LLOYD SWENSON
Age: 86
Born: Nov. 21, 1924
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Army Air Corps; 9th Air Force; 387th Bomb Group; 557th Bomb Squadron
Years served: Feb. 28, 1943 - Jan. 1, 1946
Rank: First Lieutenant
Family: Wife Hansi; four children, Charlie Swenson of Poulsbo, Wash., Susan Coppock of Lawrenceville, N.J, Elizabeth Creencia of Auburn, Calif., and Debbie Watkins of La Verne; 12 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Army veteran Leonard Curran of Palm Desert.
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at mydesert.com/wwii.
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U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Lloyd Swenson, a B-26 bomber pilot, was a teenager when he flew his first combat missions during World War II.
“I flew 20 missions before I turned 20,” Swenson said.
By the time the war was over, the young pilot — Swenson flew co-pilot early on — completed 61 combat missions.
The B-26 Marauder was a twin-engine medium-range bomber — “fast and very maneuverable,” Swenson said — and carried a crew of six men.
Swenson, who flew with the 9th Air Force, 387th Bomb Group, said targets attacked by the 387th included airfields, fuel dumps, ammunition depots, bridges and marshalling yards.
A month after celebrating his 20th birthday, on Nov. 21, 1944, Swenson and the B-26 group flew into some of the fiercest fighting conditions it would face during the war.
“The period of combat that I especially think about during the Christmas season was participation in the Battle of the Bulge,” Swenson said.
When the German Army broke through the Allied front lines on Dec. 16, 1944 — the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge — the ground troops fought exhaustively, suffering heavy losses while battling in the brutal cold of winter — without air support.
The weather was terrible, and the skies, thick with clouds, made effective aerial attacks impossible. The grounded airmen waited for more than a week when finally, on Dec. 23, the weather cleared enough for the Army Air Corps to take to the skies.
Just the day before, the group was getting ready to abandon its base in Clastres, France.
“We were preparing to evacuate because the Germans were getting so close,” Swenson said. “We couldn't take anything with us. You could have your uniform and a toothbrush.”
“Then on the 23rd, it was a bright, clear day, the fog lifted we were all very excited about the fact we were going to fly this mission.”
That morning, Swenson was awakened at 5.
“The first mission that day for the 387th Bomb Group was to take out a 344-foot bridge over the Nette River at Mayen, Germany,” Swenson said. “Thirty-six of our aircraft set out to destroy the bridge. A few miles off Bastogne, about 25 ME-109s (German fighter planes) hurtled into the Marauder formation. Normally we flew with fighter escort, but that day all of our fighters were involved in ground support.”
Five B-26es were shot down during the mission; heavy flak knocked out the lead plane.
“I was flying wingman off the B-26 just behind it (the lead plane),” Swenson said. “All of the aircraft but one in the flight behind me were shot down, and the plane behind me had one engine destroyed.”
“The ME-109s were just forming to attack my flight when our P-51s (U.S. fighter planes) responded to our mayday call,” he said.
Swenson said he didn't see a single fighter plane — “Because I had to keep my eyes on the plane off the wing I was flying” — but he heard first hand accounts about the enemy activity.
Over the intercom, the tail gunner described the dogfight action going on behind the plane. A total of 41 B-26s from the Ninth Bomber Command were shot down — by far the most of any one day in Marauder history, he said.
“When the battered 387th formation returned to our base about noon, one pilot crash-landed, and four or five others made difficult emergency landings. Fourteen of the returning aircraft were severely damaged.”
“We hit the target,” he added. “We knocked it out and prevented trains from crossing to bring supplies to the Battle of the Bulge Germans.”
Swenson said the group's gunners were credited with shooting down five enemy fighter planes.
But the action wasn't quite over for the men of the 387th. When Swenson got out of his plane, he was told to report to a briefing for another mission to be flown in the afternoon to help eliminate a vital communications center at Prum, Germany, about 40 miles west of Mayen.
Swenson flew a successful mission — he was two for two for Dec. 23 — and he was right back in the air the next day. He managed to get his plane to and from the target intact — but many other pilots were not so lucky, as 21 of 26 of the aircraft received significant anti-aircraft battle damage.
Swenson flew two more missions on Christmas Day; he ended up flying a total of six missions between Dec. 23 and Dec. 27.
“I was one of the few who flew all six Battle of the Bulge missions,” he said.
More than 60 years after the end of World War II, Swenson found out he he'd been carrying around a combat souvenir all this time.
“I had knee replacement surgery four years ago and the doctor who performed the surgery discovered there was shrapnel in my knee.”
Since the small metal fragment was so well encased in the tissue, the doctor thought it was better to just leave it in place.
“I never knew it happened,” he said. “I was always banging my knee,” he said, laughing.
Swenson said he's fortunate he survived so many missions.
“It was just amazing,” he said. “I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”
During a particularly harrowing time, Swenson made a pact with the man upstairs.
“At one point, I said, ‘God, if you get me through this, I'll be a minister.'”
After returning from the war and working for a while in the family construction business, he kept thinking about his promise.
“It bothered me that I hadn't done that, so I went back to Princeton with my wife and two children and became a Presbyterian minister,” he said.
