War Story: A WWII B-17 Pilot Attacks Over Germany

\*\*\*By Steve Snyder - Author of SHOT DOWN - Warrior Maven contributor\*\*\*

Growing up, I knew the basics about his father’s war history. He was a B-17 pilot and stationed at Thurleigh, England with the 306th Bomb Group His plane was named the Susan Ruth after my oldest sister who was one year old at the time he went overseas. He flew combat bombing missions over occupied Europe and Germany and was shot down over Belgium. He was missing in action for 7 months but evaded capture. He then joined the French Resistance sabotaging German convoys and was finally liberated when Patton’s 3rd Army came up through France after D-Day.

However, it wasn’t until I retired in 2009 from a 40 year career in sales and sales management that I had the time to really delve into my father’s war experiences in greater detail. I had no intentions of writing a book. I just wanted to go through all the material my parents had kept from the war years to learn more.

Two items were most significant. One was a diary that my father had written while he was missing in action about his plane being shot down. It was absolutely riveting, So much so that it was included in 2 books that were published; The Mighty Eighth by Gerald Astor and First Over Germany by Russell Strong. The other item was all the letters my father had written to my mother while he was stationed in England. In them, he talked about flying combat missions, life on base and in the surrounding villages, trips into London, and adventures of his crew. Reading those letters was fascinating, and I became totally fascinated with the story of my father and his crew. In fact, it became my passion.

I went on a quest to find relatives of the crew members and asked them for information. I read book after book about the air war over Europe, spent countless hours on the internet doing research and downloading declassified military documents, and started attending reunions of various WW II organizations listening to veterans tell their stories. I am currently president of the 306th Bomb Group Historical Association.

Finally in 2012, I decided to write a book. After my years of research, I came to the conclusion that the story of my father and his crew was so unique and so compelling that it just had to be told and people needed to read about it. From the time I stated my research until the time the book was published was 4 ½ years. It took me 12 months to actually write the manuscript and another 8 months to publish it. I formed a one person limited liability company, Sea Breeze Publishing named for the street I live on in Seal Beach, and contracted with independent professionals for all the necessary services; such as editing, graphic design, interior layout, printing, and fulfillment. It was released in August of 2014 and has received over 20 national book awards.

However, I’m not sure if I would have even written the book if it weren’t for two Belgian gentlemen, Dr. Paul Delahaye and Jacques Lalot. Both were young boys during the war and were greatly affected by it. They witnessed first-hand atrocities committed by the Nazis against their families and friends. Later in life, they became local historians and interviewed citizens and members of the Underground; recording their testimony about events that took place involving my father and members of his crew. They provided me with a tremendous amount of detailed information that would have been lost forever without their extensive research and documentation. I owe a great debt to these two wonderful men.

Although SHOT DOWN is centered on Howard Snyder and his crew, it also contains detailed information about the B-17 Flying Fortress, and the combat crews of the Eighth Air Force. The first half of the book leads up to the day the plane was knocked out of the sky on February 8, 1944 by two German Focke-Wulf 190s. It includes following my father through pilot training, the crew’s journey to England, what life was like both on base and in England, and descriptions of perilous combat missions from take-off to landing. The second half is about what happened to each member of the crew after that harrowing day (five of the crew made it back, and five did not) and about all the courageous Belgian people who risked their lives to help them.

Everything in the book is factual and based on first hand testimony by the people who were involved in the events that took place. This was acquired from personal letters written by crew member and their family members, oral and written accounts by crew members, declassified military documents, and the research conducted Dr. Delahaye and Jacques Lalot. To complement the story, SHOT DOWN contains many excerpts from my father’s letters, and the print book includes more than 200 time period photographs. To add background and context to the story, many historical facts and anecdotes about and surrounding the war are entwined throughout the book so that a reader has a feel for and understanding of what was occurring on a broader scale.