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SGT. Edgar Smith 8th Air Force Veteran
Visitation will start at 10 am at the Vermont Christian Church in Vermont, IL. Service will begin at 11 am with interment at the Vermont Cemetery. He will be laid to rest next to his wife, Lucille.
Vermont Christian Church
100 West Third Street
Vermont Cemetery
1001 North Union Street
BACKGROUND:
At the age of 98, Edgar Smith proudly wore his 100th Bomber Group cap were he resided at the Heritage Manor East in Beardstown.
Edgar served as the ground crew chief for the B-17 Flying Fortress “Boeing Belle.”
Born in Astoria, IL on May 11, 1909, Edgar’s earliest memories include veterans of another war. He explained, “When I began to attend school, I walked to town every morning with a few Civil War veterans who were headed for their favorite hangout to shoot the breeze.”
Edgar developed a deep respect for what became the most famous plane of World War II. Boeing plants built 6,981 B-17s of various models, and Douglas and Lockheed produced an additional 5,745. Renowned for its ability to take brutal punishment, the 65,000 pound B-17G was powered by four 1,200-horsepower, had a span of 104 feet, length of 75 feet, top speed of 287 mph, cruising speed of 150 mph, ceiling of 35,600 feet, maximum range of 3,750 miles, was armed with 11 to 13 machine guns and carried a bomb load of 9,600 pounds. The heavily armed bombers earned a deadly reputation with the Japanese, who dubbed them “four-engine fighters.”
Edgar joined the 351st Squadron of the newly formed 100th Bombardment Group in Walla Walla, Washington and in May of 1943 the 100th Bomb Group traveled to New York and boarded the Queen Elizabeth for the trip to Europe.
The 100th “flew its first combat mission on June 25, 1943, and its last on April 20, 1945. During those 22 months, some 7,000 men and a few women were stationed at Thorpe Abbotts in England. They flew 306 missions. They were credited with 8,630 sorties; they dropped 19,257.1 tons of bombs plus 435.1 tons of food on mercy missions. The 100th Bomb Group received two Distinguished Unit Citations. Over 800 men were killed in action or flying accidents. 229 fortresses were lost or declared salvage [177 missing in action and 52 lost due to operational accidents]. The 100th’s gunners claimed 261 enemy aircraft shot down, 1,010 probably destroyed, and 139 possibly destroyed. They were some of the first gunners who, late in the war, destroyed the German Jet, ME-262.”
History further stated, “The 100th was not the Group with the highest losses in the 8th, but since its losses often came many at a time, it soon acquired the reputation of a hard-luck outfit, and the name ‘The Bloody Hundredth.’ It lost 9 crews on the August 17, 1943. It lost seven over Bremen on October 8, 1943, with its lead plane being shot out of formation over the target and then returning alone on the deck before crash-landing on the shore of East Anglia. It lost 12 over Munster on October 10, 1943, with one plane, Royal Flush with the legendary Robert Rosenthal as its pilot being the only one to return. It lost 15 over Berlin on March 6, 1944, and nine there on May 24. It lost 12 over Ruhland on September 11, 1944, and 12 over Hamburg on December 31, 1944.”
Despite the bad luck, the 100th “still earned an enviable record during its time in England. It lead the bombing of Trondheim, Norway, which delayed the manufacture of heavy water for the German atomic bomb, stiffened Norwegian underground resistance, and earned the Group citations by the Norway government-in-exile, and the British.
It received two Presidential Citations. In spite of its losses, the 100th never once went off operations. As Jimmy Doolittle once said, ‘The 100th was always ready.’”
Sergeant Smith served as the ground crew chief that nursed the “Boeing Belle” through 150 missions, a remarkable record considering the average life of an 8th Air Force B-17 crew in 1943 was eleven missions.
Edgar remembered the enormous challenge presented by the D-Day invasion of Normandy: “We didn’t know it was coming.
Edgar also flew on three or four missions carrying German prisoners-of-war to Paris.
Edgar received his discharge at Rockford, Illinois on October 8, 1945.
Edgar is proud of his service during World War II, though he doesn’t spend much time philosophizing about it: “I’ve never thought much about the meaning of the war. Just that my country was in it, and we had to win. I did my job as well as I could, but when I got home–it was over.”
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