Escape from Paris

by Stephen Harding

  As to those who survived the Bastille Day raid:

  LAWRENCE H. TEMPLETON

  Following his return from France, the only other surviving member of the Salty’s Naturals crew besides Joe Cornwall was transferred back to the United States. After undergoing evaluation at the U.S. Army Air Forces Personnel Redistribution Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Larry was found fit for further overseas duty. He was ultimately tapped to join the 485th Bombardment Squadron, 501st Bombardment Group, a very heavy bomber unit flying the B-29B Superfortress. The organization trained in Nebraska and in January 1945 Larry was part of the “ground echelon” that took ship for the group’s new Pacific Theater duty station, Guam’s Northwest Field. Larry served as an assistant armament crew chief until the end of the war, and was separated from the USAAF at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, on November 24, 1945.

  After returning to civilian life, Larry worked at various jobs and designed and built a home for his family. The major focus of his life—in addition, of course, to his wife and three sons—was the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church. He was elected to the Board of Elders, and also served as a representative of the congregation at regional and national conventions.

  Lawrence Templeton died March 3, 1999, at the age of eighty-three.

  HARRY L. EASTMAN

  Harry’s bailout on the Le Bourget raid ended up causing him increasingly serious orthopedic problems that exacerbated his already existing arthritis. The second member of the Gunner Trio was medically discharged from the USAAF at Drew Field in Tampa, Florida, on June 10, 1944. He married the former Josephine Ryan in 1948, though the marriage ultimately ended in divorce. For several years after returning to Michigan Harry owned and operated a sporting goods store in Ludington, then managed the Lincoln Hills Golf Club until retiring in 1974. He died on November 25, 1991, at the age of eighty-one.

  RICHARD S. DAVITT

  Following his separation from the USAAF on June 16, 1945, the third member of the Gunner Trio initially returned to Ohio. When his first marriage ended in divorce he moved west, settling in California. He became an investigator with the Burns International Detective Agency in Los Angeles, and in March 1958 married Joy Cook, a beautician. Dick Davitt—former gunner and successful wartime evader—died February 24, 1978, in Inglewood, California. He was sixty-two years old.

  RODERICK A. SCOTT

  After the war Roy returned to his hometown of Toronto, married, and became a teacher in the public school system. He attained BA and MA degrees in education, and ultimately retired after twenty-two years as a school principal. Following his retirement he became very active in the Royal Air Force Escaping Society, traveling throughout Ontario speaking about his wartime experiences. He edited the newsletter of the RAFES’s Canadian branch, and was instrumental in raising funds for former helpers.

  Late in life Roy suffered from both cancer and Parkinson’s, and died on June 28, 2005, at the age of eighty-seven.

  JAMES GEORGE ANTONY TRUSTY

  Upon his return to England Tony Trusty was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal. He remained on active RAF service for the remainder of the war, though it is unclear in what capacity. After demobilization he returned to his wife, Evelyn, and their three daughters, in Stamford, Lincolnshire. He died in 1989 at seventy-six.

  RALPH H. SALTSMAN JR.

  After his release from the Germans’ Stalag Luft III POW camp—where he spent twenty-two months—“Salty” Saltsman remained in the USAAF. Shortly after his return to the United States, while on the beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he met Cornelia Janeway. They married in August 1945 and ultimately had four children.

  Saltsman commanded the 18th Fighter-Bomber Group in combat during the Korean War, and his last assignment before retiring in 1960 was as secretary to U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay. After leaving the USAF Saltsman worked for the Martin Marietta corporation on the Titan rocket program, and later at the United Airlines Training Center in Denver.

  Following his death at ninety-five on July 22, 2012, Ralph H. Saltsman Jr. was interred at Colorado’s Fort Logan National Cemetery, the same final resting place as Joe Cornwall.

  KEE HARRISON

  In keeping with the USAAF dictum that aircrewmen were not to fly combat missions in the theater from which they had evaded or escaped, following his return to Rougham in mid-September 1943 the redoubtable Harrison was transferred to the Delaware-based 2nd Ferrying Group. For the remainder of the war in Europe he flew C-47 transports on the trans-Atlantic ferry route, moving people and equipment between Britain and the United States. After his discharge in September 1945 Kee followed a decidedly different path, becoming an ordained Episcopal priest in 1951. He served as rector of several churches in Florida, and following his 1979 retirement he settled in Naples. The Reverend Kee Harrison died on February 10, 2005, at the age of ninety.

  (All photos from the U.S. National Archives unless otherwise noted)

  At twenty-five, Joe Cornwall enlisted in what was then known as the U.S. Army Air Corps. After basic training at McChord Field, Washington, he traveled to Colorado’s Lowry Field for training as an aircraft armorer. He is seen here, second from the left in the front row, upon his graduation from the course on November 28, 1941. Still ahead was training as an aerial gunner.

  The crew to which Joe Cornwall was assigned at the Salt Lake AAB Combat Crew Replacement Pool was led by then First Lieutenant Edward Arum Purdy. The twenty-six-year-old Colorado native was both an excellent pilot and a born leader; both attributes would prove extremely important when he and his crew took to the dangerous skies over German-occupied Europe.

  The men of Natural pose for the standard crew photo soon after arriving in England. Back row, left to right: John Smith (ball turret), Charles Sprague (radio operator), Russell Crisp (flight engineer/top turret), Joe Cornwall (left waist), Frank Santangelo (right waist), and Larry Templeton (tail). Front row, from left: Edward Jones (bombardier), Carroll Harris (copilot), Ed Purdy (pilot), and Charles Lichtenberger (navigator).

  Joe Cornwall relaxes in his favorite spot on the return from an early training mission over England. Note that despite the nature of the flight, both waist guns are connected to full belts of .50-caliber ammunition—an encounter with enemy aircraft was possible over much of the United Kingdom at any time in the spring and summer of 1943.

  No in-flight photos of Natural exist, but the B-17F would have been identical in layout and markings to these two Fortresses of the 94th Bomb Group’s 332nd Bomb Squadron. The large black “A” in a white square on the horizontal stabilizer and right wing tip was the 94th’s unit identification marking. Squadron code letters were later added to both sides of each aircraft’s fuselage, fore and aft of the waist gun windows, though Natural had not received them before the Purdy crew was given the replacement Fortress that became Naturals.

  During the June 13 raid on Kiel several 20mm cannon rounds hit Natural’s right wing, knocking out the inboard right engine and sparking a fire. Shrapnel from the hit ripped through the right side of the cockpit, slightly wounding copilot Carroll Harris. That the aircraft made it to Rougham was a testament to Ed Purdy’s piloting skills, and the young aviator was awarded the first of two Distinguished Flying Crosses for this action. Though overlaid by oil spewed by the damaged engine, the aircraft’s nose art is clearly visible.

  Located just outside Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, Rougham airfield became the 94th Bomb Group’s permanent home following the Kiel mission. The renovated control tower—now a museum and memorial to the American aviators who flew from the field during World War II—is one of the wartime base’s few remaining structures. (Photo by Stephen Harding)

  The B-17 assigned to the Purdy crew as a replacement for the severely damaged Natural was a slightly older but an essentially identical Fortress bearing the serial number 42-3331. The name initially emblazoned on the aircraft’s nose—this time on the left side rather than the right—was the plural “Naturals.”

  Thou
gh just twenty-seven years old, 331st Bomb Squadron commander Ralph H. Saltsman had proven himself to be an outstanding pilot, an able administrator, and a man who treated both superiors and subordinates with equal regard. His decision to fly with the Purdy crew on the July 4 mission to La Pallice prompted the men of Naturals to modify the aircraft’s name in his honor, and from then on the Fortress was known as Salty’s Naturals.

  A World War I veteran and highly successful entrepreneur in Paris between the wars, Jefferson Davis Dickson left his comfortable life behind in order to “do his part” in the fight against the Axis. Seen here just after returning to service, he went on to become the photographic officer at 4th Wing headquarters and was tasked to shoot motion-picture footage of raids launched against targets in Occupied Europe. It was in that capacity that he joined the 94th Bomb Group for the Bastille Day raid on Le Bourget.

  Jeff Dickson chose to fly with Ed Purdy’s crew after being told the men of Salty’s Naturals were the “least likely to turn back” during the mission. In this unfortunately poor image, Dickson (far right) and Purdy (far left) are joined by two other officers for a group photo on the evening of July 13.

  Three of the four 94th Bomb Group Fortresses lost on July 14 were shot down before the unit bombed Le Bourget. Here, Luftwaffe ace Egon Mayer stands atop one of his victims that day, the severely damaged B-17 that Kee Harrison was able to successfully crash-land in an open field. Images of Mayer and his trophy were used extensively in German propaganda magazines for several months afterward.

  Having bombed Le Bourget, the remnants of the 94th Bomb Group begin the long flight back to Rougham. By this point the three remaining 331st Bomb Squadron Fortresses have joined the lead squadron, though minutes after this photo was taken Floyd Watts’s aircraft was hit and crashed into a section of rail line leading into the train station at Louvres.

  General der Infanterie Kurt von Briesen (on horse, center) takes the salute of the 30th Infantry Division during a triumphal parade through Paris the day following the Germans’ June 1940 occupation of the capital. French résistants would manage to move hundreds of Allied evaders through the city despite the presence of thousands of enemy troops.

  During his whirlwind tour of Paris Adolf Hitler was photographed in or near many of the capital’s best-known landmarks—including the Eiffel Tower—but it was his brief visit to Invalides that apparently meant the most to him. He stood for several minutes in the circular gallery above Napoléon’s sarcophagus, his head bowed toward the final resting place of the soldier-emperor with whom he most closely identified. As the entourage left the rotunda, the obviously deeply affected Führer told photographer Heinrich Hoffman that his time at the tomb was “the greatest and finest moment” of his life. The visit also indirectly led to the Morins’ first overt act of resistance. (Bundesarchiv)

  Denise, Yvette, and Georges Morin pose for a formal portrait in front of the building housing Napoléon’s Tomb at the Hôtel des Invalides. A partially disabled World War I veteran, Georges went to work as an editor for l’Office nationale des mutilés et réformés in 1921, and Denise ultimately became Invalides’ “supervisor of fine arts building sites.” Their daughter grew up knowing every nook and cranny of the vast campus. (Photo courtesy Yvette Morin-Claerebout)

  The attic of the ornate Saint-Louis des Invalides cathedral was one of the Morins’ favorite “hidden” places. Reached via a series of small doors and narrow, vertigo-inducing wooden stairways, the attic rests atop the cathedral’s vaulted ceiling. The interior of the attic is dark, and the massive arched timbers supporting the cathedral roof look like an inverted ship’s hull. The ladder-like staircase at the far end of the space leads to the two small doors that open out onto an exterior landing on the cathedral’s roof. (Photo by Stephen Harding)

  The view from atop the cathedral’s roof is spectacular. People sitting or standing in the area between the vast golden dome above Napoléon’s Tomb (at left) and the smaller metal cupola above the cathedral’s altar cannot be seen from the ground. The vistas are not enjoyed without risk, however, for the winds whistling across the roof are often strong enough to blow a person over, and the walls that surround the open area are too short to prevent a fall of almost one hundred feet. (Photo by Stephen Harding)

  One of the smaller cupolas atop the Dôme church serves as a platform for a group photo taken by Denise and featuring, from left to right, Georges, Harry Eastman, Yvette, Joe, and Germaine Mercier. In the background rise the twin spires of the Basilique de Sainte-Clotilde. (Photo courtesy Yvette Morin-Claerebout)

  Having changed places with Georges, Denise joins her daughter and the others for another photo. While posing for such images was something of a calculated risk, the danger was mitigated by the fact that any German who saw the Morins and their guests would likely have assumed that those atop the structure must have had authorization. (Photo courtesy Yvette Morin-Claerebout)

  Though of poor quality, this image clearly depicts the closeness Joe and Yvette shared. They are perched atop the east side of the Dôme church, and just visible to the right of Yvette’s left elbow is the small eastern gate near the Morins’ home. The apartment was just on the other side of the large building to the right of Yvette. (Photo courtesy Yvette Morin-Claerebout)

  Joe and Yvette only have eyes for each other as they sit for a group photo with Tony Trusty (in dark jacket) and Roy Scott. The men were the mid-upper gunner and pilot, respectively, of an RAF Handley Page Halifax II bomber shot down on August 13, 1943, while on a nighttime special-operations mission over France. (Photo courtesy Yvette Morin-Claerebout)

  On his second or third visit to the top of the Dôme church, Tony Trusty used a small penknife to scratch a brief message into the outer skin of the circular metal cupola above the altar of Saint-Louis des Invalides. Time and the elements have weathered the inscription somewhat, but most of it remains. (Photo by Stephen Harding)

  Other than carrying a different fuselage code and serial number, this Lysander IIIa of No. 161 (Special Duties) Squadron is identical to the aircraft that picked up Joe Cornwall early on October 19, 1943. Passengers carried into and out of Occupied France entered and left the cramped rear cockpit via the narrow metal ladder welded to the left side of the fuselage. Though the unit’s Lysanders were originally painted black overall, Hugh Verity believed that scheme made the aircraft more visible from above at night, and he ordered the upper surfaces of all the machines painted in a dark green and pale gray camouflage pattern that he thought would better allow them to blend in with the terrain over which they flew. Part of that revised color scheme is visible in this photo as a light-colored patch just forward of the aircraft’s vertical stabilizer. (Photo courtesy Chris McCairns)

  In this unfortunately poor image, Flying Officer James McAllister McBride stands in front of another of 161 Squadron’s Lysanders about two months after he flew Joe Cornwall out of France. Six hours after this photo was taken, McBride died during an attempt to land at RAF Tangmere upon his return from a pickup mission in France. The aircraft in which he died was the same one that had carried Cornwall to freedom. (Photo courtesy Chris McCairns)

  Georges, Denise, and Yvette appear calm and relaxed in photos taken for use with false identity documents the family prepared in case they needed to escape Paris. Sadly, all three were arrested by the Gestapo before they were able to flee the city. The images were attached to the family file later compiled by the MIS-X office in Paris and are now held in the U.S. National Archives.

  After his evaluation in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Joe was ordered to USAAF Redistribution Center No. 3 in Santa Monica, California, for fifteen days of rest and recuperation. The facility comprised three oceanfront resorts—the Del Mar Beach Club, the Edgewater Beach Club, and the Grand Hotel—and the emphasis for the majority of the assigned service members was on rest and recreation.

  Joe looks composed but decidedly detached in a formal portrait shot not long before his October 1, 1945, separation from the USAAF
at San Bernardino Army Airfield in Southern California. He received $4,370.29 in final pay, and days later was on his way to Alaska.

  After several months working as a hunting guide in southeast Alaska, Joe became the engineer on the Fish and Wildlife Service patrol vessel Auklet. Joe served aboard the forty-eight-foot, tugboat-like vessel for the next four years before ultimately rejoining what had by then become the U.S. Air Force. (Alaska Fisheries Science Center/NOAA)