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HomeMy WebLinkAbout Gen. Joe Brusse, Brazos Valley Heroesone in a series of tributes to tucntbors of "rile Greatest Generation" who served our country during World War 11 & oseph Joseph "Joe" Brusse of College Station has experienced one parachute jump. He hopes to never have another, because that one jump landed him in a German POW camp. Brusse was bom in Brenham on April 7, 1921. At age six his father died and his family moved to the home of his grandfather, J.S. Giddings in Brenham. "I graduated from Brenham High in 1938 and attended Blinn for two years and then enrolled at A&M for one year before joining one the of the WPA education technology programs," he recalls. "I enrolled in an aircraft maintenance program of Meacham Field in Fort Worth and then joined the Army Air Corps Cadet program in May 1942. 1 went into the ready reserve and started the cadet program at Lackland Field in San Antonio. "During my time in the cadet program, I was married and then sent to the pre - flight program at Ellington Field in Houston. At Ellington I was designated to be a navigator and was sent to Harlingen for gunnery school. A navigator on a B -17 also had to fire two .50- caliber guns. I then went to Hondo, Texas, for navigator training and in December 1943, 1 was commissioned as a second lieutenant. I was now an officer and a gentleman, by act of Congress. "We reported to Ardmore, Oklahoma, to assemble our B -17 crew, which included four officers and six enlisted men. In March 1944 we were sent to Grand Isle, Nebraska, to pick up our brand new B -17. When we got there, the plane was frozen to the ramp. Once we thawed it loose we loaded up and headed to Ireland by way of Iceland. We were told to not open our orders until we were airborne. The orders said we were going to England, but we had pretty much figured that out before we left. "We became part of the 457th Bomber Groups H, 749th Squadron of the Eighth Air Force stationed at Glatton, England. Our first mission was a daytime bombing mission to Lutzkendorf, Germany. The British didn't think you could survive daytime bombing, so they flew at night and dropped their bombs on flares that outlined an area. We flew during the daytime, and when we dropped, it was in a tight formation so we could concentrate our bombs and their effect. But it did have its drawbacks, as we collected flak holes on every mission we flew. "When we flew, the German fighters would fly to our afitude and notity their anti -aircraft batteries of our attitude. Oftentimes the anti- aircraft guns would bracket an area of the sky that we would have to fly through and then lay a barrage in this box in the sky. Sometimes it seemed as though you could get out and walk on the black bursts of flak exploding around the plane. Germany, we ran into such a barrage. it knocked out our numbers one and two engines, which caused us to roll into an inverted dive. Our pilot, Roy Allen, finally pulled us out at 5,000 feet. Once you fall out of formation, the German fighters would gang up on a crippled plane. I knew from a weather briefing before we left that we would have cloud cover to the north. If we could get there before they got to us, we could possibly hide in the clouds. "We made it to the cloud cover and every time we would peek out, there were German fighters wafting. They could not come into the clouds after us because they were afraid of running into us. When we broke out of the cloud cover, we were over a bay just north of the coast of Holland. To avoid their anti - aircraft guns, we flew just above the water. We flew out through the mouth of the bay, them shooting at us and us shooting at them. I don't think we hit them and they miraculously didn't hit us. We had made it out to the North Sea. "We dropped our bombs in the North Sea and headed for England. We were met by two British Mosquitoes, fighter bombers, who escorted us in. The only problem was that when we attempted to land, only one wheel would come down. One -wheel landings were the most dangerous thing you could do with a plane. it usually meant that you would cartwheel, break a wing and end up in a ball of fire on the ground. "Needless to say, we were on needles and pins for the landing. We landed safely with no one hurt, which was amazing. Up until then we had only one of our gunners hit with flak in his hand. I found it amazing at the number of holes you could collect in a plane and it still fly. We were just lucky, I guess. "We were able to continue as a crew and were able to participate in the D -Day invasion. On June 6, 1944, we flew two bombing missiops in support of the invasion. Flying over the Channel, you could look down and see the ships. I never had any idea that so many ships could be assembled in one place and at one time. But there they were." On June 14, 1944, luck ran out for Brusse and his crew. He and those that would survive would be grounded for the rest of the war after they made their first and last parachute jump. Those that survived the jump would remain as POWs of the Germans until the war ended. The second part of his story will appear next week, Joseph Brusse's name can be found on the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial For more information, to make a contribution, or if you know a World War 9 Veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BVVM at www. veteransmemorial.org'or Bill Youngkin at (979) "On May 26, 1944, on a mission to Dessau, 260 -7030. The Eagle WW II vet Gerald Roop will be the guest on "Veterans of the Valley" this week on KAMU -N J A Veterans of the Valley, hosted by WTAW's Tom Turbiville, can be - seen Fridays at 8:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ClunnN U /coxoblN Second of Two Parts By Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle Joseph "Joe" Brusse and his B -17 crew began a bombing mission on June 14,1944, against a German airfield near Paris. it would be the last mission of the war for Brusse and his crew. "After D -Day, we were pushing the Germans back off the coast. The Germans brought up their fighter planes to a base outside of Paris so they would be close enough to support and aid the defense of France being waged by the German Army. Our job was to bomb the airfield to the point of it not being useful as an airfield for their fighter planes," he recalled. "As we approached the target it was obliterated by clouds, so the flight commander ordered a 360- degree go- around, which is difficult to do. When we went in on the bomb run, the lead plane was shot down - or rather it exploded in midair. Our plane was also hit and it caught on fire. The fire was burning the fabric off the control surfaces and our pilot began to lose control. The order came to bail out. "I was wearing a chest pack, but when 1 went out of the plane I was worried about the German fighters. We were aware that Hitler had ordered his fighters to shoot all airmen in their chutes. Knowing this, I decided I was going to wait as long as possible before opening my chute. Although this was my first jump, I found I could stabilize myself in the air. l was falling face down, heading into some clouds. "I didn't know how close the clouds were to the ground, so to be safe instead of sorry I opened my chute when 1 hit the top of the cloud cover. When I broke out of the cloud cover, f was still a long way from the ground. That was when I noticed that the Germans on the ground were shooting at us. it sounded like distant fireworks. You could hear the bullets as they passed by. You could also hear when they hit the canopy because it made a'plop'sound. "I tried to make myself as difficult a target as possible by swinging back and forth as much as I could. Our bombardier, who was near me in his chute, was shot and killed by the Germans on the ground. "I landed in an oat patch, but because of my swinging I landed awkwardly and tore up my left ankle pretty bad. The Germans kept shooting and coming toward me. I had a .45 sidearm, but with a bad ankle and only a .451 didn't think I had much of a fighting chance so I surrendered. When they captured me, my ankle was pretty bad and my right shin was also injured. together and placed us in old transport mil cars called 40x8s. They crammed 50 to 60 of us in each one. You couldn't sit down; you had no food, no water and no bathroom facilities. "We stopped atthe marshalling yard in Reims, France. They left us in the rail cars parked next to a munitions train. It was then that we were attacked by American P47s who bombed and strafed the trains located there, not knowing that our train was full of American POWS. it was a pretty tense time being locked up in that rail car, next to that munitions train. Some of the fellM who more claustrophobic tried to claw their way out but couldn't. To add to our concern, the munition train caught on fire but didn't explode. "Because they couldn't move the trains they finally let us out and we spent the next two to two and one half weeks on a hilltop nearby watching that marshalling yard get bombed and strafed on a daily basis. "I finally arrived at Stalag Luft 3 in July 1944. It was an officers camp that had room for us because just before we arrived, an escape was made by the POWS. This escape was later made into a movie called 'The Great Escape.' They had room at the camp because they shot and killed most of the escapees that were recaptured. I used the bunks they had been using. "When the Russians crossed the Oder River, we moved out of our camp in the middle of a blizzard. I didn't have any good shoes and it wasn't long before I was limping badly. We finally made it to a train that took us to Nuremberg. At this old camp we were able to watch Nuremberg being bombed to the ground. It would be the Americans from Italy in the morning, the Americans from England in the afternoon and the British at night. "Near the end of April we were taken to Moosberg to another camp and held there until General Patton in all his glory drove into the camp. Them he was in his shiny jeep, shiny helmet and shiny pistols. He gave a very profane speech standing on the hood of his jeep. But one thing he did say that I remember was that we would have light bread before dark. And we did." Brusse was discharged on December 3, 1945. He completed his degree at St. Louis University and returned to A&M as an employee. He was the manager of the wind tunnel from 1958 until 1980, refining from the Research and Instrument Shop in 1983. "I'm trying to learn to live with retirement. I've done a lot of limping since the war, so I think about those times and the men a lot." Joseph Brusse's name can be found on the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial For more information, to make a contribution, or if you know a World War 11 "The Germans were going to send us to POW camps Veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BVVM in Germany but were having difficulty getting across at www.veteransmemorialorg or Bill Youngkin at (979) the Rhine because of our bombers. They herded us 260 -7030. The E gle Here when you need us. WW II vet Lannes Hope will be the guest 0n "Veterans of the Valley" this week on KAMU -N. r Veterans of the Valley, hosted by WTAW's Tom Turbiville, can be seen Fridays at 8:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 6:30 p.m. NAMWamu.etlu CM1annel 6 /co. c+bie4 Generation" who served our country during world war II