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In his cramped gunnery position behind the tail section of a B-26 Marauder bomber, Raymond Nolt fought Nazi Germany with his .50-caliber machine gun.
During the 13 months and 18 days he spent in the European Theater of War as a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps, Raymond made 66 combat missions over France, Germany and Holland as a tailgunner on the medium-size World War II bomber.
In his apartment at Valley View Residential Center at John Knox Village, the 92-year-old veteran shared his wartime experiences. However, he was reluctant to take credit for any heroic acts or achievements that drew attention to himself.
Raymond said little about successfully completing 66 combat missions, knowing each mission could be his last, since the B-26 Marauder – nicknamed the “Widowmaker” – had a high rate of accidents during takeoffs and landings.
But that didn’t bother Raymond, who credits the “good Lord” for bringing him through the war unscathed.
“You think about (what could happen) but you don’t dwell on it,” says Raymond, assigned to the 559th Squadron, 387th Bomb Group, 9th Air Force, headquartered in England.
Raymond never planned too far ahead, he says, because life in the Army Air Corps was subject to change – even as you slept.
“I’ve been lying there in the bed, and all of a sudden they would wake me up and say you have to fill in for so and so” for one reason or another.
Was Raymond ever scared on any of his 66 missions over enemy territory?
He’ll tell you he was.
“You get scared lots of time,” he says, explaining no one knows how a mission is going to turn out.
“If you get hit, you get hit,” Raymond says, noting his aircraft received its share of flak from antiaircraft fire.
One such hit knocked out one of its two engines, setting it on fire.
“So we flew back to our base on one engine,” he says, calling the near-disaster the most harrowing experience of the war.
In another close call, a piece of gray flak – about the size of a thumbnail – pierced the side of the Marauder and fell harmlessly on the floor of Raymond’s tiny compartment.
That tiny piece of flak is now encased in a shadow box, along with three medals and a German .30-caliber wooden bullet that Raymond found at a French battle site.
“The Germans would shoot those wooden bullets at soldiers just to wound them,” he says, so as not to kill them.
In his cramped gunnery position behind the tail section of a B-26 Marauder bomber, Raymond Nolt fought Nazi Germany with his .50-caliber machine gun.
During the 13 months and 18 days he spent in the European Theater of War as a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps, Raymond made 66 combat missions over France, Germany and Holland as a tailgunner on the medium-size World War II bomber.
In his apartment at Valley View Residential Center at John Knox Village, the 92-year-old veteran shared his wartime experiences. However, he was reluctant to take credit for any heroic acts or achievements that drew attention to himself.
Raymond said little about successfully completing 66 combat missions, knowing each mission could be his last, since the B-26 Marauder – nicknamed the “Widowmaker” – had a high rate of accidents during takeoffs and landings.
But that didn’t bother Raymond, who credits the “good Lord” for bringing him through the war unscathed.
“You think about (what could happen) but you don’t dwell on it,” says Raymond, assigned to the 559th Squadron, 387th Bomb Group, 9th Air Force, headquartered in England.
Raymond never planned too far ahead, he says, because life in the Army Air Corps was subject to change – even as you slept.
“I’ve been lying there in the bed, and all of a sudden they would wake me up and say you have to fill in for so and so” for one reason or another.
Was Raymond ever scared on any of his 66 missions over enemy territory?
He’ll tell you he was.
“You get scared lots of time,” he says, explaining no one knows how a mission is going to turn out.
“If you get hit, you get hit,” Raymond says, noting his aircraft received its share of flak from antiaircraft fire.
One such hit knocked out one of its two engines, setting it on fire.
“So we flew back to our base on one engine,” he says, calling the near-disaster the most harrowing experience of the war.
In another close call, a piece of gray flak – about the size of a thumbnail – pierced the side of the Marauder and fell harmlessly on the floor of Raymond’s tiny compartment.
That tiny piece of flak is now encased in a shadow box, along with three medals and a German .30-caliber wooden bullet that Raymond found at a French battle site.
“The Germans would shoot those wooden bullets at soldiers just to wound them,” he says, so as not to kill them.
Calling himself a good marksman, Raymond says he used his gunnery skills to strafe ground targets more often than he did to ward off German fighter planes.
As for how many enemy planes he hit or knocked out of the sky, Raymond replies, “None. I didn’t shoot any planes down. It didn’t work out that way. It just didn’t.”
As Raymond recounted his combat experiences, he sometimes referenced his personal World War II journal, where all 66 of his missions are documented – beginning with his first mission on March 7, 1944; concluding with his final mission on Oct. 24, 1944.
About Mission 1, he wrote: “My first mission over enemy territory. Did not drop our bombs. Did not see any fighters. Saw some high vapor trails. Could not tell what they were. Our target was a marshaling yard.”
His final entry was a brief one: “The target was a railroad bridge in Moerdijk, Holland. Encountered some moderate inaccurate flak southeast of Rotterdam. My last mission.”
As for the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, Raymond’s crew was more than ready, having already completed 29 successful missions.
Under the cover of darkness, his Marauder – with a crew of six – crossed over the English Channel and flew two missions that day.
In his journal, Raymond writes of Missions 30 and 31:
“Today, June 6, 1944, was invasion day on France. Our target was gun emplacement in the Cherbough Peninsular. We encountered light caliber intense firing over target.”
As for Mission 31, the journal reads: “Our target was the railroad yards in the area of Falaise.”
Falaise was mentioned again in the journal entry of June 14, the 36th mission: “Target was the city of Falaise, France. Think we hit the wrong town.”
Asked if he remembers that mission, Raymond quips, “Oh, yes. We heard a lot about that when we got back” to base.
In the journal, which also includes letters of appreciation, photographs, newspaper clippings, maps and other memorabilia, Raymond writes:
“Left 589th Squadron, 387th Bomb Group to go home on Oct. 24, 1944. There were six enlisted men and five officers that left with me from my squadron. We stayed in Paris on the 24th and then left the next day for London. We stayed there on the 25th because of bad weather. We were delayed one full day from going to Cloy. We got there the 26th of Oct. and am waiting shipment to the dear old U.S.A.”
Looking back over his successful life, Raymond recalls he was working as a riveter in an aircraft plant in San Diego, Calif., making Navy planes, when he entered the service.
Unsuccessful in his efforts to become an Army Air Corps pilot, Raymond volunteered for air gunnery and trained in an 8T6 trainer at Laredo, Texas.
There, he recalls, “I had my first experience firing a .30-caliber machine gun at a moving tow target pulled by another aircraft.”
He also received additional training in Florida and New York before shipping out to England and being assigned to the 387th Bomb Group.
For Raymond, life has been good since he became a civilian more than 65 years ago. He and his wife, Maxine, have been married 63 years.
Because of an eye problem, Raymond quit his watchmaking business and became highly successful door-to-door sales representative for the Fuller Brush Co. – a career spanning more than half a century.
With no children of their own, the Nolts served as youth leaders at Maywood Baptist Church of Independence during the 1960s and ’70s. Maxine taught Sunday school there and Raymond was a regular caregiver in the toddler department. They lived most of their married life at 4301 Crisp St., just south of where the Blue Ridge Mall was before it was demolished.
Raymond’s story is being told at the request of Bob Adams, executor of the Nolts’ estate, who believes Raymond’s service to his country some 60-plus years ago should be recognized while he’s alive and alert.
“Ray is very proud of his military service and he has kept such good records,” Adam says of his longtime friend. “I know when I take him over to the VA Hospital, he takes his journal, and (the patients there) gather around him to look at it,” he says. “It’s a valuable document – it really is.”
Thanks, Raymond for sharing your life and military journal with us. We salute you for your role in defeating Germany and keeping America free from Nazi domination. We’ll never forget you or your patriotism.
