New Keith Hill Painting Unveiled on 66th Anniversary of WWII Mission

  • Published
  • By Peter G. Park, Commander's Action Group
  • JIOCEUR Analytic Center
ROYAL AIR FORCE MOLESWORTH, England --  When the B17 Flying Fortress "Cat O' Nine Tails" crashed in his back yard on October 14, 1943, Jim Gell was just an infant and his brother Andrew was not yet born. Exactly 66 years later the two brothers joined JIOCEUR Analytic Center Deputy Commander, Navy Capt. Henry J. "Harry" Babin, on October 14, 2009, as noted British aviation artist Keith Hill presented a framed print of his new painting "The Cat Comes Home" to the men and women serving today at Royal Air Force Molesworth.

After an invocation by 501st Combat Support Wing Command Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Walter W. Bean, Babin accepted the print on behalf of the JAC. In his remarks, he noted the importance of the painting in preserving the legacy of the 7,336 men of the 303rd Bomb Group who served at Molesworth during World War II - a commitment which he and JAC Commander, Marine Corps Col. Peter H. "Pete" Devlin take seriously and brief to all JAC visitors as part of the JAC command brief.

The painting was unveiled on the 66th anniversary of the Second Schweinfurt raid in 1943 by the American 8th Air Force. It was an opportunity to reflect on the achievements and sacrifices of the 303rd Bomb Group (Heavy) flying B-17F and later B-17G "Flying Fortresses" during the war. As Devlin often reminds the workforce and visitors to the base, for 841young men, Molesworth was the last place that they trod the earth before taking off from the now long gone runways on this Cambridgeshire base.

In the October 14, 1943 mission, Cat O'Nine Tails' rudder controls had been shot away, the radio compass, compass, and other flight instruments were inoperative. A hit on the port side put one engine out, but the engine was not feathered until out of German fighter range. The B-17 was flown on dead reckoning across the channel and brought down through the overcast to look for a landing field. Finding none, Lt Ambrose Grant gave the order, and the crew successfully bailed out. The "Cat" flew on in a descending northerly direction which took her back to the Molesworth area before flying in a large circle. At about 6:40 PM the "Cat" had used up all of the remaining fuel and went into a final shallow dive and hit trees in the back garden of the Gell house. At the dedication, Mr. Jim Gell noted that his family still has a propeller from the ill-fated aircraft.

The Oct. 14,1943 8th Air Force mission to the ball bearing plants of Schweinfurt suffered the loss of 82 bombers and 642 American airmen killed, captured or wounded. This raid, afterwards known as 'Black Thursday,' was the worst day of the war for the U.S. 8th Air Force. In a special message read out in the early morning hours to the crews at this and other American bases in East Anglia, 8th Air Force Commander Major General Frederick Anderson stated: "This air operation today is the most important air operation yet conducted in this war. The target must be destroyed. It is of vital importance to the enemy. Your friends and comrades, that have been lost and that will be lost today, are depending on you. Their sacrifice must not be in vain. Good luck, good shooting and good bombing."

The bomb group at Molesworth was relatively lucky. In addition to the loss of "Cat O'Nine Tails with its whole crew parachuting to safety, one additional plane was shot down with two crew members killed and the other 8 spending the remainder of the war in a German prison camp.

The war was far from over for the surviving crew of "Cat O'Nine Tails." In a letter to the author received this week, Flight Engineer/Gunner on Cat O' Nine Tails, Technical Sergeant Tony T. Kujawa said "Twenty two days later [on Nov. 5th 1943] we were in deep trouble again during a raid in the Ruhr Valley and I had to parachute again from a burning plane. We had an explosion in the cockpit. I was hit in the leg and shoulder. While in the parachute bleeding, a German pilot came right at me, circled three times, saluted and left. I thank God for him every day. Upon capture I was taken to the Queen Wilhelmina Hospital in Amsterdam for ten days then to Stalag Luft XVII in Austria for the next 19 months." 

The painting joins several other works by Mr. Hill and other artists in the Maj. Gen. Lewis E. Lyle Conference Room at the JAC, named after a wartime commander of the 303rd. Babin also thanked Hill for his support and friendship. The artist has completed 14 paintings depicting events and the history of RAF Molesworth. The framed print contains original signatures of two of the crew of "Cat O' Nine Tails," The Bombardier, 2nd Lt. M. D. Blackburn, and  Kujawa.