The B-17 Bomber Crewman Who Survived 104 Combat Missions: M/SGT Hewitt T. Dunn
390th Bomb Group | US 8th Air Force | January 1944-May 1945
First Combat Mission — January 29th, 1944
Target: Frankfurt, Germany | Aircraft: B-17F “Buckshot Annie” (42–5984)
Then technical Sergeant Hewitt “Buck” Dunn of Norfolk, Virginia, found himself gazing into the vast blue void of the skies over the English Channel. He calmly scanned left and right through the plexiglass of the tail gunner’s window on his flying fortress. Dunn and his fellow crewmen are surrounded to the horizon by B-17 and B-24 bombers, as well as a plethora of escort fighter aircraft drawn from no less than 26 different Groups in the Mighty 8th Air Force.
T/Sgt. Dunn was flying his first combat mission in a B-17, aboard B-17F “Buckshot Annie” (42–5984) as part of a massive attack force from the 8th and 9th Air Forces sent to take out industrial hubs in Germany. And although “Buck” had not yet become used to the rigors of combat, he felt strangely at peace. The fear described by so many others seemed as foreign to him as the first taste of flak or fighters at 20,000 feet.
“He could call out the flak bursts before they happened. He had a natural presence up there.”
100 Combat Missions
This moment of serenity would define a long and arduous military career for Hewitt Dunn. Little did he or his Squadron know that he would soon become both the most decorated — and mysterious — man in the 8th Air Force during World War Two, flying over 100 combat missions in a B-17 before the summer of 1945. His former crewmen attest that he was “one of a kind” and had a natural presence in the bomber stream. It was said that Hewitt Dunn could predict flak bursts before they happened, calling them out to the pilots over the intercom.
The Iron Man of the 8th Air Force
Within the next year and a half after his first sortie over the continent, Hewitt Dunn will have achieved something that no other member of the 8th Air Force accomplished during the war: 104 combat sorties in a B-17 Bomber. By May 1945, Dunn had flown more than double the number of missions of any other officer or enlisted man in the 390th Bomb Group and more overall combat sorties than any bomber crewman in the 42 Bombardment Groups that comprised the 8th Air Force.
With 104 combat missions under his belt, Sgt. Dunn survived incredible odds, with a 74% chance of being killed and a 90% chance of being shot down and taken prisoner (per 390th Memorial Museum Foundation). And yet, he never took any leave.
Some men chose to return home after their required amount of combat missions. For the 390th, in 1944 and 1945, that was 30 missions. But Sergeant Dunn never took his leave or returned home to the US after meeting his increments of 30, or 60, or 90 missions.
This continued right through until the end of the war. He has been described as “an honest-to-God hero” by his aircrews, and yet, today, when we remember the legends of the Air War in WWII, Master Sergeant Hewitt Dunn remains a mystery. He vanished in the early 1960s, and many of his buddies and veterans of the 390th never knew what came of him.
A Mysterious Disappearance
Details of how he died were covered up. There are few public records of him, his heroic wartime career, or his unusual early death. And despite having remained one of the most highly esteemed non-commissioned officers in the US Military for over 15 years, very few even know his name.
This is the story of Master Sergeant Hewitt “Buck” Dunn, the “Iron Man” of the 390th Bomb Group, who flew 104 combat missions in WWII.
Hewitt Dunn’s Entry to WWII
Hewitt Tomlinson Dunn enlisted in the US Army on July 20th, 1942, days after turning 23 years old.
He proceeded through his training and was assigned to the 569th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) of the legendary 390th Bomb Group, 13th Combat Wing, 8th Air Force, in December 1943 at Framlingham Airfield, which was located outside of Suffolk, England. The 390th had been stationed at Framlingham since August of that same year, after replacing the battle-worn 95th Bomb Group, which badly needed refitting and repairs following brutal daytime bombing raids and major losses. Each B-17 in the 390th had a crew of 10, and the average age in the Squadron was 19 years old.
After a handful of training sorties around England, Dunn was soon declared fit for combat and ready to fly with his squadron across the Channel, officially taking part in the air war over Europe.
His first role aboard the B-17 was tail gunner, riding alone in the cold, exposed rear end of the B-17’s unpressurized fuselage. This would be the first of his 104 combat sorties during WWII. And this was not just any old “milk run” of a mission either…
First Combat Mission (continued) — January 29th, 1944
Target: Frankfurt, Germany | Aircraft: B-17F “Buckshot Annie” (42–5984)
January 29th, 1944, saw the largest attack group put forward by the 8th Air Force on a single target up to that point in the war. The flight consisted of 675 B-17 and 188 B-24 bombers, stemming from 26 different Bomb Groups in the 8th. One of these groups was Hewitt Dunn’s 390th Bomb Group.
The mission also had a fighter escort consisting of 630+ fighter aircraft from the 8th and 9th Air Forces as well as the RAF. Their target was the industrial heart of Frankfurt, Germany, a valuable hub of production which was known to be heavily defended, and soon to be taken by Allied Infantry forces in the coming months.
The 390th would be assigned to the “Third Bombardment Division” for that mission, which placed them organizationally in the first wave of bombers over Frankfurt. This would prove to be a stroke of luck as members from the 390th on that particular day reported no fighter defense and minimal anti-aircraft or flak.
They had already begun their trip back home by the time fighters were scrambled and flak teams could hone in on the bomber stream. Dunn could only watch helplessly from the tail of his B-17 as he observed the contrails of the the enemy fighters weave through the bomber formations behind him, amid puffs of black flak smoke.
The 390th lost one aircraft that day (B-17 “Virgin Sturgeon/Eight Ball” 230334-E) after the crew suffered a mid-air collision with B-17 “Miss Carry” (230325-D, 570). “Miss Carry” was able to stabilize and make it home. Nine other aircraft from the group were damaged by flak but landed safely. Subsequent waves were not as lucky, with over 360 airmen reported dead, wounded, or missing that day. More on this mission here.
This would be the first mission of a long career in strategic bombing for Hewitt Dunn.
Buck
Although he grew up as “Buck” in school, veterans and historians of the 390th Bomb Group refer to M/SGT Dunn as “Iron Man,” while others just call him plain old lucky.
Whatever he was remembered as, it is no mystery that M/SGT Hewitt “Buck” Dunn was viewed as a good luck charm amongst aircrews. In WWII alone, he flew in combat on at least 26 different B-17s, both B-17G and F models. Many men were considered lucky if they even saw 26 missions, let alone 26 different aircrews and multiple missions between each of them.
Hewitt Dunn began his career flying in bombers as a protector in the tail gun, always watching for opportunities to defend his aircraft and crew. This was quite the opposite of the role he would grow into as a Togglier/Bombardier in later missions, as the man who dropped the weapons on targets below.
He became a symbol of strength and experience in the face of fear, and men across the 390th Bomb Group looked to Dunn for certainty in every kind of mission.
Many years after the war, one fellow bombardier in the 569th recalled the role M/Sgt Dunn played during the officer’s briefings (as an NCO) prior to missions.
Buck in the Briefing Room
“The officers would watch ‘Buck’ Dunn. He would come into the briefing room, sit down in a chair and lean back, using the back two legs of the chair. After the curtain was drawn and the target was exposed, if Dunn stayed leaned against the wall, the other bombardiers relaxed. It was a milk run.
However if Dunn leaned forward and had all four legs of the chair on the floor, then the bombardiers knew it was a tough mission. Their apprehensive levels went sky high, and they sweated out the mission” (Bennett, 390th Memorial Museum Foundation, The Square J Bulletin, Fall 2003, Page 8 & 9).
Sgt. Dunn would complete his first tour of duty in April 1944. That is 30 combat missions in three months. Where most men would have returned home for R&R or extended leave, Dunn signed on for another tour of duty, having been quoted saying “I am sticking around until D-Day. I dont want to miss out on the greatest event in history.”
As fate would have it, he did not fly on D-Day as he simply wasn’t assigned to a mission that day. He would remain in Europe for another 12 months (and 74 more missions) after his first tour was completed. In fact, his first daughter, Donna Lee, was born on February 25th, 1944. On that very same day, Hewitt was flying with the 390th Bomb Group as a Tail Gunner aboard B-17 “Gung Ho” — aircraft serial 231134, in the skies over Nazi-occupied Europe. It was just his 9th combat mission, and the target was Regensburg, Germany. He wouldn’t get to meet his first child until after she was over a year old.
Third Combat Mission — February 3rd, 1944
Target: Kriegsmarinewerft Naval shipyard, Wilhelmshaven, Germany | Aircraft: “Buckshot Annie” (42–5984)
By his 3rd mission on February 3, 1944, Hewitt was finally beginning to get a sense of the realities faced by the airmen of the bomber war over Europe. On this raid, mission number 53 for the 569th Bomb Squadron, the group saw 724 bombers set out from England with orders to destroy the Kriegsmarinewerft naval shipyard in the city of Wilhelmshaven, located on the east side of the East Friesian Peninsula. Their fighter escort, numbering at around 630 aircraft, was comprised of elements from both the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces. Dunn and his crew were again flying aboard B-17F “Buckshot Annie” (42–5984).
Leading up to the bomb run, the 390th found themselves forced to climb to 28,000 feet above a cloud bank to provide cover from relentless flak exposure over Germany. This was 5 thousand feet higher than the planned altitude for dropping the payloads that mission. The decision was made to fly above the clouds so as to not risk exposure to intense flak even though it reduced the possibility for bombing the proper target.
Regardless of the conservative decision, one of Dunn’s fellow crew members, Joseph G. O’Hara, was wounded by flak while over the target in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. With the lack of enemy fighters, Sgt Dunn was able to leave the tail gun and help alongside other crew members with hooking O’Hara up to oxygen and providing first aid during the return trip back to Framlingham. O’Hara survived the mission however, and would go on to fly his 30 combat missions as a Bombardier/Togglier with the 569th and survive the war.
2nd Tour of Duty | 35th Combat Mission — May 29th, 1944
Target: Aircraft Factories, Leipzig, Germany | Aircraft: Gung Ho (231134)
Sgt. Hewitt Dun had just signed on for this 2nd tour of duty, only 2 months after his daughter was born back in the US. Still, he wanted to see the war through.
On May 25, 1944, 251 bombers from the 13th and 45th Combat Wings took off from England in the early morning hours. Their target: The aircraft manufacturing plants of Leipzig, Germany, which were rapidly assembling BF-109 fighters for the Luftwaffe. This excerpt from the 390th Memorial Museum Foundation Database describes the mission in detail:
“During the planning phase, the Mockau plant was selected as the primary target for the 390th Bomb Group.
For this mission, the 390th Bomb Group was ordered to provide twenty-eight bombers: twenty-one would act as the Low Group for the 45th Combat Wing’s bombing formation. The other seven would be organized into a Composite Group, designated 95 “A” Composite Group, along with fourteen planes from the 95th and 100th Bomb Groups. The planes from the 390th would serve as the high squadron, while the aircraft from the 95th and 100th would act as the lead and low squadrons respectively.
The twenty-eight bombers took off from Framlingham between 7:40 and 8:07 AM. The seven bombers assigned to the Composite Group met with their contemporaries from the 95th and 100th Bomb Groups on schedule, and took up their assigned position in the combat box without issue.
Another four planes — three from the Main Group, and one from the Composite Group — were forced to abort mission and turn back shortly after crossing over into Europe. Despite not participating in the attack run, their crews were still credited for the sortie.
During a ten-minute window in the target area when the bombers from the Main Group were flying without an escort, around forty German fighters took the opportunity to pounce. The experienced, aggressive German pilots managed to shoot down two Fortresses from the 390th — the “Sitting Pretty” (231466-A, 569) and the “Flying Coffin/Dutch Cleaner/Yankee Doodle Dandy” (239953-J, 569) — but lost over a dozen planes in the ensuing return fire.
Despite their encounter with the Luftwaffe, the bombers arrived over Leipzig at roughly the time they were expected to. However, the planes from the Main Group were forced to call off their attack run on the Mockau plant when they found the facility completely obscured by a thick smoke screen thrown up by the defenders. Forced to select their own aiming points, the bombardiers eventually placed their crosshairs over the Heitberblick factory, located two and a half miles southeast of the Mockau plant, and reduced the factory to a pile of rubble.
The planes from the Composite Group were the first to make it back to Framlingham that afternoon, with the bombers from the Main Group following shortly after. While all but one of the planes from the Composite Group were completely undamaged, nearly half of the bombers from the Main Group had holes in their fuselages. Their crews, however, were unharmed.
The 13th and 45th Combat Wings reported losing nine bombers during the mission to Leipzig, and declared 93 men as wounded or missing.”
83rd Mission: One year of Combat Over Europe — January 28th, 1945
Target: Duisburg Germany | Aircraft: B-17G 43–38784 (Name Unknown)
Exactly 364 days after M/SGT Dunn’s very first combat mission, January 28th, 1945, Dunn and the crew of (43–38784) found themselves on one mission where the famous luck of the 569th’s “Iron Man” truly came to fruition. This was Dunn’s 83rd combat mission and his third tour of duty with the 390th.
Two of Dunn’s fellow aircrew that day have recalled the events that unfolded. They were W. Wilson Shira, and Richard “Dick” Cowles. Shira was a B-17 pilot in the 569th, Cowles, a regular tailgunner in Shira’s crew. It has been said of bombing missions:
“Sometimes the difference between life and death can be a matter of half a second…or less.”
On January 28, 1945 on a mission to Duisberg, Germany. W. Wilson Shira was piloting plane number 338784. Richard “Dick” Cowles was the tailgunner and Hewitt “Buck” Dunn (the 104 mission “Iron Man”) was the togglier. Cowles and Dunn had flown about 15 missions together and knew each other well.
Shira and Cowles recount their close call while flying with “Buck” Dunn, writing in their unit memorial newsletter many years later.
According to pilot Shira, as they started on the bomb run:
“There were little black bursts of flak ahead of you. You could see it coming. It was right in line with us.”
Tailgunner Cowles recounted their moments directly above a 4-gun flak battery just before reaching the target: Buck was in the nose as togglier calling off the shots. He calmly came on over the intercom and said: ‘hang on, they’re gonna get us!’ About 20 seconds later, one shell went off the nose. The next one came right through the radio room floor and up through the ceiling of room, exploding just above the aircraft causing the entire plane to jump up in altitude then violently drop back down. The final shell exploded just behind the aircraft and Cowles’ seat in the tail gun.
Pilot W. Wilson Shira remembers “When we were hit, I just figured we got it. I didn’t know where. The ball turret gunner was screaming because he couldn’t get out. He didn’t have any power.” He couldn’t get a response from anyone in the crew over the intercom, until Dick Cowles came on and said he was still okay.
Shira states: “so I called Cowles to go up and check”.
Cowles crawled out of his position with a walk-around bottle and found both waist gunners out. He administered to them and then went forward to the radio room. Cowles later wrote:
“I didn’t know what was going on. I just smelled all the black smoke. You couldn’t see anything. I figured I was going to hear a bail out bell. Because the minute that thing hit and exploded, the aircraft went up and then just dropped like a rock from the explosion. Then the next shell just went off the tail.
The waist gunner was laying down and I got him hooked up to oxygen. The radio room was a disaster. All of the radio sets were gone, part of the bulkhead was gone, there was a big hole in the top of the aircraft and the control cables were hanging down like spaghetti.”
Dunn’s intercom connections from the nose had been severed, and it was unclear if he was still alive and able to drop the payload.
Amazingly, the radio operator was alive. Cowles remembers
“I got him all hooked up and he was kind of stunned. The explosion blew him clear across the room. It was a tremendous explosion that created a vacuum and sucked everything out the top of the aircraft. If the radio operator hadn’t turned around in his seat, he would have gone right up through the top of the aircraft and would have been long gone.”
Lt. Shira had put the plane on automatic pilot and came to the back to assess the damage to the control cables. Then with help from the revived crewmen, removed the ball turret gunner who was OK. Without hesitation Lt. Shira continued over the target, flying on automatic pilot and “Buck” Dunn triggered the bombs away when the group dropped.
Shira said:
“We missed getting hit in the bomb bay by maybe eight feet.” Cowles had almost the same thought — “two tenths of a second earlier and it would have hit the bomb bay and we wouldn’t have had to worry about anything because it would have blown that ship into a thousand pieces.”
An attempt was made to reconnect some of the control wires. Cowles remembers “When we flew back to England, the crew was nervous — maybe Buck wasn’t — but I’ll tell you the rest of us were.”
Shira recalls that “I flew back without control of the tail. It was back there just flapping.” Cowles says that “trimming the aircraft out was a fantastic job by our pilot Wilson Shira — he did a tremendous job. He could really handle a B-17.”
Shira’s modest and accurate reaction was that “we were lucky, very lucky.”
(McFalone, 390th Memorial Museum Foundation, Square J Bulletin, Summer 2013, Page 7–9)
This is just one example of day-to-day experiences seen at any given moment by the B-17 crews of the 569th and the Mighty 8th Air Force as a whole.
94th Combat Mission — 3/21/45
Target: Handorf, Germany | Aircraft: B-17G Princess Pat (337904)
Sergeant Dunn, flying on his 94th mission on March 21st, 1945 had a unusual experience fighting an emeny that didnt take the form of flak or fighters, but of the frigid, low-oxygen environment of the B-17 high over Europe in the Winter and Spring of 1945.
For his first and only time in that position, Dunn elected to sit in as top turret/engineer. The flight got underway with all going seemingly fine. Prior to reaching the target however, Dunn’s oxygen mask and regulator system came unhooked, and he soon collapsed in the top turret. Because of his size (he was a star football player) he had fallen with his head in a position difficult to get an oxygen mask on.
The pilot, Lt. Mel Meyers, got out of his seat to administer oxygen to “Buck.” He did so without any walk-around oxygen however, and quickly passed out himself. Realizing this, the co- pilot, William M. MacVicar acted quickly and heroically dove the plane to get to a lower altitude, while the navigator helped revive Dunn and Meyers. They had left the formation, and headed for home. Lt. Meyers came to, and was able to fly the plane home. He ultimately received a Distinguished Flying Cross for helping out a downed crewman.
The 100th Combat Mission — April 6th, 1945
Target: Leipzig, Germany | Aircraft: The Great McGinty (338663)
Early in the morning of April 6th, 1945, Sgt. Dunn and the men of the 569th Bomb Squadron took their seats in the briefing room at Framlingham Airfield. Sgt. Dunn chose his usual chair and, in classic fashion, reclined back on the rear two legs as he waited to learn the target for today. The men all watched his posture as the target was revealed: Leipzig, Germany. Sgt. Dunn slowly guided the chair back forward onto all four legs as he studied the mission details.
A tense air took over the briefing room. The men knew what his posture meant. Leipzig was no milk run, or so they thought. The airspace over that city was now solidified as a significant place in Hewitt Dunn’s life, having been credited with shooting down an enemy FW-190 months earlier in the same region. It would now be the location of his 100th combat sortie.
As part of the Allies’ objective to sever supply lines feeding the German military’s “National Redoubt” in the Alps, a force of 215 bombers was assigned to attack the primary rail station in Leipzig, Germany. 37 of these bombers came from the 390th Bomb Group, including “The Great McGinty” of the 569th, with Sgt. Dunn in the nose as the togglier. Due to the thick cloud bank beneath the bomber stream, the results of the bombing could not be observed. The formation dropped their payloads on the command of a Pathfinder aircraft.
The tense atmosphere from earlier in the day began to lighten with each payload dropped. Where was the enemy resistance? Flak fire was reported as meager and inaccurate at best, and the bombers of the 390th encountered no enemy fighters. The formation returned to England that day with zero aircraft lost and no casualties.
The Eighth Air Force dispatched 650 total aircraft this day to attack several targets in the Leipzig region. Among these 650, only four were lost. These relatively minor losses, although still the size of an entire infantry platoon, were incredible given the size of the mission and the formerly brutal airspace over Leipzig.
Making History
The seasoned crew of “The Great McGinty,” piloted by Lt. Melvin Meyers, had just helped 24-year-old Sgt Hewitt Dunn reach one of the most historic milestones ever achieved by any airman in the 8th Air Force during WWII: Surviving 100 combat missions over Europe in a B-17. The average lifespan of a B-17 in the 390th Bomb Group was just 33 missions. The quota for a single tour of duty was only 30 missions for most airmen. Sgt Hewitt Dunn had just flown more than three times these numbers and still signed back on for more.
Hopping out of “The Great McGinty” at Framlingham after his 100th mission, Dunn is quoted stating:
“I was a little nervous at briefing when I learned Leipzig was the target. But, it turned out to be just another mission– a milk run!”
This one statement perfectly aligns with the “guy without nerves” demeanor that so many of his fellow aircrew would later describe him with.
He would fly four more combat missions before the war’s end.
The Most Decorated Man in the 8th Air Force
In the 18 months he was in Europe, Sgt. Hewitt Dunn flew 104 total combat missions, flying 32 times as a tail gunner, one time as a top turret gunner/engineer, one mission as a waist gunner, and 70 missions in the nose as a togglier/bombardier. All by age 24.
During his 4 tours of duty in the ETO, he was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross with 1 Oak Leave Cluster, a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, a Croix de Guerre with Star, and the Air Medal with 16 Oak Leave Clusters. He flew over wartime Berlin 9 times, and is formally credited with one air-to-air kill of a German FW-190 over Leipzig (when it was still heavily defended) from the tail of a B-17.
For a fully comprehensive list of the 104 missions he flew on, please click here: M/SGT Hewitt T. Dunn WWII Combat Missions
Hewitt Dunn’s Post WWII Life
Hewitt married Peggy June Anderson (1925-?) in September 1947, and they would have three kids together in the coming years, while Hewitt continued to play an essential role in the US Air Force’s Strategic Air Command as one of the most senior and decorated enlisted men in the entire Air Force. He lived in Assaria, Kansas, during the 1950s, before relocating to the west coast and settling in Merced, California, in his late 30s.
In 1961, M/Sgt. Hewitt “Buck” Dunn was living in Merced, California and was on active duty with the U.S. Air Force, serving with the 328th Bomb Squadron of the 93rd Bomb Wing out of Castle Air Force Base in California. The 93rd is a heavy bombardment wing with a storied history. They fought WWII flying B-24s with the 8th Air Force before being assigned B-29s in 1945. They became one of the first wings in Strategic Air Command as the Cold War began, and flew every sort of heavy or medium bomber from the B-50 Superfortress, the B-36 Peacemaker, to the B-52 Stratofortress. Dunn’s 93rd Wing was actually the very first of Strategic Air Command to receive the B-52 in active service in the early 50s.
Dunn’s Mysterious Disappearance
On June 15th, 1961, M/Sgt Hewitt Tomlinson Dunn was suddenly killed at age 41 at his home in California. When veterans from his squadron and bomb group found out that the Iron Man of the 8th was dead by his early 40s, they naturally had many questions. A group of them inquired with local police in Merced and the town of Victorville, CA, as well as his unit in the Air Force. They were given no answers.
Even local newspapers turned up cold for many years. And while M/Sgt Dunn was well remembered by the 390th Memorial Museum Foundation and veteran memoirs for many years, he remained a ghost in popular World War Two history. It was not until the rise of internet search tools and archives that his story came to light. Niche local journalism proved to be the only official record of how Hewitt Dunn died.
The Common Story About His Death
There is some speculation about his untimely death in 1961. The story most prominently reported is that he was killed by a firearm in a domestic altercation in Merced, California, while at home on his private ranch.
His kids at the time of his death were Craig, 13, Jeffie, 10, and Jamie, 6 (ages in 1961), and a daughter, Donna Lee, 17, from his first marriage with Dorothy, who was born during WWII.
The Real Story
Court proceedings documented by local journalists paint a picture of the event. It was noted by Dunn’s superiors working on Castle Air Force Base that he had recently been given a low proficiency rating, which had labeled him “argumentative and unsocial” following a denied promotion. He was a career NCO, had flown on nearly every heavy aircraft imaginable, and had aspirations beyond his current role.
He and his wife Peggy went out drinking one Thursday evening at the non-commissioned officers club at Castle Air Force Base. When they returned home to the 8-acre farm, Hewitt and Peggy were intensely arguing, according to Craig, their 13-year-old son. Hewitt then began beating Peggy, and carried her across their yard, throwing her into a ditch. When Peggy emerged from the ditch, she saw their young son Craig in front of the house with a .22 rifle in hand, aimed at Hewitt. He fired 5 shots into Dunn’s torso, killing him there. Craig was protecting his mother.
Some publications disclosed Dunn’s death as a “firearms accident,” with one newspaper going as far as stating that Hewitt was teaching his son about firearm safety when the rifle went off by accident. Due to the nature of his death, it makes sense that the details were never made publicly clear.
Dunn’s Legacy
Nonetheless, he is an American hero who achieved something no heavy bomber crewman ever did before. He flew 104 combat sorties over the ETO between 1944 and 1945, signing on for 4 tours of duty. Dunn never even met his first daughter until she was over a year old in 1945. He was an instrumental veteran of the US Air Force in Korea, flying an additional 64 missions before going on to instruct with the legendary 93rd Bombardment Wing in the early stages of the Cold War and Strategic Air Command.
We owe a great deal to our Greatest Generation, and for veterans like M/Sgt Hewitt T Dunn — we must remember them in their glory and in their faults. Dunn was described by a fellow crew member as “one of a kind.” The same man also noted that “Buck” Dunn “has been shoved aside in history.” And he is right.
We cannot forget what veterans like M/Sgt. Dunn accomplished at such a young age with so much on the line. They fought the cold, flak, and fighters in the skies over Europe so that future generations would not have to.
M/Sgt. Hewitt Dunn flew in almost every heavy American bomber aircraft possible up to the B-52B, which still flies today. He was even part of refueling missions with KC-97 Stratofreighters during the Cold War. He was, to say the least, one of the most revered and decorated enlisted veterans in the entire Air Force, let alone his historic Wing.
Interesting Story about Buck Dunn
“There is a story, told by Col. Moller, when he (Col. Moller) encountered “Buck” Dunn near the “Rocker Club” (the NCO club) late one evening. Dunn had an enlisted man, passed out, under each arm. He dropped the two men, and executed a proper salute to the Col. without missing a beat he picked up the two enlisted men and continued on his way.
What is a Togglier?
Note** The “Togglier” on the B-17 was very similar to the role of Bombardier, with a few differences (toggler + bombardier = togglier). Earlier in the war, the Bombardier was traditionally a role held only by trained officers. As losses mounted heavily during 1942 and early 1943, bombing strategies evolved, and the need for precision bombing decreased.
As a result, formations would drop their payloads when the lead bomber did so. This would allow enlisted men to serve in the Bombardier seat, while the lead aircraft was still crewed by highly trained officers in the Bombardier seat. The Togglier in WWII armed the bombs and toggled the Norton Bomb Sight to drop the payload once a lead aircraft in formation began her drop.
390th Bomb Group Unit Context
The 569th Bombardment Squadron is one of four squadrons that make up the 390th Bomb Group, which is part of the 13th Combat Wing, 3rd Air Division of the 8th Army Air Force. The 390th Bomb Group was assigned to Station 153, Framlingham Airfield in Parham, outside of Suffolk in the United Kingdom in August 1943, through May 1945. Hewitt Dunn would join the 569th Bomb Squadron in December 1943, after the squadron was already months into their tour of duty.
The 390th Bomb Group was made up of 4 squadrons — the 568th, 569th, 570th, and 571st Squadrons
Statistic Overview for the 390th Bomb Group
- First Mission: 12 Aug 1943
- Last Mission: 20 Apr 1945
- Missions: 301
- Total Sorties: 8,725
- Total Bomb Tonnage: 19,059 Tons
- Total # of B-17’s assigned: 275
- Total # of B-17s Lost in Action: 145
- Total # of B-17s Remaining on VE Day: 75 Airworthy
- # of Crashes in England: 17
- Average Life of a B-17 in Missions: 33
- Total number of aircrew KIA and missing in action: 742
- Total number of aircrew Prisoners of War: 731
Aircraft Losses by the Group:
- Missing in Action 146
- Operational Salvage* 30
- * this figures includes 18 written off in the UK & 12 abandoned on the Continent in friendly territory
- Non-operational Salvage 10
- Total B-17s lost 176
Distinguished Unit Citations
- 17 August 1943: Regensburg (all 4BW groups)
- 14 October 1943: Schweinfurt
390th Claims to Fame:
- Highest claims of enemy aircraft destroyed by bomb group on one mission on the date of 10 October 1943. 62 enemy aircraft destroyed over Munster
- Sgt. Hewitt Dunn, a gunner with the 390th BG, was the only man to fly 100 missions.
- Credited with the destruction of 377 enemy aircraft by end of the war.
Hewitt Dunn’s Early Life
Hewitt Tomlinson Dunn was born in Newport News, Virginia, on July 14th, 1920, to parents Finis W. Dunn (1894–1965) and Anna Lee Hewitt Dunn (1900–1959).
Hewitt, or “Buck” as he was known in school, graduated from Maury Highschool in Virginia, where he was a member of the football team, the “monogram” club, and the hunting and fishing club. He later attended Norfolk William and Mary and Bethany College in West Virginia, where he would meet his first wife. He wanted to study law and become a lawyer.
This narrative would change, however, once Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Hewitt enlisted in the US Army on July 20th, 1942, days after turning 23 years old, and just months before marrying his first wife Dorothy Mary Serlich (1923–2015).
Early Deployment in WWII
He married Dorothy on October 17th, 1942, soon after completing his basic training and prior to shipping out overseas with the US Army Air Forces in late 1942. The two were married in Maryland but resided in Norfolk, Virginia, at the time of Hewitt’s deployment to Europe. They had one child together, Donna Lee F. Dunn in February 1944 (1944–2010).
Hewitt and Dorothy would soon separate, however, at the end of the war in July ’45, just months after his 104th combat mission. They officially divorced in 1947, and both would soon remarry to others in the 1940s.
Works Cited:
The Story of the 390th Bombardment Group (Paducah: Turner Publishing Company, 1947), 83.
“390th Bomb Group: History of Aircraft Assigned.” Unpublished manuscript. 390th Memorial Museum. Joseph A. Moller Library.
“Eighth Air Force Narrative of Operations: 198th Operation — 29 January, 1944.” Mission Reports Part I, MISSION_REPORTS_04, file no. 1449. Digital Repositories. 390th Memorial Museum. Joseph A. Moller Library.
“390th Bomb Group Tower Log: November 30, 1943 — May 24, 1944.” Unpublished manuscript. 390th Memorial Museum. Joseph A. Moller Library.
“Eighth Air Force Operations History: Missions.” 8th Air Force Historical Society, http://www.8thafhs.com/missions.php
https://5085.sydneyplus.com/archive/Portal/390th.aspx?lang=en-US&g_AABU=dunn&d=d
