My name is George Dellon. I was born on August 9, 1921 in Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn. My childhood was very dull and as I got into my teens I was becoming athletic. I specialized in handball and because of that I met my wife, believe it or not. My handball partner was my future wife's cousin and that's how we got together. Happy days!
After finishing school, the war broke out and I got drafted in 1942. I had my basic training at the Atlantic City and it was very nice - fresh air, the ocean! We were staying in a hotel and I was sharing a room with another G.I. It was a wonderful room with private bath. We were getting all our training done on the boardwalk, it was like a vacation. Well, just with rigorous exercises.
I was then sent to a replacement depot in Salt Lake City, Utah. There, I was assigned to the B-17 group as a gunner and went to Washington. We spent a few weeks there and then moved to Great Falls with the 20th squadron. It was a small town with couple movie theaters, few bars, a main street and once we arrived - quite a few soldiers. The population was only around a thousand people. We performed various kinds of exercises there. I was in Great Falls with the 20th squadron, whereas the other squads were in Glasgow, Lewistown and Cut Bank, Montana. We all got together at a particular place and carried out our training assignments
And after several months of training our squadron was sent to North Africa, believe it or not. In 1943, I ended up being in Morocco. We stayed there for a month or so. The experience in North Africa was great for me as I haven't seen such things in the United States. When we were staying in Morocco, we saw different kinds of people, mostly Arabs, who used to travel on donkeys. It was like a vacation to me. I got to meet people who were very unlike me and who were totally different form the people I grew up with. But, the Arab people were always looking for something to steal. Particularly in the evenings - there would always be an Arab thief walking around the camp area. They would get shot occasionally by the guards. And one time, I heard yelling and I got out of my bed. I saw an Arab that was shot on leg and the doctor was trying to remove part of clothing from his leg. But, there were layers and layers of clothing. I don't know if that fellow ever took a bath.
When traveling in North Africa we sometimes would buy meat off Arabs. One of our guys would go into a village or a market to get some meat from the Arab stands, which were usually pretty dirty and full of flies. Also, we had no refrigeration system so we would dig a big hole in the dessert. We'd put the remaining of the meat there to keep it a little cool for the rest of the day. That was the best we could do in order to have relatively fresh meat. Everything else was canned food.
From Morocco, we travelled to Algeria in a town called Aïn M'lila. We stayed in various towns for another 6 or 7 months in Algeria and then moved towards Tunisia and ended up in the capital, the city called Tunis. In Tunis it was very interesting as our 5th Bombardment Wing Headquarters was in the city. I met a few Jewish people in Tunis, but sadly they lived very much like the Arabs. I was very impressed to see them as they were poor and you know, they didn't speak my language, I didn't speak theirs so we couldn't really communicate. When I met them, I only said "hello" and they gave me couscous to eat and that was it. There were also a few French people there. There was one French family and they invited us for dinner one night. They made couscous, it was very good. I wish I had a picture of this French person as he was wearing knee-length pantaloons and slippers that night. He used to operate the salt mines. So, I have met people like that whom I would never come across before.
We stayed in Tunisia until we were finally able to get into Italy. Once we got into Italy we started flying air missions. I was a gunner on a B-17 plane. We'd have 3 air rides a day sometimes. The Battle of Monte Cassino was happening at that time and the Germans were holding an abbey on the top of the mountain. We started bombing the peak of the Monte Cassino and we hit them 3 times, couldn't get them out of there. Eventually the infantry had to take them out by hand. It still remains a very famous battle.
Our base was in Foggia, a city in Southern Italy, and there were many, many airfields in this city. One time, Mussolini conducted a phony air show there and brought all his aircrafts to one place so that people would get impressed by the quantity of planes and the size of his air force. When we were in Foggia, our group was flying so called "shuttle missions". We used to take off from Foggia, bomb a target in Romania and land somewhere in Russian. We would spend a day and a half in Russia, and then do the same thing again - take off, hit the target and land back in Italy. One thing impressed me about the Russian base - the guards were all women; tough ladies, heavy drinkers.
We remained in Foggia until the war was completely over and we carried out all missions from there. We also hit Berlin which was a long trip for us, many hours coming and going back.
We lost several lives and it didn't bother me when I was young. But in my late seventies, I began to get bad dreams about it and I could hear people screaming as they were going down.
Towards the end of the war my boys flew our 500-th mission; there was a reporter with a photographer and everything, I think it was more of a publicity thing. But I wasn't there for that because I right about that time I got hospitalized.
I ended up in the headquarters because I couldn't fly anymore as I had contracted several diseases. I had dysentery, which put me out of commission for some time. I was out from the hospital in a month or two and then I contracted yellow jaundice. When I came out again from the hospital, I was grounded from flying and that's how I ended up in the headquarters. My last commanding officer was General John D. Ryan, also known as Three Finger Ryan. He later became the seventh Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force.
After the war was over there, people were being rotated and sent back to the United States based on the number of points. There was a system where points were assigned for everything including time in service, rank, evacuations, missions etc. I was among the very first groups coming back to the States. At that time, the war with Japan was still going on. I came home on the Liberty Ship and we docked in Newport News, Virginia. We got there at night and in the morning the band there began playing "Welcome home". We went to the shore and we were served fresh steak and milk. It felt really good when they were asking how we would like our steak done, rare or medium! I was home! Everybody went crazy as we were also able to have hot showers. Back in the wartime, we could only bathe ourselves with water we could get in our helmets. It was good, really good. But, I still had the orders to report to Rapid City, North Dakota for reassignment into as the war was still going on in the Pacific.
Luckily (or luckily for only some people), the A-bomb got dropped my re-assignment was to stay home. I was in Fort Dix for two days and they wanted me to stay longer. I told them I could stay if they would give me payment and rank, but they declined. I said, "Let me out then", and I got out just like that in two days. That's how much I wanted to get out! My parents threw a party for me after being released from the military.
I started working soon and realized that I did not have that many skills so I was floundering between jobs. Worked in a store, tried my hands on insurance, but that didn't last. I ended up operating at the parking facility and made my living from that.
Now, we like to spend a lot of time at Riverdale Y Senior Center performing activities with people like ourselves. Sometimes, we even go there for lunch. We also get busy with our grandchildren. I am having a little difficulty walking these days and I walk with a cane. My wife is a big benefit to me and she thinks she is my mother. We have been married now for 66 years.
