11/12/2019 Oral History Paper

Jordan Melton

History 1700

World War two has always been of great interest to me. My great-grandfather

fought in World War two and always made it a goal to visit air shows and air museums.

He grew up in Utah and was drafted as a young teenager. He was so young that he

actually had to have his mom sign papers giving him permission to join.

My great-grandfather, LeRoy Keller Speirs was born on the sixth of March, 1924.

Before joining the army aircorps, he needed to pass mental and physical health tests.

He needed a score of 74 and received a score of 104. He also passed the physical test

with flying colors.

The sixth of April, 1943 was the first time LeRoy flew an airplane. When he

graduated from flight school he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. army

air force. He was to be the pilot of a b-17 bomber. The b-17 was the most

technologically advanced airplane in the air force.

When he joined the airforce they had three things they were allowed to say in the

event of capture. They were only to say their serial number, rank and their position. He

said that they pressed so hard on them that he can still remember his number to this

day. They also carried a 45 caliber on their missions.

LeRoy learned how to fly the b-17 three times. He first learned in Arizona, then in

Louisiana and then overseas. He explained how nervous he felt jumping from a two
engine plane to a four engine plane. He said that his nerves quickly calmed down due to

the experience and calmness of the trainer.

He was assigned to report to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1944. They assembled their

flight crew there. Each flight crew was assigned two pilots, one bombardier, one

navigator, one flight engineer-upper local turret gunner, one radio-gunner, one ball turret

gunner and one or two waist gunners.

When they were preparing to leave, they would practice in Salt Lake City in

smaller airplanes that they all couldn’t fit in. He explained how the air from the top of the

mountains would blow unusually and with being used to the b-17 bomber, he almost

crashed. He said that it was the closest to death that he has been except for once in

battle.

He flew many missions. Some of the missions included: Merseburg, Munich,

Orleans/Bricy & Chateau Dun, Markwiller, Anklam, a Folk-Wulf assembly plant and

Hannover. They flew everyday from August 4-8 without a loss. They received

substantial flak damage to number of planes in group over their missions.

On their missions, they would usually carry eighteen 300 pound M-31 general

purpose bombs. The amount they could carry would depend on the bomb. They usually

would take max weight though so they wouldn’t carry as many as if they had carried

lighter bombs.

LeRoy really emphasized how much the size of the plane astonished him. He

was used to the AT-17 which had a wingspan of 42 feet and a length of 32 feet. The

B-17 wingspan of 103 feet, a length of 74 feet and a height of 19 feet. It weighed 65,500
pounds. The maximum speed of the plane was 287 mph. The ceiling was 35,600 feet .

The maximum bomb load was 17,600 pounds and the normal bomb load was 6,000

pounds.

They had to report to Kearney, Nebraska without the knowledge of how long they

would be there. In fact, they had no knowledge of where they were going. Kearney was

a flight crew and aircraft assembly point. In 1943 and early 1944, B-17s were flown in

and assigned to a crew. The crew would fly overseas. LeRoy had to take a ship to

London for one of two reasons. Either their sufficient planes were overseas or none

were available. They took a cruise line and were ordered to keep it completely blacked

out because of the threat of German submarines.

The mission he remembers the best was the Merseburg mission. It was an oil

factory that needed to be taken out very quickly. It was heavily protected and very

inland of Germany so it made it very difficult. It was several miles wide and could be

seen from thirty thousand feet.

The weather on this mission was clear and the site ahead was awesome. The

bombs were to be dropped at 25,000 feet. They felt fear on this trip, although they didn’t

discuss it. They felt a lot of adrenalin but their training was so good that even in the

face of fears they performed their duties reasonably well.

After one of his missions, they had to talk to intelligence officers. They were

given a two ounce shot of whiskey and were asked about whose planes were shot

down, how many parachutes they saw, which planes left formation because of flak

damage and information about enemy planes. The German gunner’s anti-aircraft fire
was accurate and heavy. This mission cost them four planes. Four planes out of 36

planes. The death ratio was 11%. The group would have ceased to exist after just 9

missions if it had kept that rate, luckily it didn’t.

LeRoy talked about the feelings of discomfort, helplessness, anguish and heart

rending distress after battle. Seeing planes go down and knowing he couldn’t do

anything to help killed him. He explained how angry he would get seeing no parachutes

leaving the plane. He also said it was terrible seeing a plane blow up instantly but

nothing was more discomforting then seeing a plane spiral out of control towards the

ground. My favorite thing that he said was,”I knew no one who thought of himself as a

hero; and I know no one now, who survived the war, who considers himself a hero. We

were just an ordinary group of young men who were trained to do a job, and as the

opportunity arose, just did the job.”

It was really cool to have this conversation with him and I learned a lot from him.

It is awesome being related to someone who played a role in a forever world changing

event. He was only 18 years of age when he joined the military and was flying over

Germany for many missions. His stories combined with my interest for war made this

interview more meaningful.

After the war, he returned to Utah and married his longtime girlfriend. He went on

to own planes and continue his love of flying. I went to many air shows and air

museums with him as a child and I will always cherish those memories. Especially now

that I was able to learn more about his experiences, I can really appreciate those

memories.
 World War 2 has had so many impacts on the world. It was the deadliest conflict

in history taking 60-80 million lives. Citizens took up about 50 million of those casualties

and the military took 20 million. Some of the most important battles were Pearl Harbor,

D-Day, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many people were taken to

concentration camps. Damage to cities was also a huge effect. The bombings and

warefare completely ruined the areas.

There were some economical effects that played a huge role during that time.

When all the men were leaving, women were sent to work. After the war they returned

to their house roles, but later revisited the workforce which has changed today's roles

for women. African Americans were also allowed to fight in the war which changed their

roles in society. Many jews immigrated to other countries to escape from the horrific

events that took place in Germany. As a result of many events that took place in World

War 2, the outcome of the war had the most casualties than any war in history. More

than seventy million people perished making this war the deadliest in history.
 Works Cited

Person. “Political, Economic, and Social Effects of WWII.” ​Prezi.com,​ 21 Jan. 2014,

https://prezi.com/rvpudu6c94ff/political-economic-and-social-effects-of-wwii/.