Paul Bosworth was born in November 1925 in Chicago, Illinois. [Annotator's Note: Sound cuts in and out.] He was in high school when he heard over the radio that we had been attacked by the Japanese [Annotator's Note: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. In early 1944, Bosworth volunteered to go in the service. He wanted an assurance that he could finish high school before going in. He was told that would be no problem. He graduated three weeks later on 28 February 1944 and received a letter saying to come on in the next day. Bosworth volunteered to follow his middle brother. His oldest brother was a medic on the frontline. Bosworth did not want to be on the ground if he could help it. His middle brother was a Navy pilot. His brother had been set back in his training due to buzzing the control tower and had been told he could not fly outside of the United States once he made Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Bosworth just wanted to fly. The Navy turned him down because his eyes focused too slowly. They told him to try the Army, which he did. He was then given the opportunity to become a gunner on a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] and he volunteered to be the tail gunner.

Paul Bosworth was sent to Flagstaff, Arizona for training. He started shooting up all of the beautiful cactuses there. He did not like shooting them up because he knew they were living spaces for birds and had water in them. He joined his crew in Tampa, Florida. That is where he became a tail gunner. He volunteered for it and it was given to him with open arms. He had driven with his dad in his car and on a couple of occasions, something would just pop somewhere, and it would startle him. [Annotator's Note: Bosworth is referencing an eyesight issue that he has that kept him from being a pilot.] He thought that if he saw the puffs [Annotator's Note: smoke from antiaircraft artillery fire] from the tail position he would know they had gotten through them. At the end of the training program, they picked up their aircraft in Maine and then flew it to England. The B-17 [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] is a very well built airplane. It could take a lot of flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] and not fall apart. His aircraft had some pretty close calls with flak. It was easy to maintain, according to their flight engineer. The front of the ship eventually developed a new turret. The Germans had figured out early on, that if they flew directly at a B-17, they could fire until they had to pull out. They killed pilots and caused all kinds of damage. With the new turret, which their aircraft had, the gunner could fire back at them. The radio operator sat alone midship. The ball turret gunner was about eight inches from the radio operator's office. The waist gunner was by the ball turret and Bosworth was back in the tail. They had a crew of nine but the only one who counted to Bosworth was himself. [Annotator's Note: Bosworth laughs.]

Paul Bosworth and his crew flew their B-17 [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] to Wales. The flight was very quiet and the pilot said he needed to see some land. They found an airport to land at. They were to deliver the aircraft to Wales, but they landed in Ireland, 500 miles off course. They loaded up with gas and got some food then they flew down to Wales. Shortly after they delivered the aircraft, they boarded a train to Chelveston, England. It was quite nice. After he returned home, there was a town near there named Bosworth Market. He told his nephew about it. The nephew found out the family had come from there in 1565. Bosworth thought the living conditions were excellent. They had Quonset huts [Annotator's Note: prefabricated structure with a semicircular cross-section] that had three beds. He asked to have the bed next to the stove. It happened to be the bed that everyone used as a poker table, so Bosworth did not get much sleep. They did a lot of schooling when they were not flying. They had arrived in England just shortly after Thanksgiving [Annotator's Note: 23 November 1944]. They could go into Chelveston on leave. He was sending all of his pay home to his folks. They would send some money back. He would not play in the poker games so he would not lose money. He did have some bitters and sweets at a pub. The place had bathrooms that both men and women used and that startled him. The locals treated them very nicely. They would kind of watch themselves to make sure things were good. Darts was the game there. They were too far from London [Annotator's Note: London, England] to have any air raids but they did practice for them.

The first thing Paul Bosworth would do before a mission was get dressed and eat. They could be in the air for hours. All they had to eat in flight were hard English toffees. In flight, they would be frozen and even harder. It did sustain them. They would go into the room where they were told where they were going and what they would be hitting. This was especially important for the ball and the tail [Annotator's Note: ball turret and tail gunners] as they might have looked down and missed something. They would go to the aircraft, check the guns and get into position. The aircraft then lined up on the taxi way. The tail and ball never took off or landed in their positions. They would take off and get to altitude and assemble into their formations which took a little time. They would cross the channel [Annotator's Note: English Channel] together after flying over a good chunk of England. They would be told if there was a lot of resistance. Stuttgart [Annotator's Note: Stuttgart, Germany] was an example. The navigator [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Flight Officer Matthew W. Buttiglieri] in the 366th Squadron [Annotator's Note: 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] would study all of that before take off. He would call out the headings to the pilot. They made him the lead navigator on their 18th mission. Their craft was the squadron lead.

Paul Bosworth was on a bombing mission just west of Dresden [Annotator's Note: Dresden, Germany]. They would normally drop their bombs when the navigator and bombardier got on the line. The bombardier then had control of the aircraft. They were over a ball bearing plant in Bullay [Annotator's Note: Bullay, Germany] and it was very heavily guarded. The first bombs out were smoke bombs. Everybody behind drops their bombs based on the smoke bombs. Bosworth feels there was a west wind at that time and the smoke was drifting towards Dresden [Annotator's Note: Dresden, Germany]. He thinks that is why they were blamed for bombing Dresden. Everyone behind should have been looking to see that they were hitting the right spot. Nobody talked to them about it, but they read it in the papers. [Annotator's Note: Bosworth interrupts the story.] On their first mission, Bosworth followed the instructed seating procedure. To get to his position [Annotator's Note: to the tail gunner position], he would have to crawl on his hands and knees to a bicycle seat. They were told to put their feet underneath it. He was supposed to fly there. That got old very quickly. His knees and ankles did not feel good after the mission. On his second mission, he found the rudder shaft and put his feet out and leaned back against it. The windows would be even with his head and he could turn it around. Later in the war, the Germans did not have much petrol [Annotator's Note: gasoline] and they would only send up fighters when they had to. One group was beleaguered by the Germans, the 100th Bombardment Group. They had a big red tail that the Germans could see easily. He heard a story that one of them was looking for a place to crash land and an Me-109 [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter aircraft] pulled up alongside them and must have been trying to get the pilot to land at a German field. The waist gunner shot the German plane down. That was when the plane was described to the German people, so they knew what they had to go after. Bosworth's outfit [Annotator's Note: 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] was happy when the 100th Bombardment Group flew in a different direction because if the Germans had fighters up, they would look for the red tails.

Paul Bosworth had no encounters with German fighters. The only time he shot his guns was to ensure they were not frozen. They flew with escorts, including Tuskegee Airmen [Annotator's Note: 332nd Fighter Group] once. They were fantastic because when they were with a group, the group never lost an aircraft. Bosworth's group [Annotator's Note: Bosworth was a tail gunner in the 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] did not lose many, because they were never attacked. The flak guns [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery] were the killers. His navigator, Charlie Gray [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Charles L. Gray] did all of the excellent work flying for them. When you have 500 B-17s [Annotator’s Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] coming behind you, you have to fly a pretty straight line. The German antiaircraft guns were very accurate. Those were 88s [Annotator's Note: 88mm multi-purpose artillery] and powerful slugs. On his last mission, they were on their approach and in the last five minutes of straight and level flying. Bosworth told the engineer that there was oil on the windows. The copilot was not their regular one. He was asked to check the instruments and said everything was fine. Bosworth did not think he had enough time to really have checked but said nothing. Six or seven minutes later, the inboard engine starting tearing up the wing. He was told to hang on because they were going to have to snap the engine shaft. They dove the aircraft straight down. At a certain speed, they pulled up. The plane leveled off but lost both inboard engines. The pilot said the get the maps out but did not hear an answer from the navigator. He said he forgot the maps. Now they would have to turn around and get back over the lines. They were out of formation entirely and they all voted to turn West. The radio operator, Byron [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Byron E. Crum] called for a heading. The navigator said, "head west". The pilot did not do that. After the war, Bosworth saw on a map that if he had done so, they would have been safe. Instead, they ended up over Trier, Germany, 500 miles off course.

[Annotator's Note: Paul Bosworth served in the USAAF as a tail gunner on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber in the 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force. During a mission on 2 March 1945, Bosworth's aircraft lost its two inboard engines forcing the crew to abort the mission and begin looking for a place to crash land.] They dumped everything they could including the guns, ammunition and the bombs. They do not know where the bombs dropped, and they felt bad about that. They tried to take the screws out around the ball turret and kicked it, but it would not drop off. They were now below 12,000 feet and Bosworth recommended that they get some rest. There was a sudden big flare. Bosworth asked the waist gunner [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant Edgar Harrison] if he had been hit. Everybody was fine but the ball turret was gone. The flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] had to have hit and exploded just below it. There were holes everywhere. The flak had cut one whole section of control cables for the automatic pilot. They were still losing altitude. The Trier area was very heavily wooded. At 1,500 feet, they had to bail out. The waist gunner was in front of Bosworth in the open doorway. He just grabbed both sides of the door and Bosworth shoved him out. Bosworth went out and pulled his ripcord. He looked down but saw no parachute and he was getting sick to his stomach, thinking he had just killed this kid. He was not more than 15 feet above the treetops when he finally pulled his ripcord. His chute opened and got hung up on two trees, which saved his life. Bosworth got on the ground and helped him out of the tree. Bosworth asked him why waited so long to pull his parachute. He told him it was a pull delay jump. Bosworth explained why that was not the thing to have to done. [Annotator's Note: Bosworth laughs.]

[Annotator's Note: Paul Bosworth served in the USAAF as a tail gunner on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber in the 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force. During a mission on 2 March 1945, Bosworth's aircraft lost its two inboard engines forcing the crew to abort the mission and begin looking for a place to crash land. He and the crew were finally forced to bail out of his stricken plane over Trier, Germany.] Upon hitting the ground, five of the crew got together right away. Bosworth was the only one who hit a grassy spot. Byron [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Byron E. Crum] came running over to him. Bosworth got out from under his parachute. They noticed that there were about eight or nine guys with pitchforks, axes and machetes coming at them. Behind them, they heard a German calling out "Achtung!" [Annotator's Note: German for "Attention!"] to the civilians who finally stopped about 50 feet away. The German got in front of the airmen and started talking to the civilians who then walked away. The German soldier had no gun. Once they were far enough away, the German turned around and in perfect English said that he knew he had to get down there when he saw them bail out. He had been in the first prisoner exchange program between the two governments. He had been a prisoner of war for two years at Fitzsimons General Hospital in Denver, Colorado. He said he was going to live there and he did not want to have any kind of a bad record. Bosworth and the men thanked him and asked him to let them leave but he said he could not do that. There were too many locals just looking for a chance to beat on them. He took them to Trier and turned them over to the police. They were scared to death. A great big, muscled German soldier with a burp gun [Annotator's Note: 9mm MP-40, or, Maschinenpistole 40, German submachine gun] came in. He pointed the gun at Bosworth and Peck [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Staff Sergeant Peter Peck], the ball turret gunner. They got up. They started marching into a long building and Bosworth noticed a brick wall near the end. Bosworth was almost piddling in his britches [Annotator's Note: urinating in his pants], he was so scared. The German actually wanted them to pack up the parachutes that were there. They were pure silk and the soldier wanted to take them home.

[Annotator's Note: Paul Bosworth served in the USAAF as a tail gunner on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber in the 366th Bombardment Squadron, 305th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force. During a mission on 2 March 1945, Bosworth's aircraft lost its two inboard engines forcing the crew to to bail out of the stricken plane over Trier, Germany. They were promptly captured and turned over to the police in Trier.] The Army [Annotator's Note: German Army] came and took them. All eight surviving crew members were together. The pilot [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant John H. "Jack" Gordon, Jr.] could not get out of the plane and died when it crashed. Bosworth was discouraged as he did not know the plane crashed. They were put in a cattle car on a train. They were packed in pretty tight and only half could sit down. Bosworth suggested they pick one corner for their washroom [Annotator's Note: for human waste]. It took three days to get to Nuremberg [Annotator's Note: Nuremberg, Germany] where they went into their first camp [Annotator's Note: Stalag XIII-D Nürnberg Langwasser, Nuremberg, Germany]. The English had been there much longer and knew that they were to get Red Cross food parcels containing concentrated food and thick canned milk, but no water. They had cigarettes which eventually turned into money as they were marched from Nuremberg. The English took all the boxes. [Annotator's Note: Bosworth backs up in the story to describe their interrogation.] The men were told to be quiet and were in solitary confinement. Bosworth was taken to the officer doing the interrogation. Bosworth told him his basic information. The interrogator took a piece of paper from a manila folder. He told Bosworth that he knew he was the youngest of three sons. Bosworth reacted to that and got mad at himself. The interrogator told him they also knew he used to ride his bicycle to his dad's gas station and walk two blocks to Lane Tech High School [Annotator's Note: in Chicago, Illinois]. All absolutely correct. Bosworth knew it had to be espionage. They were interrogated in Wetzlar, Germany. The other men said later that they had not been shown that kind of information. The school Bosworth attended was something the Germans should be concerned about. Lane Tech High School were solid male students, no ladies at all.

Paul Bosworth was in Nuremberg [Annotator's Note: Stalag XIII-D Nürnberg Langwasser, Nuremberg, Germany] for a week and a half. They were then taken out and put in a column. There were 10,000 POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] in this march. The first day out, they were marching five abreast. They heard some aircraft overhead and looked up to see two P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] and two P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft]. They flew across and the first plane strafed and dropped a bomb. The second strafed and the third and fourth just flew through. The guards had a tough time getting them all back together again. Bosworth was near the end of the line and a colonel was back there. The colonel had a flag from somewhere and he held it against his forehead. He was tall and the pilot saw it. From then on during the course of the day, one of those aircraft would buzz them and then be gone. They had the precise location of these prisoners of war who were being moved. This meant the other Allied forces knew where they were. They marched all the way to Moosburg [Annotator's Note: Stalag VII-A, Moosburg, Germany]. [Annotator's Note: Bosworth backs up in the story.] As they would march along, they would stop to rest. Byron [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Byron E. Crum] knew a little German and talked with the guards. He asked to take them to see where people were digging potatoes. They would barter their cigarettes for potatoes. They had been captured on 2 March 1945. This was about a month later. They would light a fire at night and cook the potatoes until the fire burned out. They would use the tin cans they got from the Red Cross to make spoons from to cut them in half. They would use the charcoal as food as well. He had learned that in the Boy Scouts. He felt good and they did not get dysentery. They only had the fires during the day time. They fell in love with those potatoes.

Paul Bosworth was in Moosburg [Annotator's Note: Stalag VII-A, Moosburg, Germany] until he was liberated. The camp was very neat. There was not a lot of garbage lying around. It was very crowded. He and Byron [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Byron E. Crum] walked to one tent and it was loaded with guys. They decided to lay their heads inside with their bodies outside. They realized that if it rained, they would be soaking wet before they knew it. They then reversed direction. It never rained though. It was all tents where he was. Moosburg was huge. He spoke to another survivor the day of this interview and discovered that they lived there differently and remembered their liberation differently. The Germans had to know the war was beginning to wind down to the end. The war ended on 8 May 1945. They had been liberated on 29 April. They were treated well and had no problem. They were not fed. He heard that the Germans believed non-commissioned officers should have to do work. They did get some black bread but no margarine. They would get something worse than oatmeal once a day. They learned to eat it. They would barter for the black bread.

One morning around 1 May 1945, Paul Bosworth woke up to the smell of coffee which was unusual. He woke up Byron [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Byron E. Crum] and he smelled it too. They could see a G.I. [Annotator's Note: slang term for an American soldier] sitting in an intersection between the tents. They could see the steam coming up. They got up and went down to the canteen and got some coffee. Bosworth was told that they had been liberated during the night. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] had come in. Bosworth asked how, because he had not heard anything. He was told that was how Patton does it. He has 16 prize guys with bombs [Annotator's Note: he indicates hand grenades] and guns hanging all over them. One of them is named Tom and he can speak any German vernacular. They knock on the gate and Tom tells the guard he wants in and tells him he has one minute and 25 seconds to get the commandant. The commandant wanted them to come to his office. They went in and told him he had one hour and 35 minutes to get all of the Germans together and get rid of their weapons. The commandant said yes and took off. They accomplished it all in an hour and 25 minutes. They were told to line up in single file, anyone who did not would be shot. The commandant was the last one out and the gates were closed. Apparently, tanks came crashing through where the officers were. Bosworth was exuberant to be free. They had a great time and were waking everyone up. They were told to stay close by and had to return to the camp or be left behind. Bosworth and Byron only went out of the camp once. They found a big apartment building that went around a whole block. None of the garages were locked and one contained a yellow roadster with the top down. The keys were in the car, but there was no battery. They went back to the camp. They were to be loaded onto six-bys [Annotator's Note: CCKW; two and a half ton, 6x6 truck, also known as deuce and a half] to Landshut [Annotator's Note: Landshut, Germany] to fly back to France to Camp Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: Cigarette Camp, temporary staging camp named for popular cigarette brands; Camp Lucky Strike was between Cany and Saint-Valery, France].

The camp [Annotator's Note: Camp Lucky Strike, between Cany and Saint-Valery, France] was Seventh Heaven. They [Annotator's Note: Paul Bosworth and his fellow newly liberated prisoners of war] ate well. They had steaks, potatoes, beans and dessert. They got to take showers and that was heavenly too. They were also examined. Bosworth and Byron [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Byron E. Crum] had scabies. They were sent back in to be sprayed with DDT [Annotator's Note: Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; developed as an insecticide]. It did not help much. Bosworth had to go to the VA [Annotator's Note: Veterans Administration] Hospital quickly after he got home for them. The war ended while he was on his way to Lucky Strike. He returned on the Robert S. Peary [Annotator's Note: SS Robert E. Peary] and he pulled guard duty. They were on the first three ships in the column leaving. Two nights out from New York, they turned on all of the lights. It was a pretty sight. They went by the Statue of Liberty and all had tears. [Annotator's Note: Bosworth gets emotional.] Bosworth stayed in the service because he was not allowed to quit. They gave him his papers on 7 December 1945 for discharge. He was in the United States for the Japanese surrender. Exuberance was there but not like when the Germans did. Bosworth was discharged at Chanute Field, Illinois as a Staff Sergeant. He did not take advantage of the G.I. Bill even though he did go to school. He is thankful for the interview and interest so there is something for the future of our world.