1943, but decided to join the Eighth
Air Force. "But then I 'washed out' as a
pilot," he said, "because of air sickness.
So, a bunch of us washed-out guys were
sitting in a room, commiserating with
each other, wondering about our Air
Force careers when an officer came in
and yelled:
"All youse guys is gonna be gunners'!"
Off they went to gunnery school in
Nevada, practicing firing at targets being
pulled by planes over the desert. They
were then shipped to England where
Gross became the belly gunner, probably
the most dangerous gunner spot of the
six gun positions on a B-17.
"I flew 35 missions over Frankfurt,
Cologne and other German cities, firing
50 caliber machine guns. The flak (anti-
aircraft fire) was heavy, but I came out
okay; one time, I counted over 200 scars
on my turret. I think the dangerous
situation sort of cured my air sickness,
although I often felt queasy:'
After V-E Day, Gross returned to the
U.S. and helped train forest rangers in
Washington state to aid in detecting and
deflecting incendiary bombs attached
to balloons sent by the Japanese. One
had exploded and killed a teacher and
five children at a picnic. Gross earned a
Bronze Star during his service, but shyly
won't explain the reason. He also was
awarded five Air Medals with Oak Leaf
Clusters.
Working as an electrician following
his return to civilian life, Gross and his,
wife, Harriet, were married 47 years
before she died in 1995. They had four
children and five grandchildren.
Paul, 86, a June, 1941 Central grad,
tried to enlist in the air force on the
Monday morning after the Sunday
Pearl Harbor attack, but was told he
had to complete two years of college
(at Lawrence Tech in Southfield, now
Lawrence Technological University)
before being accepted.
"As soon as I finished," he said, "I
joined and trained for 18 months in
Mississippi, Florida and Alabama before
getting my wings as a second lieutenant:'
Shipped to an air base near Paris —
he was offered the bunks of any one of
four airmen who "didn't return" — Paul
flew his P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bomb-
er over selected targets like ammunition
dumps, trains and bridges, rather than
large cities hit by the big bombers. The
P-47 carried two, 500-pound bombs
and eight 50-caliber machineguns for
strafing.
"We went into a dive at 500 miles
an hour, dropped the bombs without a
bombsight, then we had to pull out fast
to avoid crashing:' he said. "We couldn't
rely on the altimeter to know our height
because it wasn't accurate at our speed.
"After the pullout, we blacked out for
about 20 seconds due to the gravita-
tional forces, but we had to regain our
wits quickly to know our position. The
flak was so thick you could hardly see.
One time, I was strafing a train when a
boxcar suddenly opened and two huge
anti-aircraft guns came out and started
firing. That kind of thing can make you
nervous:
He earned an Air Medal and seven
Oak Leaf Clusters and left the service as
a first lieutenant.
Paul and his wife, Phyllis, were mar-
ried 40 years, having three children, and
she died in 1985. He operated Larry Paul
Refinisher, Inc., in Detroit for 54 years
before retiring. Remarried, his wife,
Martha Zausmer Paul, is an award-win-
ning artist. El
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One of only two Jews among
800 airmen in the 314th
Fighter Squadron during
World War II in Europe, Larry
Paul found it a bit difficult
to form a minyan for Jewish
services in between dive
bomber runs over Germany.
So he attended church
services every Sunday morn-
ing, clutching a small book
titled Abridged Prayer Book
for Jews in the Armed Forces
of the U.S. He recalls: "I at
least felt closer to God in
this way, and I just prayed
privately with my own book.
I also took the book with me
on my missions. I needed all
the help I could get. I learned
quickly that a person can get
geharget varin out there (get
killed).
"My father somehow found
a way to daven twice a day
while fighting in three big
battles in World War I."
Did Paul experience any
anti-Semitism? "On the con-
trary," he exuded. "When
many of the Christian air-
men found out there were a
few Jews in our group, they
sought us out to meet us and
talk to us – just to see what
a Jew was like."
- Bill Carroll
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