The Green Lady and Friends: Stories of Warbirds

By John Rodgers

This is a collection of short stories and poems about World War II aircraft, their spirits, and the humans and others who live with them and love them. They are based on my own, perhaps odd ideas regarding the spirits of machines. While these are works of fiction, they are based on the real history of the Air War over Europe during the Second World War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Oct 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387314812

John Rodgers

John is a typical regular Joe, working stiff, with no formal training or education in philosophy, religion, or spirituality. He has had a very deep insight into the true nature of being since he was very young. The sense that “things are note as they appear,” which he has tattooed on his forearm, has been gnawing at him his entire life. John could no longer deny the pull to share what he believes and subsequently began blogging, writing for local papers and, of course, Facebook. The thirst to share was not quenched through those vehicles, and this book was the next step in his journey.

Book preview

The Green Lady and Friends: Stories of Warbirds

The Green Lady and Friends

Stories of Warbirds

By John Rodgers

Copyright 2016 John K. Rodgers

All Rights Reserved

ISBN 978-1-329-89495-2

Epub Revision 8

Contents

The Green Lady and Friends

Dedication

Preface

Forward

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

The Green Lady, Shorty, and the kid

Old Friend, Little Friend

Ballad of A Fortress

Song of a Fortress to Her Men

Selected Bibliography

Dedication

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This book is humbly dedicated to all the Men and Women of the United States Armed Forces, past, present, and future.

I would also like to offer a special thank you to Mr. Frank Farr, for inspiring me to try and self-publish my work. Mr. Farr served as a navigator on B-17s with the 91st Bomb Group. He was shot down over Meresburg Germany on November 2, 1944, and finished the war as a POW.

Preface

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The stories and poems here are based on my personal ideas regarding the spirits of machines. I believe that many machines, especially weapons absorb some part of the spirits of those who wield them in battle. The following stories are primarily a work of fiction and fantasy. But they are interwoven with some very real history. They are meant to be a tribute to the brave men of the United States Army Air Forces who waged a cataclysmic war in the skies five miles above Europe. I have not used any names, except for those of places and units. The one exception is in the description of the loss of the B-17F Stric-Nine. This aircraft, B-17F 50-BO-42-5392, was an actual aircraft of the 427 Bombardment Squadron (Heavy). The circumstances of her loss are taken directly from the history of the 303 Bombardment Group (Heavy). This aircraft was also known as City of Albuquerque.

B-17F #42-5392 Stric Nine, 427BS, piloted by 2Lt. Lauren H. Quillen, was hit by flak and caught fire. Some of the crew bailed out over the Dutch coast (presumed off Hock van Holland) then crashed into the North Sea. 2Lt. Quillen, 2Lt. John R. Homan, 2Lt. B.W. Colby, 2Lt. William N. Irish, T/Sgt. Eldon F. Richter and, S/Sgt. Salvador J. Di Cosmo were killed in the crash. S/Sgt. Elbert O. Price, S/Sgt. Joseph H. Brown, S/Sgt. Paul W. Abernathy and S/Sgt. A.K. Sauer were captured by the enemy and held prisoner.

Forward

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Concerning Gremlins

Gremlins are mythical creatures with a long history in aviation. Their history is a convoluted one as it has many origins and versions. One of the most famous chroniclers of Gremlins was author Roald Dahl. A pilot in the Royal Air Force, he of course learned much of that service’s legends about them, and subsequently, made up some of his own.

But here is what I have to tell you about them. They are of course small, 6 to 7 inches tall, and usually very slender. They have pale, green skin and their hair colors run through the same range as human’s, tending to go gray or white with age. Their faces and features are very similar to human’s, but with pointed ears and a tendency toward small sharp noses. Their eyes are wide set and slightly larger in proportion than humans, and they have excellent night vision. In more technical biological terms, they are placental mammals. Females most usually bear single offspring, but the rate of multiple births is roughly the same as humans. Gremlin children are often referred to as Widgets. Males and females are usually the same size, females being curvaceous and buxom. The females are known as Fifinellas, and tend to be homebodies. They are very long lived, but are as mortal as humans. They are tough, and rather elastic, proportionally many times stronger than humans. They can tolerate wide extremes of temperature and altitude. Lightening quick, they can be almost completely undetectable. They are omnivorous, and capable of eating damn near anything softer than cast iron. It is the males, especially the young, newly adult ones that have the strongest association with aircraft. Gremlins have a racial affinity with machinery, especially aircraft, and they often seek to live in or near aircraft.  They have an instinctual knowledge of aircraft and other machinery often knowing as much about it by instinct as a human who has had to receive months of rigorous training. They have the reputation of being destructive, but only a rare few are really malicious. When a Gremlin sets up shop inside an aircraft, he bonds with it, and it becomes his home. He might play pranks on her human crew, but he will never do anything that would really damage or endanger her. Being somewhat magical themselves, Gremlins have the ability to very directly interact with the spirits of machines. When humans use and bond with their machines they have a subconscious tendency to imbue them with personalities, and impart a small bit of themselves into the inert materials. When strong emotional bonds occur, a quickening can result with that particular machine developing a discrete spiritual personification. A beautiful description of this was given by an 8th Air Force pilot in a post mission interrogation following the infamous Black Thursday raid on Schweinfurt Germany on October 14th, 1943.

But one more thing I'll tell you. A Queen dies hard. She doesn't want to go, no more than any man inside her. You may not believe this. If you don't, it's only because you haven't been up there, and you haven't watched combat hardened men cry as a ship goes down; cry as much for the machine as for the men. Because, you see, when ten men claimed her for their own, she was no longer just a machine. She was their bomber. That made her special, and it made her come alive."

This very real statement by an actual USAAF pilot is the basis for much of this story. Gremlins have a deep oral history, and certain laws and traditions that can be very unyielding in certain things. One of these is invoked when a Gremlin actually meets the quickened spirit of a machine. In such a case, he is deeply bound to that machine, almost married to it. In the war-torn skies of WWII, a great many young men formed powerful emotional bonds with the aircraft that they took into battle. These bonds were usually subconscious, but they were more than enough to quicken many aircraft. Once a Gremlin was bound to such an aircraft, he would do all he could to preserve it. If nothing else, pure survival instinct would compel him to do whatever he could to get her home. I have a silly theory that some of the miraculous returns of battle damaged aircraft were due in no small part to the desperate efforts of a Gremlin wanting to make it back alive. But that’s just my idea, take it or leave it.

Concerning B-17s

This aircraft is arguably one of the most iconic machines ever built. She is herself almost a legendary creature. Beloved by her crews, adored by the press and the American people since her nativity in 1935. She is still, 75 years after the end of her war, one of the most famous and recognizable of Warbirds. The handful of examples that are still flying draw large crowds of all ages wherever they go. You will see children look up at her in awe, and old men become reanimated to see her, and to recount their adventures with her. I have personally witnessed the rejuvenating effect a B-17 can have on one of these old men, most well into their nineties as I write this.  It brings to mind a passage from Shakespeare’s Henry V And the King’s speech before the battle of Agincourt.

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages, what feats he did that day…

Countless web pages and Facebook groups are dedicated to her, and many volumes have been written about her history and development. About her battle history, and the men who flew her. She is a star of movies and television.

This work then is my own personal, ever so slightly mad, tribute to the events that took place in the skies five miles above Europe between August 1942 and May 1945. I pray you will judge it kindly.

Chapter One

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The Rookie

Scritch the Gremlin crept carefully around the many crates and machines in the huge factory. It was the biggest building he had ever seen, full of bustling humans and the giant airplanes they were building.  The Gremlins knew enough about human affairs to know that a great war was going on, and while that was bad for humans, it had some benefits for Gremlins. One of the benefits was thousands of new airplanes for them to live in. Where once Gremlins often had to share quarters, there were now more planes than Gremlins.

Now he was near the end of the huge assembly line. He crept slowly around a crate, and there it was. A brand-new B-17 Flying Fortress. Biding his time, Scritch waited for an opportunity to scuttle quickly across the open floor and up the right main landing gear. Inside the engine nacelle, he looked around at his new home. Everything was new and shiny clean. The smells of new paint, new wires, fresh oil and grease were heavenly to his Gremlin nose.  A short time later, he had worked his way into the fuselage, and up into the nose. Peeping out from below the bombardier’s station, he had a great view of the area outside the factory. Presently, the big plane was rolled out of the building into the sunlight. A few humans swarmed over it making final checks