Lt. Edward C. Jordan - The War Years

Pilot, 603rd Squadron

Nuthampstead Recollections

Following are some of Lt. Ed Jordan's recollections about his days at Nuthampstead, the war and his missions.

  1. Ed told us he would get up early whenever there was a bombing mission even if he wasn't going because there was good food available, including real eggs.
  2. Ed, a Roman Catholic throughout his life, went to Holy Communion before each of his missions.
  3. Ed complained about his cold feet on the long missions in the B-17, even though he wore heavy insulated boots.
  4. Ed told us that he didn't see an enemy fighter for his first five missions. Then he saw five coming right at him. However, they were closing so fast and went by so fast there was little time to even think about it.
  5. Ed told us that some of the missions were very long. Data from his Individual Flight Records show a number of missions were 8-12 hours, the longest being the mission to Berlin on May 19, 1944 at 11:15 hours. Some of this time was spent in waiting for all the planes to take-off and then circling around England getting first the squadrons and groups together and then the groups into wings with other groups. If the weather was cloudy or foggy it made this more difficult and time consuming.
  6. Ed said they had to stay in tight formation, wing tips overlapping as the Messerschmitts would try to fly sideways between the B-17s.
  7. Ed told us he was always disappointed that he didn't get to fly a missionon D-Day. That day he was "Officer of the Day" instead.
  8. Ed told us that sometimes they would drop the bombs in the ocean after an unsuccessful mission when they couldn't drop the bombs on the target.
  9. Ed would talk about how they would drop 100 pound and 500 pound bombs. In those days they could only carry a few thousand pounds of bombs.
  10. On the August 8th mission to Cauvicourt, Ed was hit in the foot with was piece of flak. We are fortunate that Bill Frankhouser wrote about this incident in his book, World War II Odyssey in Chaper XIV. The First Combat Bombing Mission -Bretteville Le Rabet, France, August 8, 1944. Ed alludes to this incident in his letter to his wife Jeanne that he has a souvenir from the Jerries and will tell her about it sometime. He kept it and I remember touching and feeling it as a boy. It is an irregular rectangular solid about 2 inches long. I still have it along with other items packed away. Also packed away is a small piece of flat burned bent steel. I don't know the story about that though, but it could be from the same incident.
  11. Later in life Ed would never eat cream tuna with the family. It's one of the few creamed dishes I liked, but dad must have gotten too much of it during the war or had a bad experience with it. He also loathed chopped beef on toast.
  12. Ed said that once when he came back from a mission there were over 400 holes in his plane. They were patched up and they went out again. The B-17 was a pretty tolerant and forgiving plane. The 400 holes appears a bit high, but 30-40 is not uncommon. Perhaps we have remembered incorrectly.
  13. Ed Jordan flew 28 missions. Originally he was to fly 25, but with long-range fighters (P-51s) and some of Europe in Allied hands, in late June 1944 they increased the required tour to 30 for lead crews and former members of lead crews. Since he was part way done with the 25, he was given a pro-rated credit for two.
  14. I recall that dad told us he was about to fly his 29th but they called him back from the aircraft and indicated that he had done enough. Why he was set to go with a 29th mission is not known as both he and the system kept careful tabs of these counts. Unfortunately, he doesn't mention this in his letters or at least the ones I've seen and it is possible I have recollected incorrectly.
  15. Ed told us he volunteered as a base censor. As censor it was his duty to read the men's mail back to their moms, wives, and sweethearts. He had a razor knife and if the men said too much information about what was going on during their missions he would cut it out. Of course, the advantage of the assignment was that he could approve his own letters home.
  16. One of the mysteries Ed could never figure out was that his Grandfather John Page (formerly John Pajewski) said that one of Ed's missions was to his hometown. My research indicates that John's hometown was Danzig or nearby. However, the 398th Mission list doesn't include Danzig or anyplace around it but perhaps further research will turn up something.
  17. On an identification card, it was indicated that Ed had a scar at the corner of his left eye. It is believed this is was from the firecracker incident when he was a kid.
  18. Mom recalled that Ed was known as Steady Eddie by his war-time colleagues. Perhaps this was because he was by nature someone who was reliable, careful, and methodical and someone you could depend on.

 

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Personal History Information
  1. Veteran: Edward C. Jordan
  2. Position: Co-Pilot/Pilot
  3. Squadron: 603rd
  4. Date of Personal History: February 1, 2003, updated November 2008
  5. Author: Dave Jordan
  6. Submitted to 398th Web Pages by: Dave Jordan