We were not to see each other again for 49 years.
We received our B-24 at Topeka, Kansas and flew to Bangor, Maine. Above
map shows our route from Bangor, Maine to Goose Bay Labrador to Bluie-
West-Eight in Greenland to Meeks Field in Iceland and then to Nutts Corner
in Ireland.
enjoyment of the city's residents. The parade took
us to the rail station, where everyone was bound
for his or her separate duty stations. Our
assignment was the USAAF Station #146,
Seething Tower, code name "Brightgreen", in East
Anglia just outside of Norwich, Norfolk, England.
This was the home of the 448th Bombardment
Group in the 20th Combat Wing, 2nd Air
Division, 8th Air Force. The village of Seething
was on the North end of the Airfield. Living
accommodations, mess halls, hospital, clubs and
other facilities were nestled in among farms, trees,
barns, cow pastures and thatched homes. Like all
other crews, we were impressed by the neat
compact countryside. There was every shade of
green one could imagine and the tranquility it
conveyed belied the anxiety and apprehension in
the days and months ahead. Seething was about 10
miles south and east of Norwich and we were
again impressed with the airfields about 5 miles
apart in every direction. There was an airfield
about every 36 square miles.
The 448th BG departed from the tradition