Written by Ben Cox – Today marks the 75th anniversary of a daring WW2 mission that should not have happened, which included two men from Brownwood.
Joe W Blagg was the navigator on board a B-17 that was set to the first daylight bombing run over Berlin. The original order was for March 3rd, but weather scrubbed that plan. The weather was not great on the 4th either, but up they went any way.
History is a bit hazy at this point, but somewhere along the way the order to attack was rescinded due to the worsening conditions. The entire 1st Wing turned back, as did many members of the 3rd.
However, one “combat box” made up of 12 planes from the 95th, one Pathfinder Aircraft and a handful of planes from the 100th kept going. When questioned by the other planes, the commander officer of the group insisted that the order hadn’t been issued, or was a phony transmission.
Some say he wanted to be the 1st to drop bombs on the heart of Nazi Germany, but the case they pressed on regardless. One bombardier wrote “On we flew, courageously, brave, and scared as hell.”
After reaching their target and dropping 42 and a half tons of ordinance on the capitol, “two P-51 Mustangs appeared over the horizon like the cavalry coming over the hill” says Mike Blagg, whose navigator father was part of the mission.
The two mustangs escorted the B-17’s home to England, saving the lives of many men. As it was, four of the planes on the mission were shot down, with all but four who were killed in action captured as POW’s.
Those P-51’s were piloted by Brownwood native and WW2 ace pilot Jack Bradley, who was a personal friend of Joe Blagg, and future Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager.
The planes returned to find Air Force leaders waiting for them. Not with Court Martials or demerits, but with a Silver Star for the commanding officer and a unit citation for the 95th Group.
A full spread picture was featured in Life Magazine recognizing the actions of the bomber group that day. Joe Blagg is in the very top row, standing over the inboard engine.
Mike Blagg says that his father Joe didn’t talk much about his time in the war, not even with his brother who had a similar experience. “His brother was a pilot in Italy, and after the war they got an apartment together and went to college. And they never, not once, talked about their time in the war.”
Mike recalls his fathers comments being limited to “when we would watch 12 O’Clock High together and he’d say ‘that’s just Hollywood’. He didn’t talk much till they started having reunions and when those boys got together, boy did they talk!”
Neither Joe Blagg not Jack Bradley knew that they had shared such a unique experience until much later in life. According to Mike “There was a story done a while back on one of the guys and the other read it and said ‘Hey, I was on that mission too!’ and so they got together and talked. This must have been in the 80’s that they found out.”
75 years ago, in one of the most daring moments of one of the worst times in our country’s history, two Brownwood boys were doing their best for their country, and made history while doing so.
