Back to Main

Former wartime transport pilot recalls missions over Europe, Asia

By JOHN GUERRIERO
Morning News staff reporter (1994)

U.S. Army Air Force aviator A.J. "Jake" Gehrlein wanted to be in the middle of the action during World War II.  For awhile, he was in the thick of things.  Based in Sicily in September 1943, his group routinely flew missions of all kinds.  His C-47 transport plane carried paratroopers to designated drop zones in Africa, carried paratroopers and tow gliders for the invasion of southern France, took guns, ammunition and food to allies in Yugoslavia and other Balkan nations, and rescued U.S. pilots, navigators and bombardiers whose planes had been shot down or crashed.  But his group of four squadrons and one extra squadron was called together one night and told it would be assigned to a new Theater of Operations in Asia.

After a stopover in Cairo, Egypt, they reported to India to help blunt the Japanese thrust into northern India and Burma, Gehrlein, the longtime Erie County government controller, recalled in a recent interview.  The new assignment "kind of disappointed us. We thought we'd much rather operate in the European Theater, where the command seemed to be more in charge," said Gehrlein, who at the time was a 23-year-old second lieutenant.

After all the exciting action in Europe, Gehrlein said his crew, under British command, found themselves transporting mules and evacuating men in India and Burma.  "Mules were the first priority. Mules were more important than men," he said. The military placed such a high importance on the animals because they could carry heavy loads through the jungles.  The mules had to be blindfolded so they could be taken up the plane's ramp and led into pens built of bamboo, Gehrlein said. "We felt we were better than that," he said.

"We were very disappointed that we were in India and Burma, rather than in Europe, when D-Day hit," he said. In fact, Gehrlein said his crew didn't know about D-Day until three days after the fact.  "We were all kind of down in the dumps that we weren't there."  Gehrlein said his crew pressed for a return to Europe, and eventually got its wish with an assignment to Rome in l944. "Our assignments were cut back and the missions we flew were basically single missions into the Balkans," Gehrlein said.

Gehlrein and his crew supplied food, ammunition and medical supplies, evacuated the wounded and picked up American and British crew members.
"I thought we were doing a good job because if we didn't get (the wounded) out of there, they would die," he said.  It was never easy getting used to the gruesome injuries of war, Gehrlein said.  "It shook you at first to see half a face gone. If they were unconscious, it wasn't bad. But if they were not unconscious, it kind of got to you because they were reaching out to you, talking to you and holding on," he recalled.

Gehrlein is credited with flying a total of 144 missions in the European, Asian and African Theaters of operation.  But Gehrlein, who served in the Air Force from 1942 to 1945, humbly downplayed his role in the war effort.  "I don't want to present myself as a big hero. I just flew the missions I was assigned to fly," he said.  Ironically, most of the war medals that Gehrlein collected was for his work in India and Burma. "I think the other work was more important," he said.  Gehrlein ended his military service in 1945 as an instructor for navigation cadets in Austin, Texas.