By BILL McKINNEY
Staff writer
It was May 8, 1945,
Victory in Europe Day, and the fighting was supposed to have stopped. The Allies, after many bloody years, had forced the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany.
The German JU-88 ""night fighter'' had no
business being in the air, much less drawing a bead on the American-protected airfield designated R-11 at Eschwege, Germany.
The last previous engagement between Nazi aircraft and Harvey Pearson's 204th AAA Automatic
Weapons Battalion had happened nearly a month earlier, on April 11. The same style night fighter came out of the skies on a strafing run.
According to the unit's written history, Batteries C and D of the 204th both
swung into action. But there were no claims of a hit that night, and the airfield itself wasn't damaged.
On May 8, though, as most of the rest of front was quiet, Batteries C and D came alive again, this time
clobbering the night fighter. Again, according to the unit history, ""This was probably the last German plane shot down by American Ack-Ack (anti-aircraft) in World War II.''
Pearson, an Erie native, was a
combat medic assigned to A Battery at that time but, like the rest of the guys around him, took a certain pride in being part of the battalion credited with downing the last Nazi aircraft of the war.
""There
is a monument in the V.A. Cemetery in Massachusettes for the accomplishments of the 204th during World War II, a quiet, peaceful place back away from the heaviest traffic,'' Pearson said. The 204th formed up in
Massachusetts and its commanding officer was a Massachusetts native.
Pearson was drafted at age 20 out of Erie. He underwent surgical tech training at Lawson General Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., although he's still not
sure why the Army decided on that particular asssignment for him.
He then joined the 204th as a combat medic attached to A battery and eventually shipped out to England with the rest of his unit, debarking at
Liverpool.
""Our first taste of gunfire was near Weymouth, England, near the English Channel. A few German planes came and dropped their bomb loads very close to the gun emplacements. I was assigned to A
battery of 40 mm Bofor antiaircraft at the channel. The Germans dropped their last bombs just short of our emplacements and the British 40s just up the hill from us.''
As Allied planning would have it, Pearson and
his unit was to be part of the D-Day invasion force, slated to land on Omaha Beach after it was secured. As fate would have it, a storm in the channel made the off-loading of their guns and equipment impossible.
""We were stuck on board ship six or eight days, until the storm eased up,'' he said.
After finally landing at Omaha, its guns were set up to defend ammo and gasoline dumps and it took part in 12 separate
engagements during that time. The unit went on to St. Lo and, after the St. Lo breakthrough in July, it swung over to Cherbourg.
""We assisted in downing a few planes in Normandy. There were AA gun
emplacements about every 500 yards in every direction. It was either succeed or face another Dunkirk (A rout early on in which English forces barely got off French soil and back home, via every kind of boat imaginable.)
After the liberation of Cherbourg the 204th followed the First Army, guarding rail centers and supply dumps, both in France and in Belgium where they took up defensive positions at bridges across the Meuse River.
Hearing about the Battle of the Bulge, Pearson said, their mission became one of preventing those same bridges from being destroyed and preventing V and VII Corps of the First Army from being trapped in the event of a
Nazi breakthrough.
One of Pearson's most vivid memories stems from this time, on a night when another JU-88 made a bombing run on their gun emplacements.
""We lost contact with the number two gun section
and the executive officer ordered me out to find out why. He felt it was probably hit and needed a medic.
""The shortest way was across a railroad trestle. About halfway across a bomber came down through the
valley making a bombing run. Our 40s were up high on the hills. The 40s were firing but the plane was too low in the valley for them to get it. They were able to get a little piece of the tail but not enough to get it
down.
""The thought crossed my mind if he (the German aircraft) was saving a bomb for the bridge I was crossing at that time. I still remember seeing the faces of the pilot and co-pilot inside the cockpit,
with the bright moonlight and their own instrument lights shining on them.
""Later I talked with our gunners. They said the heat from their gun barrels sawed through the frozen sandbags as they tried to get
a direct hit on it.''
After the Bulge, the unit went to an area known as ""Buzz Bomb Alley'' to see if it could help knock down the rockets -- buzz bombs -- being launched toward England. Pearson said the
unit had little success against the devices.
>From there came the Rhine crossing and VE Day, and the Nazi bomber that made one raid too many.
Pearson left the army after the war but, in 1952, with the Korean War
still blazing, he enlisted in the Army Reserves, switching over to the Air Force Reserves in 1960.
He retired as a first sergeant in August 1982 and was awarded an Air Force commendation for meritorious service.
Pearson believes in maintaining a strong military reserve force. He says it is cost-effective for the government, offers a strong defense upon which to draw in the event of a crisis, and allows young people to pay the
debt he feels is owed to a country in which everyone enjoys so much freedom.
""Without that strength, I don't think we would have seen the Berlin Wall come down,'' he said. ""And Desert Storm
proved the strength of our reserves.''
Raised a Lutheran, Pearson said World War II did nothing to shake his faith. ""If anything it reaffirmed it,'' he said. ""This is part of the problem with
young people today. They don't think they have anything to hold onto; they don't have anything to look to.''
