Paul Lefever was born in September 1920 in Strasburg Township, Pennsylvania, the youngest and only son among the three children in his family. His father was a farmer until his health required him to go into construction. Lefever was educated through high school in Strasburg Township; the developing political situation was never discussed at home. He enlisted in the military, so he could have his choice of branch, in January 1941. His parents weren't happy about his enlistment, but understood that he would be drafted if he didn't volunteer. He was already in the Army Air Corps when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], and he remembered that he was in downtown Denver, Colorado when he heard the news. He knew the country would be at war. He was a first sergeant, working in the orderly room, and could have stayed in that position, but went with the 1033rd [Annotator's Note: cannot verify unit] to open a basic training center in Kearns, Utah. At the time, the Air Force was looking for aerial gunners, and while he was talking recruits into going into that field, he persuaded himself that it was a good idea. He had to take a demotion to buck sergeant, but went to gunnery school in Las Vegas, Nevada. He never regretted the decision.

After gunnery school, Paul Lefever underwent training at Buckley Field, Colorado for pursuit armors training and had bombardment training at Salt Lake City, Utah. His first base was at Ephrata, Washington, where be became part of a crew, and went on to Rapid City, South Dakota, then Topeka, Kansas. After three phases of training as a crew, they were ready to go overseas. Lefever didn't want to go to the Pacific and felt fortunate his assignment took him with replacements headed for the European Theater. They traveled on the HMS Queen Mary, the luxury liner that had been refitted as a troop ship, and because of her great speed, they could travel unescorted. Lefever landed in England feeling confident of his ability as a gunner, but underwent more training in England. He was stationed in the small town of Podington, England, and found the ladies agreeable, but "didn't plan on bringing one home." He got on well with his crew and the men from other squadrons. They flew a couple of practice missions over the continent, but at the time, things weren't going very well, and everyone knew their missions were dangerous. After five missions, their crew's pilot was grounded because of asthma, the crew broke up, and Lefever started flying extra gunner.

On days that Paul Lefever didn't fly, he would watch other squadrons take off, identify planes by their numbers, and wait for their return. He saw damaged incoming planes all the time, and several crash landings. One dark morning, a mission was scrubbed when the planes were taxiing for takeoff. The lead plane got the message and cut his engine; the second aircraft in line ran into him on the runway. Bombs went off, gasoline flamed; everyone was killed. Asked how the Air Force handled the potential psychological effects of such destruction, Lefever offered as an example the time his was the only plane from his squadron that came back from a dangerous mission: they handed him a bottle of whiskey, told him to "get a load on" and forget it. Lefever was living in a barracks at the time, and he was the only man in his building who got back, "That can cut you deep," he said. Supply came in and took the belongings of the lost airmen, and Lefever was left with only one other man who didn't fly that day. He still wonders how he survived, when so many others "just disappeared."

The first mission Paul Lefever participated in was the second Schweinfurt mission [Annotator's Note: on 14 October 1943], which was very costly. Lefever flew as a waist gunner on some missions and other times as a tail gunner, which he preferred. He initially flew missions on the B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] and later on the B-26 [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber]. Lefever discussed what his job was like in both positions and the equipment and clothing he used. The waist guns had no sights but the tail gunner could use computing sights. They fired a lot of bullets. At the end of a mission, the floor of the plane would be covered with casings. As an extra gunner, Lefever flew with a lot of different crews, and he said the level of panic varied by crew; some were disciplined, others could be heard yelling over the intercom, "Here the sons of bitches come."

Paul Lefever related in depth his mission to destroy a well protected V-2 rocket manufacturing site in Stettin [Annotator's Note: Stettin, Germany, now Szczecin, Poland]. Enemy fighters attacked the American planes, in wave after wave. "It was a very deep penetration," Lefever said, and the squadron knew it would be dangerous. Lefever thinks it was the whole 8th Bomb Group [Annotator's Note: 8th Air Force] flying on that mission, more than 1,000 planes. The planes flew high over France to northeast Germany, bombed, and then went out over the Baltics. There were 60 or 70 planes lost that day. Flying in formation going in, they experienced a lot of flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire], and plowed right through it. Exploding flak makes a resounding "boom," and Lefever said it was scary. He remembered his first flack attack experience: while flying over flak barges, his pilot advised the crew to put on their flak suits. Lefever had just bent down to get his when a piece of shrapnel came through the floor; he dropped the suit and stood on it. Lefever said an airman never got used to it. Returning to the mission in question, Lefever noted that it was an 11 hour foray, well coordinated, and formed up before they reached the English Channel. At the target, the antiaircraft fire was intense. Lefever's aircraft was number seven in the formation, and one fighter blew up right off his wing. The plane almost rolled, but the pilot got it leveled off. As a waist gunner, he had a belt he could hook on to his mount, but even so, Lefever said he was falling around, sliding on shell casings on the floor, and had to hang on to his machine gun to keep his balance. It was a terrifying mission, and although his plane dropped its bombs and made it out, six out of the seven aircraft in Lefever's squadron didn't get back to base. He knew many of those men. When he got back, there was little consolation aside from being handed a bottle of whiskey. He could have asked to see the chaplain, but noted that few airmen did that. Lefever said many men didn't want to admit they were afraid, but anyone who said that was lying. Some guys cried, and were never thought less of because they did.

Paul Lefever acknowledged that many men suffered because there was a stigma attached to going to a "flak house" for rest, and wouldn't go unless ordered. He never did, but was always happy about a three-day pass. He remembers going to London where he "did the rounds." Training continued, although Lefever doesn't remember what there was left to learn. He flew 15 missions on B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], the last one in January or February 1943. Then he got into trouble and was transferred to B-26s [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber], flying out of Bournemouth and Boscombe, England. [Annotator's Note: Lefever was transferred to the 397th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force.] The landing on the new plane was different, and the aircraft was much faster, but his position as tail gunner on the B-26s was similar to that on his earlier aircraft. After the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], he flew missions into France, and later made deeper penetrations onto the continent. He remembered the saturation bombing of Saint Lo, France, but wasn't part of it. After Saint Lo was taken, and the engineers put down landing mats and he flew out of that location. They moved two more times after that, to Dreux and to Saint-Quinton [Annotator's Note: both in France]. At that time, the Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German Air Force] was weakened, but still made dangerous, concentrated raids.

Deep penetration raids were the most dangerous, according to Paul Lefever, and he was shot down during an attack on a railroad bridge over the Moselle River during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. His plane was flying low, reached the target and dropped its load and, still in formation, was headed out when enemy fighters came down. A couple of planes blew up, and the formation was disbursed. The front of his plane was on fire, his intercom was knocked out, and he didn't get the bailout signal. When he crawled out of the tail, the waist and turret gunners had already left. He knew it was time to get out. He put on his chute, and bailed out while the plane was descending. He went out through the exit area at the waist, and dropped about 10,000 feet. It was his first jump, and a Lefever said it was a "thrill." There was a lot of smoke, and he was free-falling face down to get away from the fighters, but turned over when he got closer to the ground. It wasn't too long after he pulled the cord that he hit, hard, and broke an ankle. None of his crew landed near him. A farmer who could speak a little English, which he learned when he was an American prisoner during the First World War, found him and took him into a house. Lefever didn't know if he was in enemy territory, but asked for a doctor. An SS trooper [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] arrived instead.

Paul Lefever said he was not mistreated by his German captors, but was taken into town and left in a dark loft without medical attention. He was moved to a front line first aid station, but wasn't treated. There was a constant movement of horse and wagon convoys bringing supplies in because of a shortage of gasoline. Lefever was put in a boxcar and traveled by rail to an unknown destination, but could go no further than Koblenz, Germany because American planes had bombed the marshaling yards there. He was walked to Limberg, Germany but doesn't remember much of the trip, except that a civilian hit him a couple of times over the head with a chunk of rubble while he was en route. When he arrived, Lefever was "very unhappy and frustrated" when he was strip searched in the cold, and called the guard a "Kraut SB," realizing immediately that he shouldn't have done it. He was left standing there naked for quite a while. An English doctor put a cast on his ankle, and he was interrogated and placed in solitary confinement. He knew he could be shot, and even saw two large wagonloads of bodies go by while he was there. Instead, he was brought to the transit camp at Wetzlar [Annotator's Note: Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe or Transit Camp of the Air Force, referred to as Dulag Luft, in Wetzlar, Germany], and then to Nuremburg where he was held for quite a while. During his stay there, the Red Cross came through and gave him a form card to send to his parents, notifying them that he was imprisoned. Lefever said his mother didn't take it very well. When the Allied troops got close, he was marched to Ludwigsburg, Germany, and was liberated by Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] Army. The guards had abandoned the camp and Lefever remembers getting hold of a leaflet that warned the prisoners that they would endanger themselves if they left the facility. He had friends, however, that went out, toured the countrysides, and ended up in the Lucky Strike cigarette camp [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France] at the same time he did. He said he rather wished he had gone with them.

When Paul Lefever saw Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] and his tanks, he figured the war was heading in the right direction. The General was in his jeep at the end of the cavalcade that came through the gates on 29 April [Annotator's Note: 29 April 1945]. Lefever said that within a few days, a bakery was installed in the camp, and his first taste of white bread was "like eating angel food cake." He had some stomach trouble if he ate too much at a time. It was a long time after the war when he found out the fate of his crew from the group's [Annotator's Note: 397th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force] historian. The pilot was badly burned and died a few days after bailing out. It was surmised that the copilot went out through the top hatch, hit the vertical stabilizer and was killed; and that the navigator-bombardier never got out. The waist gunner and engineer suffered "execution," and the story of how that happened remains unknown to Lefever, who was the only one that came home alive. After liberation, Lefever was in Rheims, France on the day of the surrender [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. He then went to Lucky Strike [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France], where he spoke with General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States], and agreed that he wanted to get home quickly, even if it wasn't "in style." He boarded a Merchant Marine freighter that hit a storm in the Atlantic. Everyone on board was sick except for the Air Force guys who were used to the movement. From New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] he took a train to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. His parents didn't have a phone, and Lefever called a neighbor to let know he was on his way. His mother cried when she and his father met him outside their home, and Lefever said it was nice to be home and safe.