When Colonel 'Shanty" Brian O'Neill was transferred to the 38th he brought with him many good men whom he had served with in the 22nd Bomb Group.
| "Letter to Walt Gaylor" 22nd Bomb Group By Walter Krell Computer transcription by his daughter, Michelle Krell MaloneWalt Gaylor, Mesa, Arizona 2/22/85Dear Walt: Sorry to be disappointing, but I am not coming up with anywhere near the info I thought I had on the Nowra Torpedo venture. I led the squadron down from Townsville; not Allen of the 2nd, as stated in your opening paragraph, "Woodstock and Reid River." At least six and probably eight or nine B-26 bombers were there. Allen, just back from Perth with a couple of B-26s, met us in Nowra. I sent some pictures home with someone who was going to send them to my mother in Berkeley, but I never saw the pictures again. Of the crew, Wilson, Engleman, Grauer, dead. Wingard and Foley dropped out of sight. Still trying to reach Norton. Darden also gone. [Note: as of this date, February 1997, Pat Norton is currently living in Monroe, Michigan, with his wife and family; John Foley resides in Banning, California, with his wife and son---Michelle Krell Malone.] Came up with just one miserable picture of my old 1433 at Nowra with a torpedo hanging on it. Enclosed along with a picture of the crew. There was one B-25 that I knew of at Langley. Chris Herron and I flew it around quite a bit and evaluated it as being less of an airplane that the B-26. All units of the 22nd Group were equipped with the B-26. On the island hopping; I believe I took the third flight out and had Ray, Powell, and Larsen. I'll continue trying to confirm this. It never seemed clear to me whether the tough fighting took place in those early days of Rabaul or whether the Group later on ran into really tough times in the B-24s. It seems that we had our hands full getting the Japanese stopped and turned around before some of the other Groups came along. It strikes me, Walt, that the overall history of the 22nd is plenty to fill a volume without a lot of special little episodes. When I sell my ranch and back off on these sixteen-hour days, maybe the day will come that IÕll crank out a few memoirs. To do any justice to some of the early warriors requires some detail and I can't believe there is room for much of this in the big task you've been brave enough to tackle. I can say one thing to you, Walt, as an observation and by no means sour grapes: when we lost Mark Lewis and Dave Laubach, the 22nd Group had absolutely no worthwhile leadership as long as I was assigned to it. The one man capable of having taken over and welded the enormous resources and talent of our men into a collected, organized, machine was [Col. Brian] Shanty O'Neill. He was an individual with the qualities of true greatness which attracted loyalty and dedication. Under his leadership, our accomplishments would have been much greater. As it was, only the determination of the individual pilots carried the effort. When Shanty got the 38th Group, I followed him. The job was far from finished. Regards, Walt Krell |
