[Kat]
On February 6, I read in the Kansas City Star that Robert Angus Barry had passed away February 4, 2008. I didn't know him, but, as I read his obituary, I realized that we should.
He attended Central High School, Kansas City Junior College, and Central College, Fayettesville, MO. He married Dorothy Pope on December 13, 1940. During World War II he served as a B- 17 pilot with the 8th Air Force, flying 30 missions over Europe. He was awarded four Bronze Stars, four Air Medals, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Presidential Unit Citation. Returning to KC after the war he worked several years for the Jack Jones Lumber Co. before buying out Mr. Jones and forming the Barry-Gann Lumber Co.
Read that: 30 missions, four Bronze Stars, Four Air Medals, The Distinguished Flying Cross and the Presidential Unit Citation. To be a bomber pilot and receive the DFC, a man would have had to fly into hell, stare into the face of death and, if he was lucky, his plane didn't fall apart even with plate sized holes in the wings and fuselage from "flak you could walk on", all the fuel didn't leak out from same holes, a strong wind kept him flying in the right direction and he eventually made it back to base, saving the lives of his crew. Or, he could be lucky like this story about Col. Vincent Fonke
Gunfire barraged the B-17. Flames engulfed its right wing, and an engine was knocked out. The plane was losing altitude fast, so Fonke ordered his eight-man crew to to bail out.Fonke was the last to jump. Seconds later, the plane exploded.
I looked for Mr. Barry's story on various sites. I looked up his name. I looked and could not find anything written about him. But I knew that couldn't be the end of the story. Not just a paragraph in the paper and a bare listing of his medals. So, I started searching backwards, starting with a short history of the Eighth Air Force.
(continued in flash traffic)
The Eighth Air Force was constituted on January 28, 1942, just 53 days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The plan was to build up forces to attack the German interior. Under the command of Major General Carl A. Spaatz, Major General Ira C. Eaker, and Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle, the hero of the 1942 B-25 air raid on Tokyo. It included such notables as then Lt. Col. Curtis LeMay. Even Clark Gable flew five combat missions with a B-17 bomber group and went on to make many training films and short films about the fearless men in the Mighty Eighth.
The Eighth recorded a number of "firsts". On July 4, 1942, six American crews joined six RAF crews on the first American mission to bomb Germany. Of the six crews, two were lost, foretelling the cost the Eighth would pay to smash the German military industry. On August 17, 1942, at 1500 hours, the first B-17 Flying Fortresses took off on their first strike against Germany.
One year later, August 17, 1943, in Operation Argument, later known as "Big Week", was launched to destroy the Luftwaffe and any supporting industries. Lt Col Curtis LeMay led the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission with 147 bombers. The first deep penetration attack against German industry without a fighter escort (P 47s did not have the range to fly the entire mission). While many targets were destroyed, the mission lost 60 bombers. Deep attacks were postponed for five months until escort coverage was established.
The Eighth was the first to fly day time bombing raids into Germany. They also flew cover over over Normandy on D-Day, supported the Air Borne invasion of the Netherlands and directly attacked German troops in the Battle of the Bulge. According to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum history page:
The Mighty Eighth compiled an impressive record in the war. This achievement, however, carried a high price. The 8th AF suffered half of the U.S Army Air Forces’ casualties in World War II (47,000-plus casualties with more than 26,000 deaths). The Eighth’s personnel also earned 17 Medals of Honor, 220 Distinguished Service Crosses, 850 Silver Stars, 7,000 Purple Hearts 46,000 Air Medals. Many more uncounted awards were presented to the 8 AF veterans after the war. There were 261 fighter aces and 305 gunner aces in the Eighth in World War II, and 31 fighter aces had more than 15 or more aircraft kills.
Somewhere in these numbers was Mr. Robert Angus Barry.
A number of Eighth Air Force units, flying B-17s, received the President's Distinguished Unit Citation including:
351st Bomber Group: A total of 311 missions were credited. Out of 279 B-17 Flying Fortresses, 124 were lost in combat.The 351st received a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for exceptional performance on October 9, 1943 when an aircraft factory in Anklam, Germany was accurately bombed despite extremely heavy flak and intense resistance from Luftwaffe fighters. The group received another DUC for participating in the successful attack of January 11, 1944 on aircraft factories in Oschersleben and Konigslutter in central Germany.
The 381st bombardment group The Group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for performance on 8 October 1943 when shipyards at Bremen were bombed accurately in spite of persistent enemy fighter attacks and heavy flak, and received a second DUC for similar action on 11 January 1944 during a mission against aircraft factories in central Germany.
The 306th bombardment groupWithout fighter escort and in the face of powerful opposition, the group completed an assault against aircraft factories in central Germany on 11 January 1944, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for the mission. Participated in the Big Week intensive campaign against the German aircraft industry, 20-25 February 1944. The group earned another DUC for effectively bombing an aircraft assembly plant at Bernberg, Germany on 22 February, even though escort fighters had abandoned the mission because of weather.
And the 91st Bomber Group Its first mission to a target in Germany occurred January 27, and it earned the first of two Distinguished Unit Citations on March 4 when it continued an attack against the marshalling yards at Hamm, Germany, after all the other groups had turned back because of poor weather conditions. On April 17 the group led the Eighth Air Force on its first mission against the German aircraft industry, attacking Bremen. German fighter reaction was intense and sustained, and the Eighth lost twice as many bombers as on any previous mission. The 91st had six B-17s shot down, all from the 401st Bomb Squadron.Approximately 5,200 crewmen flew combat missions for the 91st from 1942 to 1945. 19% were killed or missing (887 KIA and 123 MIA) and 18% (959) became prisoners of war. 33 others were killed in flying accidents. [snip]
The fatalities in the 91st Bomb Group, equivalent to an infantry regiment in numbers of combat personnel, exceeded the killed-in-action of more than half (47) of the Army's ground force divisions, and equalled or exceeded the rate of killed-in-action in the infantry regiments of 35 others. Only seven divisions (all infantry) had killed-in-action rates higher than the 91st BG
Included in this famed group was the Memphis Belle, the first B-17 and crew to complete 25 missions and live to tell about it. Images of the 91st bomber group missions and crews at Sam Halpert's Page.
We didn't know Robert Angus Barry, but we know the stories of men like him. Mr. Barry came home, raised a passel of kids, bought a business and spent 67 years with his wife Dora. I bet, if he'd been asked, those were his greatest accomplishments.
God's Speed, Mr. Barry and Thank You!
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