Fawkes, Bohn (1919-2007)

https://reflections.mndigital.org/catalog/stc:9843#/kaltura_audio

Biographical Information: Bohn E. Fawkes was born on September 2, 1919 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was part of the ROTC program when World War II began, and was called to active duty shortly thereafter. Fawkes was a B-17 pilot with the 8th Air Force and participated in bombing raids at Schweinfurt, Stuttgart, and Hamburg. He flew 25 missions before returning to the United States and serving as a flight instructor. Fawkes left the military in 1962 to become a stock broker. He passed away on February 17, 2007 and is buried in Fort Snelling National Cemetery.

Transcript Summary: Bohn Fawkes discussed how he was an ROTC student at the University of Minnesota that completed his master of chemical engineering degree when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened. His ROTC involvement meant he was called to active duty initially in antiaircraft battery, but he took up the opportunity to attend flight school and be a pilot. Fawkes picked up his B-17 in April 1943 and along with forty other planes, flew to England. When flying the bombing raid on a manufacturing facility in Schweinfurt, Fawkes discussed the four hour battle and the analysis of meeting enemy resistance from a pilot’s perspective. Of 25 missions flown, Fawkes flight log indicates only one where his plane did not receive any combat damage. On a particular mission to bomb a manufacturing center in Stuttgart, Fawkes describes having his plane shot-up so badly by German fighters that he lost multiple engines and had to emergency land in the English Channel. All ten of Fawkes’ crew made it out of the airplane and safely back to England, and Fawkes would become the first American pilot to accomplish that. Fawkes and his crew celebrated returning from their 25th mission by “buzzing” the control tower for the air field and they fired off flares from the plane. Unfortunately, this was done while a two-star general was in the control tower, and he was not pleased and their flares set an ammunition tent on fire. After returning to the states, Fawkes was stationed at Rapid City Airbase in South Dakota as a B-17 flight instructor, and eventually transferred to a B-29 training instructor in Fairmount, Nebraska. Fawkes was preparing to return to combat in the Pacific Theater with the B-29 when the war concluded.

Interview by John Carter