I have an eccentric and very intelligent buddy who is something of a mad scientist who lives out in a very rough part of town, where he makes (to me) uncanny devices such as Tesla coils, hovercrafts, flame organs and other odd but impressive machines. My mad scientist friend knows I am a history buff, so to speak, and that I have an interest in WW2, so he occasionally passes on relics related to these subjects.
The most recent such historical relic was a collection of papers, a book, and a flying cap from a WW2 dive bomber or fighter bomber pilot who was a family friend that he knew as 'Brother Blackwell'. Apparently brother Blackwell, whose full name was Gilbert Alonzo Blackwell, either has no next of kin who are still around or they have lost touch. My friend ended up with his war memorabilia, which has temporarily been entrusted to me. We are going to look for family (I already tried but failed to find the daughter mentioned in the book) and failing that, donate it to a local museum which specializes in WW2 history.
In the meantime, I have taken photos of fifteen pages of the book, which cover his active career flying missions in the A-36a 'Apache' in Italy. During his flying career 'Brother Blackwell was awarded the DFC, the Air medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the POW Medal, the American Campaign medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Medal with two bronze campaign stars, and the Individual Decoration of the Distinguished Unit Citation.
Aside from these fifteen pages, the rest of the book covers his training and early military experiences, and his captivity by the Germans after being shot down, (a brutal experience in which he lost his leg which he wounded while bailing out when he was shot down over enemy lines), and then some of his long and painful postwar recovery, along with a lot of military records. This was all compiled into a nicely bound hardback book of 167 pages.
These fifteen pages, fourteen of interview transcripts, which I thought would be of interest here are going to appear in the next five posts. A lot of this basically corroborates what I had already read about how the A-36 was used in Italy, but there are some interesting details as there always are with primary sources. Hopefully some people here may find this useful or interesting. The images are not super clear as they were taken with a phone, but are hopefully legible. Anyone with any questions feel free to ask.
The most recent such historical relic was a collection of papers, a book, and a flying cap from a WW2 dive bomber or fighter bomber pilot who was a family friend that he knew as 'Brother Blackwell'. Apparently brother Blackwell, whose full name was Gilbert Alonzo Blackwell, either has no next of kin who are still around or they have lost touch. My friend ended up with his war memorabilia, which has temporarily been entrusted to me. We are going to look for family (I already tried but failed to find the daughter mentioned in the book) and failing that, donate it to a local museum which specializes in WW2 history.
In the meantime, I have taken photos of fifteen pages of the book, which cover his active career flying missions in the A-36a 'Apache' in Italy. During his flying career 'Brother Blackwell was awarded the DFC, the Air medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the POW Medal, the American Campaign medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Medal with two bronze campaign stars, and the Individual Decoration of the Distinguished Unit Citation.
Aside from these fifteen pages, the rest of the book covers his training and early military experiences, and his captivity by the Germans after being shot down, (a brutal experience in which he lost his leg which he wounded while bailing out when he was shot down over enemy lines), and then some of his long and painful postwar recovery, along with a lot of military records. This was all compiled into a nicely bound hardback book of 167 pages.
These fifteen pages, fourteen of interview transcripts, which I thought would be of interest here are going to appear in the next five posts. A lot of this basically corroborates what I had already read about how the A-36 was used in Italy, but there are some interesting details as there always are with primary sources. Hopefully some people here may find this useful or interesting. The images are not super clear as they were taken with a phone, but are hopefully legible. Anyone with any questions feel free to ask.
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