Eleven men climbed into a B-24 Liberator bomber the crew called Snow White on Dec. 19, 1943. One was my father.

Pvt. William D. Boyce was 19 when he took up his position behind a .50-caliber Browning as Snow White's left waist gunner. Decades later, he rarely spoke to me about the war - and never about combat. Even at a young age, I knew better than to ask questions.

But my questions lingered long after his death in 1988. I recently reviewed military records to learn more. I also spoke with 89-year-old Ray Noury, the right waist gunner and last survivor of the 11. Sgt. Noury's memories of his fellow crew members remain sharp after 70 years.

On the eve of Memorial Day, their story deserves retelling.

Bomber crews suffered enormous casualties in 1943 and early 1944. Before long-range fighters were introduced, B-24 Liberators and B-17 Flying Fortresses flew deep into Germany without escorts. The lumbering, heavily laden bombers encountered attacks from fighters in the air and flak from anti-aircraft guns below.

That is exactly what unfolded on Dec. 19.

Snow White flew with 30 other B-24s that morning as part of the 98th Bomb Group's 343rd Squadron based in Brindisi, Italy. It left the ground at 7:44 a.m. carrying 2,300 gallons of fuel and 10 bombs; flew the length of Italy; crossed the Alps; and dropped its 500-pound bombs on a Messerschmitt aircraft factory in Augsburg, Germany. The badly damaged B-24 limped back to base seven hours later, too full of holes to fly again.

Army records matter-of-factly describe the fight over Augsburg. Snow White's Sortie Report states: "Fighters (20 to 30 est. total) closed in. 10 to 12 ME 110s and 10 to 12 ME 109s and a few FW 190s."

It continues: "AA - heavy and very accurate. Very large bursts." A 98th Bomb Group operations summary states: "Three B-24s probably shot down, most planes holed, at least 7 men wounded and 1 man killed."

Just before Snow White began its bomb run, one of the "very accurate" flak bursts blew a hole in the fuselage and shattered my father's right leg. From the Sortie Report: "LW-Pvt. Boyce, wounded in right leg. This man shot down one ME 110 observed by Sgt. Carter and Sgt. Hughes."

He never mentioned this fact to me.

Two months after combat ended for my father, most of Snow White's crew died aboard another B-24 the crew called Miss Fortune when it crashed in Czechoslovakia while returning from a mission to Regensburg, Germany.

A sick crew member missed the Regensburg mission; his replacement died. So did my father's replacement. Noury told me he was thrown clear when the fatally wounded B-24 broke apart in midair. He fell 15,000 feet with a damaged parachute; landed in a snow bank; and became a POW. No one else survived the crash.

A monument to Miss Fortune's crew stands outside Prague near the crash site in Nepomuk. The pilot was Lt. George Goddard from Ennis. He married before going overseas and was the father of a daughter he never met. Sgt. Rexford Rhodes, a waist gunner, was flying his last required mission before returning home.

The other men who died aboard Miss Fortune on Feb. 22, 1944, were Lt. Haig Kandarian; Lt. Joseph Altemus; Lt. Charles Spickard; Sgt. Oscar Houser; Sgt. Wayneworth Nelson; Sgt. Harold Carter; Sgt. Roy Hughes; and Sgt. John Goldbach. Each has a story with a premature ending.

My father paid dearly for his narrow escape. He endured dozens of surgeries as doctors painstakingly rebuilt his shin. He walked out of the hospital in late 1945 with two legs, one shorter than the other; the affection of a nurse named Peggy Lesko, who became his wife and my mother; and a lifetime of challenges ahead of him.

As a child, I thought my father was a hero because he had long scars on his leg and a Purple Heart in his sock drawer. I still do.

Only now - 70 years after my father's last mission and 25 years after his death - am I beginning to grasp the enormity of this crew's bravery and sacrifice. Only now am I beginning to understand the debt.

On this and future Memorial Days, I will think about the crew that flew on Snow White and Miss Fortune. I will think about my father and Sgt. Noury, who came home. I will think about the crew members who did not.


Boyce is a justice on the Texas 14th Court of Appeals, based in Houston.