Lieutenant Ken O'Boyle in Villafranca (Page 171)

First Lieutenant Ken J. O'Boyle was an A-20 Havoc pilot with the 97th Bomb Squadron, 47th Bomb Group. In the last days of the Italian Campaign, his unit arrived in Villafranca di Verona,until recently the base of NSG 9.

As the European war ended, Lt. O'Boyle wrote a letter home:

May 7th 1945, 2120 Hrs

... The day we in the ETO have been waiting for is here - fini la guerre!

... When we got to this field there were still some Jerries on it but they were in no condition to do us any harm — if you get what I mean. A Focke-Wulf 190 was captured intact-the others were burned in their hardstands. A funny story about the FW-190 — the pilot, an Eyetie, set it down and when he turned off the engine was surprised to see a flock of doughboys leveling rifles at him. He later said he thought the field was still held by the Jerries — that happened the day before we got up here.

Below: Lt. O'Boyle's photos of the Fw 190F-9 captured at Villafranca.

FW190a

 

FW190b

Below: Ken O'Boyle in training, July 1944. The A-20 is named "Baby Butch."

KJOB

New sources: information from the late Lt. O'Boyle's son Mark, whose kind assistance is gratefully acknowledged. (To save anyone asking, I don't have prints of these photos, just the 72 dpi jpegs you see here).

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