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Behind enemy lines: Veteran recalls WWII experience

T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS World War II B-24 nose gunner Donald Buck of State Center keeps a collection of pictures and memorabilia from his time in the European Theater, including his original bail-out kit. Silk maps, pills to retain water and keep awake, a small compass, a minuscule hacksaw, and a multi-language ID card were included in his kit.

Editor’s note: This is the latest in an ongoing series of articles profiling those who have ever served in the U.S. military, be it overseas or stateside. Every Thursday, a new profile will be published in the T-R.

STATE CENTER — A bombing run over the Austrian city of Vienna was just the beginning of Donald Buck’s adventure behind enemy lines in February 1945.

A farm kid who grew up near Rhodes, Buck was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943, and was placed in the Army Air Corps. Before long, he became part of a 10-man crew to fly bombing missions over Europe in the closing days of the war.

“An anti-aircraft shell went through the wing and cut the fuel line,” Buck, who acted as a B-24 nose turret gunner, recalled of that day over Vienna in 1945.

Buck said the mission was to bomb an oil refinery in Vienna, part of an effort to damage infrastructure and resources the Nazis needed to continue fighting. He said the aircraft took hits after the bombs dropped, and the plane made it about 100 miles on one engine.

The only serious injury came to the one non-crew member aboard: a photographer named Carter.

Carter was unable to bail out with the crew, so the next best thing the pilot could do was crash land, and the plane came down in Yugoslavia, where the Nazis had a military presence.

One of the crew members snapped pictures of the scene on the ground, including the scar left on the snowy cornfield by the large plane and crew members scanning the area. Buck said the weather and scenery wasn’t unlike that of central Iowa during the same time of year.

“The farmer came out, looked at the airplane and said ‘the partisans are coming,'” Buck said.

The partisans were a group of Yugoslavs who fought the Nazis with guerrilla warfare, they were insurgents, and they could offer shelter to the crashed Americans. However, there were other partisans who fought on behalf of the Nazis, and Buck said they were lucky to land in a 10-square mile area the happened to be controlled by the anti-German forces.

“We just stayed and started unloading some things out of the airplane, the partisans showed up pretty quick,” Buck said. “They gave us a room … we slept on the floor.”

The crew shared the duplex-like space with a Yugoslav family. Carter received medical treatment for his wounds during the bombing run.

“23 days we were there,” Buck said. “On March 1, they brought in two C-47s with supplies for the partisans, they were South African pilots.”

The Allied South Africans radioed the Americans’ location to friendly forces. Buck said they were officially designated “missing in action” because they had been missing several weeks.

“As soon as they landed, the C-47s sank straight down into the mud,” he said.

The partisans tried to pull the aircraft out with oxen and chain, but the chain broke after several attempts to heave the planes out of the mud.

“We had to change tactics, so we dug ramps in front of the wheels … we got all these people out there and we got underneath the wings and we all lifted and pushed,” Buck said.

Once out of the mud, the pilot on the C-47 the Americans were closest to started the engine to life.

“I was probably the last one to get in,” Buck said, recalling how he sprinted to get on board the plane before it took to the sky. “We flew off for Bari, Italy, to the hospital … that evening we wrote letters to everyone at home.”

The letter Buck wrote to his parents in State Center arrived in four days, “unusually fast” at the time.

After the excitement of being a nose gunner in World War II, Buck said he decided his days in the service were over at war’s end, and added he was extremely lucky to have survived the bombing run in Vienna that day.

“I think there had to have been some divine intervention that day, otherwise I wouldn’t be here,” Buck said.

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Do you know a military veteran who should be profiled? Send your suggestions to Editor Jeff Hutton at: jhutton@timesrepublican.com or contact American Legion Post 46 Commander Randy Kessler at: iapost46commander@gmail.com

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