Obituary from the Lynchburg "News and Advance":

Raymond Bernard Overstreet
Raymond Bernard Overstreet, 89, of Bedford, passed away Sunday, July 10, 2005 at Lynchburg General Hospital. He was the husband of Hattie Burnette Overstreet of Bedford for 67 years.
Born Nov. 3, 1915, in Bedford County, he was a son of the late Herbert C. and Bessie Updike Overstreet. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by sisters, Lucille E. Robertson and Gladys L. Laing and brothers, Cecil C. Overstreet and Melvin R. Overstreet.
Also surviving are his son, Michael "Mo" Overstreet and daughter-in-law, E.P. "Sam" Overstreet of Rustburg; two sisters, Mable Hawkins and Isabella Overstreet, and one brother, Rudolph Overstreet.
Mr. Overstreet was a graduate of Huddleston High School, and was a member of Quaker Baptist Church of Huddleston and the Sports Car Club of America; he retired from Piedmont Label Company in Bedford after 45 plus years as a Lithographer; he was a World War II veteran of the Army Air Corp, serving with the 367th Squadron, 306th Bomb Group, 40th Combat Wing, 1st Air Division, 8th Air Force out of England as a B-17 pilot, successfully completing 30 combat missions. He served as Commander of Company A 1st Battalion, 116 Infantry Nation Guard in Bedford and retired from Service as Commander of Lynchburg's Army Reserve Unit and served as Commander of Bedford's VFW Post.
He enjoyed his family, friends, camping, boating, fishing, hunting, numerous hobbies, and scratching his "Grand Cats."
A graveside service will be conducted at 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 13, 2005, at Virginia Memorial Park, Bedford County with Dr. Jim Moon officiating. Military honors will be provided by the American Legion Post 16.
Visitation for family and friends will be from 7 to 8:00 p.m. today at Whitten Timberlake Chapel, 7404 Timberlake Road.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association in lieu of flowers.
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Around 1995, at the age of 80, Uncle Bernard transcribed his World War II journal of his 30 bombing missions over France and Germany. This was his combat tour of 6 Oct 1944 through 1 Feb 1945. Raymond B. Overstreet (as his name was officially recorded even though he goes by his middle name of Bernard), Pilot, B-17 Bomber, 302 Z ZEB, known as "Hell-Cat Hattie." He was in the 367th Squadron, 306th Bombing Group, 40th Combat Wing, 1st Air Division, 8th Air Force, European Theater of Operations. His base was Thurleigh, England, ironically near a town called Bedford. This mission log was copied as written at the end of each mission. Uncle Bernard also typed a glossary of military terms used, which I have taken the liberty of defining inside brackets as they are first used in context.

Mission No. 1: 6 Oct 1944; Flew as co-pilot with Pederson, (checkout mission). Bombed Stargard, airfield blown all to hell. Encountered light flak [shrapnel from exploding shell, ground fired 88MM ack-ack--anti-aircraft ground fired gun]. Mission visual and successful!!

Mission No. 2: 7 Oct 1944; Flew with my own crew. Bombed Rhuland Oil Works, target visual, good results from bombs. Ran into medium flak. Got three flak holes in ship. No one hurt. Returning to base, ran out of gas, had to land at British base, (Market Harborough) for fuel. Mission successful. (Flew over Chemitz, Czechoslovakia).

Mission No. 3: 9 Oct 1944; Bombed Schweinfurt, PFF (Path Finder Force, radar guided) target, railroad yards, and ball bearing plant. Light flak, no damage received. Mission successful.

Mission No. 4: 14 Oct 1944; Bombed railroads at Cologne. PFF. bombing. Encountered light flak. First mission in my own ship, 302 Z-Zeb, "Hell-Cat Hattie." Mission successful.

Mission No. 5: 17 Oct 1944; Bombed Cologne again. Light flak. No damage received. Saw contrails from jet fighters (2) in distance. Target, PFF. Mission successful.

Mission No. 6: 25 Oct 1944; Bombed Hamburg oil refineries. Saw huge billows of black smoke come up thru overcast at about 10,000 feet. PFF bombing, total overcast. Moderate flak. Received large hole in vertical stabilizer, which had to be replaced. Received hit in No. 2 engine. Had to replace No. 5 cylinder.

Mission No. 7: 30 Oct 1944; Bombed Muenster (booby traps); temperature -50 degrees Celsius. Coldest I've ever been. Received slight case of frostbite on right foot and was grounded (4 days or more). Navigator's oxygen mask froze up and he suffered slight case of anoxia before we discovered his problem. No flak. Flew whole position in formation. Mission successful.

Mission No. 8: 6 Nov 1944; Bombed Hamburg. Target partly visual, but a PFF run. Encountered light to moderate flak, slightly accurate. Had to feather No. 4 engine, cut it back in before reaching base. Had to replace No. 2 engine. It used 25 gallons of oil on mission. Mission OK!

Mission No. 9: 8 Nov 1944; chaff [strips of foil, dropped at bombing altitude, up-wind so it would drift down and over the target and disrupt radar aimed 88MM anti-craft guns, causing them to fire over a larger area, creating large thin areas of flak, rather than heavy concentrations at point of bomb release] force over Merseburg. Nine ships, no fighter protection. Was attacked by two jet planes, (twin engine, 262's) and one ME-109 (propeller driven). No damage received from attack. Lots of ME-109's down below, but lucky for us, they did not come up and attack us. If they had, I would not be here to write this. Everybody at base sweats us out!! Mission successful!!

Mission No. 10: 16 Nov 1944; Bombed enemy front line positions in Eschweiler area, east of Aachen. Direct support of our ground troops. No flak. When we returned to England, we had to land at "Honeybourne" because of bad weather at our base. Returned to our base on the 18th. I lead No. 3 element of low squadron. Mission successful.

Misison No. 11: 21 Nov 1944; Toured Germany!! Target was Merseburg, but we never reached it because of weather. Finally bombed air field in Holland. My bombs would not release, so I brought them back to base. Received piece of flak that hit and stopped the clock (11:29:30), which stopped the flak!! Crazy, eh?? So was the mission.

Mission No. 12: 26 Nov 1944; Bombed Misburg Oil Refinery, five miles from Hanover. Target visual except for smoke screen. Flak, whew!! So thick you could have dropped your wheels and landed on it! Got one burst under belly, piece came thru ship and punctured oxygen tank under my seat. Saw several dog fights. Saw several fighters go down. Don't know whose they were. Jerry's [German military, the enemy] I hope. Mission successful. Also received hole in No. 4 gas tank from flak. Primer line to No. 1. Engine cut in two by flak. Jerry lost 98 fighter planes!!

Mission No. 13: 29 Nov 1944; Went back to Misbourg, near Hanover. Moderate flak, no fighters. Bombed PFF. Mission successful.

Mission No. 14: 30 Nov 1944; Bombed Merseburg Oil Refinery. Visual except for smoke screen [smoke pots placed around target and set off when air attack was imminent, so smoke would drift over and conceal exact location of target]. Heavy flak. No damage received. Rode as co-pilot with Heraty, who was completing his tour. I was checked out as deputy lead. Mission successful.

Mission No. 15: 5 Dec 1944; Bombed Templehoff Air Field, Berlin. Bill, one of my best friends, was killed when an 88MM shell came thru our nose and struck him in his head and killed him instantly. Another 88MM shell went thru our right wing at edge of fuselage. Thank God, didn't either shell explode while passing thru our ship, or I would not be here writing this. Another ship went down in the [English] Channel on the return to base. Crew should have been saved. Will know tomorrow if they were. Flak was awful. I hope the mission was successful. I was co-pilot for Balcom, squadron deputy leader. 6 Dec 1944: No word from the crew that ditched yesterday. We also had holes shot in No. 2 and 4 gas tanks.

Mission No. 16: 6 Dec 1944; Bombed Merseburg, synthetic oil refinery. Bombed PFF. Heavy flak, but not so accurate. No damage received. I rode co-pilot in squadron lead ship. Guess I was checked out as squadron leader, if one was needed. As far as I know, mission was successful. (Co-pilot with Macolough, squadron leader).

Mission No. 17: 9 Dec 1944; Bombed railway yards in Stuttgart. Bombed by PFF, although target was partially visible. Moderate flak. Flew as squadron deputy for low squadron. No damage received. Mission successful (squadron deputy).

Mission No. 18: 11 Dec 1944; Bombed Frankfurt, PFF. No flak. Bad weather on return. Most planes 8th Air Force has ever put up one one raid (Heavies). I was squadron deputy. Mission successful.

Mission No. 19: 18 Dec 1944; Bombed Kaiserlautern, near Mainz. Railroad marshalling yards were the target. Saw no flak, but weather was awful. B-24s flew thru our formation over coast of France. We went to 28,000 feet and were still in the clouds. Flew formation on instruments!! Squadron Deputy.

Mission No. 20: 24 Dec 1944; Bombed Giessen Air Field. Target, visual. Scored direct hits on target. Hangers, control tower and ships were blown to bits! Moderate but accurate flak. Saw big fires along and behind front lines. Saw number of other bomber groups on other targets in area. All were getting good hits. Saw railway yards and town blown to bits by one group. We were diverted to "Framlingham" when we returned to England because of the weather at our base. When we took off to start the mission, visibility was 100 feet whew, what a take off!!
Misison successful. Squadron Deputy.

Mission No. 21: 30 Dec 1944; Bombed Ordnance supply depot at Mainz. Target PFF. Light flak at target. No damage received. Mission successful. Squadron Deputy .

Mission No. 22: 1 Jan 1945; Bombed Limburg, although were supposed to bomb Magdeburg, but after making two visual runs on target and still not dropping bombs, then made a run on Kassel and the lead and low squadrons dropped, but we in the high squadron didn't drop, then we made a run on Limburg and finally got rid of our bombs! Good results on railroads in town. Sighted one ME-163, and one FW-190 close to us. But they didn't attack. We had to rendezvous in the dark. I was the only one in formation for a long time until it got light. Seven ships in my squadron landed in France for fuel. I came home alone, had 300 gallons of fuel when I landed. Moderate, accurate flak at Kassel. Received 3 or 4 holes in my ship. No bad damage. One piece hit my window beside my shoulder; bullet-proof glass!! Squadron Deputy.

Mission No. 23: 5 Jan 1945; Bombed airfield near Coblenz. Had to rendezvous in thick persistent contrails. They were built up to 26,000 feet. Only three in the low squadron got together, lead, me, and No. 3 man. Finally caught lead squadron over channel. Boys who couldn't find our group went in with other outfits (9 others). Leads bomb racks in low squadron. Didn't work so me and three other ships in low squadron didn't drop our bombs; instead, we brought them back. Four ships was not enough to send on to another target, so air commander told us to bring them home. No flak. Squadron Deputy.

Mission No. 24: 8 Jan 1945; Bombed communication lines in Mannheim area. Target PFF. Encountered light accurate flak after target. Got 3 or 4 holes in wing and a big one in the vertical stabilizer. Clouds over continent were up to 25,000 feet, temperature -53 C. Dense persistent contrails from 20,000 feet up. Coming back over England we let down thru a hole in the undercast and were flying at 1,000 feet when we ran into snow storm. Lost sight of all ships in formation. When I broke out of snow storm, I saw a mountain in front and pulled up just in time to miss it!! Whew!! Close. Squadron Deputy.

Mission No. 25: 10 Jan 1945; Bombed airfield at Cologne. Target visual. Flew directly over Cologne! Flak was not the heaviest I have seen but I believe it was the most accurate. Saw No. 2 engine of lead deputy burst in flames, caused by direct hit of first shell sent up. He left formation with red flame length of ship coming out of No. 2 engine. Was last seen entering clouds way below. Ship was still in control. One chute was seen. Four other ships have not been heard from yet. Lt. Bowley (West-Pointer) was in one of them on his first mission. [A] good friend of mine. I picked up 5 or 6 small flak holes. Slight damage. One piece of flak hit toggle switch under bombardier's hand! I prayed all the way down the bomb run. The flak was so close you could see the red flash of the explosion. Before IP [initial point to begin straight and level flight to target, no evasive action for flak or fighter, so bombardier can set up bomb sight on target; usually a one or two minute run], co-pilot, while giving me my flak helmet, clutched in the aileron auto-pilot switch! Gave me quite a scare before locating the trouble! Bad weather!! Let down through about 20,000 feet overcast in formation with windows frozen so I couldn't see to fly. Co-pilot flew it, since lead plane was on our right. Temperature -54 C. Missed target by six miles. Squadron deputy.

12 Jan 1945: Lt, Bowley returned to base today!! Lost No. 2 engine over target and landed in France!! Was OK!!

Mission No. 26: 17 Jan 1945; Bombed Bielefeld Viaduct, PFF. Did not see any flak or fighters. Squadron Deputy.

Mission No. 27: 20 Jan 1945; Bombed marshalling yards in Rhine, PFF. Most dense contrails I've seen yet. No flak in our group. Red completed his misisons!! Temperature at 29,500 feet was -58 degrees, C. Squadron Deputy.

Mission No. 28: 21 Jan 1945; Bombed Aschaffenburg railroad yards. Target covered by clouds. Encountered no flak. Saw two B-17s in group ahead of us collide in air at 23,000 feet and go down in spin. No chutes were observed. Our group's lead ship couldn't get his bombbay doors open, so I had to take over group lead after IP and lead on bomb run. Mickey operator thinks results were good. Squadron Deputy (Group Leader).

Mission No. 29: 29 Jan 1945; Bombed Koblenz, PFF. Target covered by ten-tenth clouds. No flak. Squadron Deputy.

Mission No. 30: 1 Feb 1945; This was the one I had been looking for!! My last one!! Bombed Mannheim, PFF. Light flak. After take-off, Nacelle cover on No. 1 engine came off, so I had to return to base and get another ship. Was not able to join formation at control point No. 1, so I continued to control point No. 2. In meantime, had lost turbo charger on No. 3 engine and was unable to get above 26,000 feet and 140 miles per hour. So I dropped down and went in behind some groups and dropped bombs on their smoke markers. Never got in formation all day!! Luckily, no fighters came up. Mission successful.

The following were the crew members: Overstreet, pilot; Shephard, co-pilot; Becker, bombardier; Fortman, navigator; Davis, engine and top turret gunner; Fisher, waist gunner; Bearden, radio operator; Dempsey, waist gunner; Petrillo, ball turret (belly) gunner; Richards, tail gunner. Red was the nickname Uncle Bernard had for Lt. Fortman, his 18-year-old navigator from Chicago, whom he describes as quite a character! Lt. Bowley was a West Point graduate and a good friend of Uncle Bernard's who requested and was granted permission to fly his orientation bomb mission as his co-pilot. On his first mission as polit of his own plane, 10 Jan 1945, he had to crash land in France, but was OK.

The enemy fighter planes encountered were:
ME-109, most effective propeller driven fighter that Jerry had
FW-190, second best of Jerry's propeller-driven fighters
ME-163, single engine jet used by Jerry for observation mostly
ME-262, twin-engine jet fighter used by Jerry near the end of the war. Uncle Bernard says they were too fast for them to hit, and the Allies were too slow for them to hit!

I have asked Uncle Bernard how much the plot of the movie "Memphis Belle" parallels his own experiences in the war, and he replied there were subtle differences. The movie lacks tragedy, whereas Uncle Bernard witnessed the death of his copilot.

Uncle Bernard's missions began four months after the D-Day invasion, in which more boys from Bedford were killed per capita than any other locality in the United States. Because of this, the National D-Day Memorial, a majestic monument, has been dedicated in Bedford.

We give our thanks to Uncle Bernard and his fellow veterans for flying these missions so that we would not have to. They have given the rest of us the gift of freedom, and I am thankful that he lived almost 90 years. I am very grateful that he took the time to preserve his wartime memoirs, as it is another proud reminder of our family's record of military service. In Uncle Bernard's lifetime he saw his great-grandfather, Jesse Powers Overstreet (1838-1924), who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and who in turn probably vaguely remembered his great-grandfather before him, Thomas Overstreet, Jr. (1744-1842), who served in the Virginia Militia during the Revolutionary War. Furthermore, two uncles, James McKinley Overstreet (1896-1966) and Walter Herbert Updike (1891-1964), saw service in World War I.