John Howland was born in Casper, Wyoming in 1920. He can trace his ancestry back to the days of the Pilgrims. After Howland attended first grade in Casper, his father was transferred back to New York in 1927. That was right before the Depression. [Annotator’s Note: the Great Depression began with the collapse of the Wall Street Stock Market in October 1929.] Times became very tough as his father lost his fortune in the stock market. During the Depression, the family moved to Fort Chester, New York. They lived there from 1928 until 1939 when he graduated from high school. His mother was born in Kansas. Howland preferred that area of the country because he adapted best to his mother’s family. Howland attended college at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In September 1939, he began college. That was when the war started. [Annotator’s Note: Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939. England and France immediately declared war on Germany to begin World War Two in Europe.] Howland knew he would be caught up in the conflict. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he knew that the time had come. [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor and other Hawaiian military installations were attacked by the Japanese on 7 December 1941. Most Americans felt a determination to get involved in fighting the enemy as a result.]

John Howland had taken flight courses and was ready to join the Air Force but was restricted from becoming a pilot because of his height. He had to wait six months after Pearl Harbor. At that point, he was transferred to San Antonio and the Aviation Cadet School. Next was pre-flight training at Ellington Airbase. Celestial navigation would be taught at Hondo, Texas afterward. There were three months of training with good weather. He was assigned to a B-17 group and to a wonderful pilot named Jim Tyson. [Annotator’s Note: the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft was a four engine heavy bomber. The spelling on the name of the pilot could not be verified.] The men met in Washington state and then did their overseas training in Nebraska for three months. At Thanksgiving 1943, the crew headed toward England. There was a flight of 36 planes that got caught in a bad snowstorm in Newfoundland for 18 days. They took off on 18 December to fly across the Atlantic. It was everyman for himself. Three planes were lost out of the group. Two were lost to weather with a third plane becoming the victim of poor navigation. It ended up in France instead of England. The crew was captured. Those men served the whole war in a prisoner of war camp under German guard.

John Howland and his B-17 bomber crewmates were assigned to the 381st Bomb Group based at Ridgewell, England. They started their first bomb mission on 11 January 1944. They flew a tough raid against an objective in Germany. They lost a significant number of aircraft. It was a tough period. The 381st was part of the 1st Bombardment Division of the Eighth Air Force. The Group participated in Big Week. Many felt that General Jimmy Doolittle used the B-17s as bait to draw the German fighters into combat with the newly arrived P-51 Mustang fighters. [Annotator’s Note: Big Week was 20 to 25 February 1944 and was a conscious effort by General James “Jimmy” Doolittle and other Allied air commanders to lure the enemy fighter force into a decisive battle. The North American P-51 Mustang was just introduced as the first truly long range fighter that the Allies could commit against the Luftwaffe over all Germany.] The bombers lost a lot of people. The navigator at that time just followed the lead ship. On 6 March, the bombers flew their first deep penetration raid against Berlin. There were 69 bombers lost that day. On 8 March, the bombers returned and lost more aircraft. The next day, more losses occurred over Berlin. The lead ship of the flight flew a poor navigational run and brought the bombers over excessive flak areas. Howland attempted to correct the error of the lead ship navigator but was told to hold radio silence over enemy territory. He repeatedly attempted to make corrections but was told to hold radio silence. He was chewed out after returning to base. The plane was told to stand down. After pulling out his charts and reviewing them, he still contended that the course heading by the lead ship was flawed. Later that night, he was called to the commanding officer’s quarters. He felt he was ready to talk to him, too. Instead of being chewed out, he was offered a transfer to a Pathfinder force of the Eighth Air Force. He did not know what that force was.

John Howland became part of the Pathfinder force of the Eighth Air Force. They were accumulated in small squadrons because there were not enough of the new sophisticated air radar systems or men to operate them. The Pathfinders were only two percent of the total number of bombers. The Pathfinder aircraft was fitted with the H2X radar which had just been invented in 1940. Howland and his B-17 served as a Pathfinder in the 305th Bomb Group in Chelveston, England. Surprisingly, without further training, Howland and his crewmates were assigned to immediately lead a mission for the 381st Bomb Group. Howland questioned his superior officer and was told to consider himself a lead navigator. The raid was cancelled so they did not have to take the lead that day. On the following missions, Howland’s pilot named Jim had to lead 54 planes in a formation about a mile wide. [Annotator’s Note: the pilot was Jim Tyson on Howland’s B-17] Too fast a turn would cause problems with aircrafts keeping up or stalling out. He finally decided on a four minute turn over a four mile radius was the most opportune turning formation. That was good for Howland because it afforded him the ability to verify multiple checkpoints that he had to confirm for the run. He did not have to jog right or left toward the target. Rather he could fly right to the target. After leaving the first departure point, everything fell into place. Howland was never trained on the cathode ray tube or oscilloscope equipment he used for navigation. Both were excellent equipment. They were very user friendly. The H2X radar was operated by another individual. The radar was an advantage but the Germans learned to pick up the radar range and use it to target the bomber. The plane was hit hard several times. After 1 May, they were transferred to the 91st Bomb Group with 16 lead teams there. The same numbers existed for the 305th. They were preparing for D-Day. The lead teams would go to different groups to take lead for larger formations. The month of May was difficult with tough raids. On 29 May, the unit was told to go to [inaudible] at 22,000 feet and analyze the bombing by camera. The primitive H2X radar could accurately measure distance between water and land. It required a measure of the hypotenuse of a right triangle. It was tricky. Howland’s friend, John Wilson, developed a coordinated attack plan using this approach. Information would be fed to the Norden bombsight over continuous points. The bombings could be right on the money as a result.

John Howland had been involved in Operation Fortitude in deceiving the Germans before D-Day. They were not affected by a SHAEF order that night. [Annotator’s Note: the night before the 6 June 1944 Normandy invasion SHAEF—Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces orders a delay count on bomb drops to prevent unintentional bombing of offshore Allied vessels or newly landed Allied troops. The result was most bombers dropped their ordnance behind German lines without significant results.] A defined delay of release of bombs by three to five seconds resulted in missing the German emplacements. The bomber air speed covered the length of a football field every second. The 1st and 3rd Bombardment divisions did not receive that order. They bombed as they did at Skegness with the target being the beach just north of Bayeux. Howland’s friend John Wilson bombed the beaches near Arromanches in Normandy. He hit ten minutes before the troops were scheduled to land. Howland was to bomb Gold Beach 20 minutes before the landings. Of the 25,000 men commanded by General Dempsey on Gold Beach, he only lost 400 men. [Annotator’s Note: Gold Beach was one of five beaches in the invasion area. It was under the command of Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey.] On Omaha Beach, there was no aerial support with much heavier troop losses as a result. It was a terrible hazard of D-Day. It makes the Charge of the Light Brigade look like a cake walk. Seven missions were flown by Howland during the week of D-Day. That included a bomb run on the Pas de Calais on a gun position as a diversionary action. The day after D-Day, there was a run of 36 bombers near Lorient. He would fly 30 missions in all. Being shot at was the tough part.

more missions after D-Day and then returned to the United States. He was in Milwaukie on V-E Day and in Louisiana when the Japanese surrendered. He was anxious to return to college on the G.I Bill and become a geologist. His career was in oil and petroleum. It is important to continue the education of young people about World War Two. The men who are in the Normandy Cemetery gave up their futures so that today’s generation could live their lives. Howland lost so many friends during the war. The details of the war can be found in reading the stories of the war. Howland’s bombing Gee chart is an artifact in The National WII Museum. He enjoyed explaining the artifact and the mission to visitors he encountered at the Museum. Some of the details were not known by the visitors. Howland and his crewmates had full confidence in accomplishing their mission. The only way to learn the details of what happened is to read books on the subject. The story of Omaha Beach makes the Charge of the Light Brigade look like a cake walk.