WWII Experience of 1st Lieutenant William Howard Shetterly

(As compiled and understood by his nephew, David R. Shetterly) April 2019

I never knew William Howard Shetterly.  He died in 1943 in Sicily and I wasn’t born until 1947. As a young guy I heard stories about Uncle Howard and his WWII service in the Army Air Force, but never with much detail. The family just didn’t seem to want to talk about what happened and like other family members I didn’t ask many questions.  

That began to change in the summer of 2008 on a visit to Minnesota. I knew that Uncle Howard was interred at the Fort Snelling Military Cemetery and decided to pay him a visit. With some assistance I located his grave site. It is actually close to the entrance to the cemetery which seemed to indicate he was among the first to be buried there. His marker is a simple white marble headstone that bears the following inscription: 1LT 14 AAF TRP CARR SQ, 61 TRP CARR GP WORLD WAR II, NOVEMBER 10 1918, JULY 11 1943. As I gazed at the marker I was struck by the simple grandeur of his burial site as he rested there among so many others and also pondered the meaning of his inscription and what happened to him on that fateful day of July 11, 1943.

Upon returning to my home at that time in Maryland I once again put it all behind me. However what happened to Uncle Howard never left my mind and I thought his story should see the light of day as a tribute to not only him but all the others that made the ultimate sacrifice. I was reminded of a poem by Thomas Gray called Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard that speaks to unfilled promise.  The following line in particular seemed appropriate: Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.  So here is Uncle Howard’s story in the hope that his life has not blushed unseen.  

I know very little about Howard’s early life. He was born on November 10, 1918 in Iowa the third child of Daniel R. and Bessie Shetterly. In the early 1920’s his family moved to northwestern Minnesota. In 1924 his father bought a farm north of Oklee, MN and that is where he grew up. The 1940 federal census shows him living on the farm with his parents and older brother Harry (my father), his younger sister Wilma, and younger brothers Bob and Ben.  His older sister Milly had married and was living in Oklee with her husband Orlo Melby. There is scant information about his life during this period. I feel certain that he worked hard on the farm, enjoyed the occasional leisure time that came with a Saturday night trip to town, and I am sure spent time with his family.  It couldn’t have been an easy life but I never heard my father complain about life on the farm. It must have been a safe haven when many were facing all the difficulties associated with the great depression. The Oklee Herald, the local paper, in an article dated November 11, 1943 describes Howard as moving to the Oklee area of Red Lake County, Minnesota when he was 6 years old, and living on a farm north of town. He was a former student of Oklee High School.  

Events for Howard begin unfolding rapidly after December 7, 1941 and America’s entrance into WWII.  The small amount of official personnel records available show that he was accepted for enlistment on January 14, 1942 at San Francisco, CA. It is unclear where he took basic training but in a letter he wrote in May, 1942 to his sister Milly he talks about the rigors of flight training at Palo Alto Airport in King City, CA. What is known from his military file is that at some time in 1942 he became a member of the Aviation Cadets Advanced Flying School at Stockton Field, CA.  On October 29, 1942 he was discharged from the enlisted ranks and commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. At Stockton Field he trained to fly the C-47. The C-47 is used for military cargo and as a troop transport carrier.  It is the military version of the well known DC-3. According to information on line about Stockton Field it was used as an advanced flying school from 1940 - 1945.  He was eventually promoted to 1st Lieutenant and assigned as an aviator to the 14th Troop Carrier Squadron, 61st Troop Carrier Group. I am unsure of the exact date that he joined the unit but it would have been sometime after he completed flight training in late October, 1942.

The 14th Troop Carrier Squadron was activated on Dec 4, 1940. They trained at various locations in the U.S. and by February 27, 1943 were training at Pope Army Air Base in North Carolina with the 82nd Airborne Division. On March 8, 1943 the unit received a warning order for overseas deployment and on May 1, 1943 the air element of the unit departed for deployment in North Africa. The air element flew their planes to North Africa with stops in Florida; Puerto Rico; Trinidad; British Guiana; Belem, Brazil; Natal, Brazil; and Ascension Island. They finally landed in North Africa at Marrakech, and then flew on to Oujda, Morocco before settling in at Lourmel Airfield in Algeria on May 14, 1943. By May 25, 1943 the ground and air elements of the 14th Troop Carrier Squadron were in North Africa. They begin night flight training and operational flights in preparation for combat. This had to be exciting times for members of the unit as they deployed with their planes across the Atlantic Ocean and became acclimated to living and working in North Africa.   

On July 3, 1943 the unit was informed of their role in Operation Husky, code name for the invasion of Sicily. Operation Husky was a major allied invasion force that consisted of air and sea elements involving American, British, and Canadian forces. Approximately 150,000 troops, 3,000 ships, and 4,000 aircraft participated in the operation which lasted 38 days beginning July 9, 1943 and ending August 17, 1943. In support of Operation Husky the 14th Troop Carrier Squadron started deploying to Kairouan Airfield in Tunisia on June 15, 1943. Deployment was completed on July 3 and placed the unit in a good position to deploy paratroopers that followed an air route that took them towards the island of Malta and from there to drop zones in Sicily.  

Operation Husky started on July 9, 1943 and the 14th Troop Carrier Squadron unit participated. Howard was copilot on a combat mission that day.  The unit dropped paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division in Sicily. The mission was a success with ten planes going out and ten planes returning.  This was the unit’s, and Howard’s, combat debut. It had to have been an exhilarating and I would think frightful experience as well.  

The next combat mission for the unit occurred on July 11, 1943. Howard was the pilot of a C-47, tail number 42-5691.  He flew out of Field 16, located near Kairouan, Tunisia. His crew consisted of co-pilot 2LT Robert A. Flack, navigator 2LT Franklin Danyluk, crew chief TSGT Raymond C. Walter, and radio operator SSGT Thomas D. Mathie. The mission was once again the transport of paratroopers into Sicily. The paratroopers were successfully dropped near Gela, Sicily.  Nine planes participated and seven returned safely. Howard’s plane was one that did not return. It was shot down over Sicily on the start of the return flight.  The morning report for July 14 indicates crew missing in action as of 0600 on July 12.  The missing aircrew report of July 29 moves the crew status from MIA to KIA under the following circumstances: believed caused by fire of friendly anti/aircraft fire.

The accounts of what happened that fateful day vary.  The missing aircrew report attributes the crash to friendly fire. There is support for the friendly fire cause of crash.  The naval ships in Sicily’s Gela Harbor had been subjected to multiple air raids and naval gunners could have been on edge and weary.  As one diarist from the period phrased it “Clearly, the mindset of the exhausted naval gunners was that all incoming aircraft were going to be enemy attack aircraft.”  A document from the history of the 14th Troop Carrier Squadron with the title Chaplin Comb’s Report tells a different story.  He visited the scene of the crash site about one half mile east of Costa and 12 miles south of Ragusa.  Based on his discussion with the locals he states in the report that “a German machine gun nest located on top of their buildings had shot down the plane.”  I suppose this is just one more example of the “fog of war” as that expression goes.  It is hard to determine exactly how events transpired and the truth may be a combination of fratricide and enemy machine gun fire.  

Howard was buried at a temporary grave site at the Comiso Airfield Cemetery on July 25, 1943.  He was moved to a more permanent location at a military cemetery in Gela on August 14, 1943 and finally to the mainland of Italy at the Mount Soprano/Paestum Cemetery on April 12, 1947.  At the request of my grandfather, Daniel R. Shetterly, Howard was repatriated and buried at the Ft. Snelling Military Cemetery on September 1, 1948.  His resting place is grave B-1-383N.  

I am indebted to those that provided information needed to tell Howard’s story.  There was an extensive amount of information about the 14th Troop Carrier Squadron in a history provided by the USAF Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Alabama.   The history of his unit, unit deployment to North Africa, and combat operations in early July of 1943 to include accounting for the fallen are based on that history.  Also helpful is a war diaries document with personal accounts from that period that helped provide an overall context.  I also want to acknowledge the help of Jan Bos, a Dutch military historian.  He provided extensive amounts of information that he collected as part of his effort to build a monument near the crash site. A monument to the air crew was dedicated on July 11, 2001 and is located near Costa, Sicily. The inscription on the monument reads: 

THIS SITE THE NIGHT OF JULY 11, 1943

OPERATION HUSKY II

CRASHED THE C-47A 42-5691 OF 61ST TROOP CARRIER GROUP - 14TH SQUADRON

THE PLANE CRASHED ON IMPACT KILLING ALL THE CREW EXCEPT A S/SGT WHO GOT CLEAR OF THE SHIP.

WAS TAKEN BY THE ITALIAN FARMERS TO THE NEAREST HOUSE WHERE DONNA MARIANNA NIFOSI SORTINO TREATED THE BURNS AND HE WAS HELPED TO REACH THE AMERICAN LINES IN SCOGLITTI WHERE HE UNFORTUNATELY DIED.

THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE CREW WERE GIVEN TEMPORARY BURIALS BY 1ST CAPTAIN GIUSEPPE NIFOSI LANDOWNER OF THE EREMO DELLA GIUBILIANA.

IN MEMORY OF THE CREW

1ST LT WILLIAM H. SHETTERLY 0-73279 PILOT

2ND LT ROBERT A. FLACK 0-740150 CO-PILOT

2ND LT FRANK DANYLUK 0-744051 NAVIGATOR

T/SGT RAY C. WALTER 16009417 CREW CHIEF

S/SGT THOMAS MATHIE 33116543 RADIO OPERATOR

As part of the background search I discovered a narrative written by my cousin Wanda (daughter of Milly, Howard’s older sister) that she gave to Jan Bos to read at the 2001 ceremony in Sicily.  I want to share part of it as she sums things up much better than I could ever do.  In Wanda’s words:  “he died on foreign soil thousands of miles from home as did thousands of other young men of his generation.  He did not live to realize a career he hoped to pursue in aviation after the war nor did he marry the fiancée who cherished his memory throughout her life.  He was a much-loved son and brother.  My mother, his sister, rarely could speak of him without shedding tears.  Sadly as the years pass there are few people with remembrance of his young life.  I only know he was a brave man with an independent spirit, who gave his life for others”.

On behalf of the Shetterly family thank you Howard for your service and that of your flight crew in World War II.  May the sacrifice you and your crew members made serve as a tribute to the many lives lost in that war and as a reminder for future generations of the young men and women who gave there all to make victory in World War II possible.