Aubrey Bradley was born in October 1923 in Blue Mound, Kansas. When he was 18 and attending the University of Kansas, he thought he was "ripe for the draft," so volunteered for service in the United States Army Air Corps. He was inducted at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and traveled by train to St. Louis, Missouri for basic training. He spent two months at Huntington, West Virginia, and was then enrolled at the Southeast Air Corps Training Command at Maxwell Field in Alabama. At Sumter, South Carolina, Bradley clocked 63 hours in civilian flying school, then graduated in Class 44-C from Bush Field in Valdosta, Georgia. Further training in Hendrix, Florida ended with his designation of 44-X, and while he was at MacDill Field for crew training in Tampa, Florida he went up in the Memphis Bell for a couple of flights to New Orleans and back. After B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] school, he was assigned a crew and transported to New York. From there, he crossed the Atlantic on a troop ship for a training center in the Midlands, England.

Arriving in October 1944, Aubrey Bradley was assigned to the 401st Bombardment Group [Annotator's Note: 613th Bombardment Squadron, 401st Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] out of Deenethorpe Airfield near Kettering, England. There he met Audrey, the woman who would become his wife, at a dance. The crew flew its first mission in October, and proceeded to fly 31 more operations with no damage at all. On their 33rd and last mission to Brandenburg, Germany, the number three engine was knocked out by the first burst of flak; the second burst disabled the number four engine and the number four tank caught fire. Bradley dropped out of formation, and lost his right wing, which threw the plane into a spin. They were going down when Bradley gave the order, "Prepare to bail." Five of the ten crew members who jumped made it three miles back to the American lines. But as soon as Bradley hit the ground, the Germans "were all over" him. Most of them were civilians, and they were beating him. He surrendered his firearm and ammunition, and was taken prisoner by a German first lieutenant from the Adolph Hitler Division.

Aubrey Bradley had always wanted to fly, but had never been in an airplane before he entered the Army Air Corps. His crew changed over the course of Bradley's flight career, and he really didn't know them well. On their last flight, they were approaching the target area when they had to bail. Bradley said it is not easy for a B-17 pilot to exit the plane. His aircraft was burning and spinning while he was trying to make his way back to the bomb bay, and he and his co-pilot got tangled up while they were trying to climb out. They were sucked out of the plane when the left wing blew and tore the fuselage apart. The plane was at bombing altitude of 24,500 feet when it was hit; Bradley believes he was spinning in the plane until it reached about 18,000 feet and he got out, then it was another four or five thousand feet before he pulled his parachute cord. He could see his plane falling down in pieces around him. Two members of his crew were shot as they drifted down; Bradley noted that he was grateful that he was spared and that his flying suit helped him to land unhurt. The Germans on the ground were coming at him as he landed. He endured the attack by the civilians for several minutes before the German officer arrived. He was taken to a farmhouse headquarters, where he was repeatedly asked, in English, how many Americans in German uniforms had been aboard his plane. Bradley responded, truthfully, that there were none.

Russian aircraft were strafing the area where Aubrey Bradley was being held, and he was given coffee and stale bread while waiting transport to Brandenburg. There, he was interrogated again about Americans in German uniform. His bleeding head wound was bandaged by a German corpsman, and he was moved again to the flak headquarters where he was locked in a cell overnight. Bradley said the Germans knew the war was about over, and he was shifted between locations because no one wanted to be encumbered with another prisoner. About three days later, he met his co-pilot at another site in Brandenburg that was otherwise filled with Italian prisoners. At a reunion some years later, Bradley ran into another crew member who had escaped with the help of his would-be executioner. The American eventually became a Catholic priest, and his deliverer came to America to attend his ordination. Another guy, according to Bradley, told him he'd been on the same plane when it was shot down, and escaped on his own.

Aubrey Bradley said when the war was over, the Germans just folded; the guards all discarded their uniforms and left. The camp was out of water, and Bradley's co-pilot needed hydration. Bradley was crossing the street to a nearby cistern when a Russian shell fell nearby and he heard small arms fire down the lane. He hit the deck, and apologized to his co-pilot for his failed attempt. Bradley said he was shot down on 20 April [Annotator's Note: 20 April 1945], and it was 1 May when the Russians arrived, asking for Lieutenant Bradley. He straightened his clothes and went to meet a pistol-toting Russian who said the prisoners would be protected. The liberators cleaned up the building where Bradley was being held and brought food. There he stayed, in better quarters, until after V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. On that day, the prisoners were called out to hear a proclamation that the war was over, but there was still shooting going on to the west, and they couldn't go back to the American lines just yet. The prisoners cheered and went back into the camp. Bradley was so glad to be alive, he said he didn't care where he was. He remembers dining with a Russian cavalry troop, and passing a pot and spoon from hand to hand. He drank vodka with the Russians, and while drunk and walking in the neighborhood of the encampment, Bradley found a ceremonial saber that he brought back to the United States, and now has hanging over his fireplace.

The Russians appropriated German housing, and Aubrey Bradley was quartered in a home for a few days before being transferred by truck to the American lines. Bradley wanted to be driven past an American flag; when the soldiers spotted one, everyone on the truck cheered. Back in American territory, he got fresh clothes, and filled out the paperwork for his Purple Heart. The soldiers were taken to Le Havre, France where he met another of his crew, underwent a medical review, and boarded a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] bound for England. Bradley went to his future wife's home in Kettering, proposed and married her before coming back to the United States. His wife, Audrey, followed on a troop ship.