Map Of Czechoslovakia

Lost WWII map reunited with vet

By JOHN VANZO

Special to The Post-Searchlight

“History Detectives” is one of the most popular television programs produced by the Public Broadcasting System. The show features historical researchers uncovering the unknown back-stories of various artifacts provided by private citizens.

Bainbridge College professor John Vanzo recently embarked on his own odyssey of historical research on a bombing mission map dating from World War II.

In the end, a heroic U.S. Air Force veteran was reunited with a long-lost souvenir of his service that he had not seen for 66 years.

Earl B. Douglass Jr., grew-up as a typical child of the Great Depression. Born on July 7, 1924, in the tiny rural town of Talbotton in west-central Georgia, Earl dreamed of bigger and better things. But war interrupted his ambitions for a college degree, and in 1942 at the tender age of 18, he entered the U.S. Army Air Corps for pilot training.

In late 1943, with newly-minted pilot’s wings and lieutenant’s bars gracing his uniform, Douglass was posted to the 303rd Bomb Group located in Molesworth, England. The 303rd Bomb Group, known collectively as “Hell’s Angels,” was one of the earliest American air units to be deployed for combat against Nazi Germany. Outfitted with approximately three dozen B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, the unit carried out some of the toughest and costliest bombing missions of the war.

On arrival at his new base, Douglass was assigned sleeping quarters in the officer’s billets. According to his roommate, Earl would be bunking in the bed once slept in by the famous movie star of “Gone with the Wind,” Clark Gable.

“They told me that I was going to sleep in Clark Gable’s bed. Capt. Gable had flown five missions with our group as a combat photographer, and now I was going to be sleeping in his bunk. Unfortunately, none of him rubbed off on me!” joked Douglass.

Douglass went on to fly 30 combat missions against the Germans, usually in the dangerous tail gun position of the B-17.

“The policy at that time was to split up a new pilot and his co-pilot for their initial five combat missions so they could gain experience from the ‘old hands’. While I was separated from my original flight crew, they were shot down and all killed. So, I became a sort of orphan within the Bomb Group,” recalls Douglass.

“My squadron operations officer ‘requested’ that I volunteer to serve in the tail gunner position because the Top Brass wanted a qualified pilot to be the eyes behind the mission commander’s head to make sure that all the planes in the group maintained proper formation. It was important for us to stay in a tight, carefully-designed flying formation to maximize our defensive firepower, and to keep all the bombs on target. So I flew as a ‘Tail Gunner-Observer’ in the lead aircraft on most of my missions. On other missions, I flew as co-pilot.

Andy's One Stop World Exploration: Propaganda Map of Czechoslovakia

This is an old propaganda map from Germany representing what can be done if Czechoslovakia were invaded. They were demonstrating that air fleets can then fly out of Czechoslovakia and then invade the entirety of Europe. I don't know what the German phrase on the bottom of the screen mean but it says something about Germany. This is a propaganda map because this map was skewed to encourage a specific view. Enjoy!

Map of Czechoslovakia...

Geopolitical map of Czechoslovakia

Under the map of Germany, nationalism and propaganda 1918-1945

The Czech and Slovak republics, nation versus state

Geopolitics of the Central European region, the view from Prague and Bratislava