aaf officer / movie star captain clark gable enemy war prize

[tom d. friedman]

it is pretty well known that international movie star & ww 2 usaaf captain clark gable served his country honorably. what is not well known is that gable actually had a price on his head to both hitler & goering as a war prize!! goering offered any luftwaffe flier who could bring gable in a promotion in rank, a leave, & a reward equaling $5000.00. gable knew that hitler wanted to "put him in a cage" like a gorilla. what a propaganda boon that would have been!! gable refused to carry an escape kit with phony identification on his missions. he said he'd never bail out. "how could i hide this face??" "if the plane goes down, i'll go down with it".

[SaxMan]

I thought the reward was $50,000?

[DaveM2]

What's the source of these claims? Did the Allies make it known to the Germans Gable was flying out of the UK with the USAAF? If so, why? Propaganda?

Dave

[Dave Homewood]

Gable made a film about his squadron called 'Combat America', it's a very good coloured documentary. I guess it was fairly public knowledge after that was screened.

But this desire by Hitler to get Gable was not unusual. I have read that Hitler had made a long list of names of celebrities as well as politicians and military leaders that he intended to round up and execute or imprison when he invaded and took Britain. Near the top of that list was Britain's favourite radio comedy star at the time, Tommy Handley, because Hitler was incensed by his song "Who is that man that looks like Charlie Chaplin" which derided him. Hitler couldn't see the joke and wanted him dead.

[DaveM2]

Thanks Dave. Interesting, such a famous Hitler/Goering 'order' must survive in various archives, being that it would have been transmitted to every fighter group in Western Europe. Anyone ever seen a copy I wonder?

Dave

[Dave Homewood]

An interesting question there Dave.

[CDF]

Sounds like a bit like the ol line "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend"

As much as anything during this period, Clark Gable, officer and gentleman, wanted to be considered just one of the guys. It was an elusive goal. His graduation from the Fort Wright gunnery school had been filmed by newsreel cameras. In theaters, viewers heard a narrator say,

“Watch out, Mr. Hitler, Lieutenant Clark Gable is headed your way!”

Then, not long after Gable arrived in Britain, the English-speaking Nazi radio propagandist known as Lord Haw Haw announced:

“Welcome to England, Hatcher’s Chickens, among whom is the famous American cinema star, Clark Gable. We’ll be seeing you soon in Germany, Clark. You will be welcome there, too.”[/

Next, Adolph(sic) Hitler himself directed Nazi air force chief Hermann Goering(sic) to offer a reward to any pilot who shot Gable down. This news was depressing to Gable in more than one way. First, what kind of regular guy got a price put on his head by Hitler?

“If Hitler catches me,” Gable told one of his men, “the sonofabitch will put me in a cage like a gorilla and send me on a tour of Germany.”

He realized there was no hope of not being recognized by any Germans who might see him.

“How could I hide this face?” he asked. “If the plane goes, I’ll just go with the son of a bitch.”

Second, his notoriety with the Nazis meant any man flying with him was in extra jeopardy.

[/quote]

source
http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/c ... hollywood/

[SaxMan]

I'm not sure this counts as an "official" source, but the Clark Gable / Reward was a question in the original Trivial Pursuit game. That's how I learned about it. I got it wrong. I answered "Jimmy Stewart", much to the consternation of my father, who knew the correct answer.

[Rauhbatz]

What about Leslie Howard whose airliner was shot down by the Luftwaffe?

[JohnB]

I just read that (almost verbatium) in "Masters of the Air" (the basis for the new HBO/Hanks/Speilberg series).

I wonder what the sources were?

The book seems a compillation of Roger Freeman book details combined with the first person stories culled from Martin Bowman's (and a lot of vets) books.
It's a good overhall history for laymen, but so far I haven't learned anything really new.

[tom d. friedman]

What's the source of these claims? Did the Allies make it known to the Germans Gable was flying out of the UK with the USAAF? If so, why? Propaganda?

Dave

i thought this would be a cool thread!! my source is the biography of gable entitled "LONG LIVE THE KING..... A BIOGRAPHY OF CLARK GABLE" BY LYN TORNABENE. copyright 1976. a pretty good read!! i've read the additional posts here on gable & they are mostly correct. as to the 50 thousand dollar question posted by saxman, the book states 5 grand. the rigors of combat got to him by midwar & he went inactive w/ the rank of major. people were incredulous that an officer, & gable in general with his stature was a b-17 gunner!! they probably didn't know that he was tapped by hap arnold to make an aerial gunnery training film to help alleviate the fear of being a gunner due to the high casualty rate of them. don't be fooled, gable was not a hollywood wussy in the aaf, he worked his way up from the rank of private. yes, he had some perks that others didn't have but by & large he earned his rank.

[DaveM2]

So strip back all the hype and propaganda of the time and it is 'legend' not backed up by a primary Luftwaffe document, of which there must have been many-1943 Luftwaffe records are largely intact AFAIK.
Nice story however, and one sure to spur on the folks at home

[tom d. friedman]

i can't say. gable was no publicity hound by any means. he was so harassed by adoring fans & fellow aaf servicemen that he shunned recognition in every way. he was very humble & soft spoken about his military service according to the book's author. anything conveyed by him was told by his closest friends who were all tight knit w/ him right down to the hitler / goering statement.

[ALOHADAVE]

Clark Gable reported to Biggs Air Force Base on January 27, 1943, to train with and accompany the 351st Bomb Group to England as head of a six-man motion picture unit. Clark Gable spent most of his military service time in the United Kingdom at RAF Polebrook with the 351st. Promoted to captain soon after arriving in England; Gable was assigned to film “Combat America”, a propaganda movie about air gunners. Gable flew at least five combat missions, including one to Germany, as an observer-gunner in B-17 Flying Fortresses between May 4 and September 23, 1943, earning the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. During one of the missions, Gable's aircraft was damaged by flak and attacked by interceptors which knocked out one of the engines and damaged the stabilizer. In the raid on Germany, in which one crewman was killed and two others wounded, flak went through Gable's boot and narrowly missed his head. By the fall of 1943 Gable’s crew had exposed 50,000 feet of film. His film “Combat America” made a valuable contribution to our historical knowledge of the war from the flyer’s perspective of the time. Gable returned to the U.S. in Oct. 1943 and was relieved from active duty as a major on Jun. 12, 1944 at his own request. "I have enjoyed every minute of Army life. It's a good change from Hollywood," Gable said.

[JohnB]

i can't say. gable was no publicity hound by any means. he was so harassed by adoring fans & fellow aaf servicemen that he shunned recognition in every way.

"Masters of the Air" goes onto report he'd go out on the town with fellow AAF members. They liked going with him because they'g get the surplus girls he attacted.

It goes onto say he's often choose average looking girls because ...and I'm paraphrasing here...he was less likely to get into trouble with them.