Burney, George W., Jr.
March 11, 2005
BURNEY, George W., Jr.

George W. Burney Jr., 86, of Westfield, MA, died Tuesday, (March 8, 2005) at Noble Hospital. He was born March 20, 1918, in Glastonbury, son of the late George W. and Edith J. (Case) Burney, and has lived in Westfield since 1947. George was employed at Westfield Savings Bank in Westfield, MA for 20 years, retiring in 1987 as an Assistant Treasurer. Prior to Westfield Savings Bank, he was an insurance company sales manager. George was a U.S. Army Air Force Veteran of World War II, flying 35 missions over Europe as a B 24 pilot. He leaves his wife of 57 years, Virginia E. (Danielson) Burney and his two daughters, Linda C. Scali of Stoughton, MA and Carol J. McCoure of Riverside, PA. He also leaves a brother, Donald C. Burney of Glastonbury; and a granddaughter, Jennifer Smith of Riverside, PA. The funeral will be Monday, 12 Noon, from the FIRTION-ADAMS Funeral Service, 76 Broad St., Westfield, MA with burial to follow at 1 p.m. in the Mass Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Agawam, MA. Calling hours will be Sunday, from 4-7 p.m. Donations in George's memory may be made to Shriner's Hospital for Children, 516 Carew St., Springfield, MA 01104.






War Years

Dad would occasionally tell stories about his time in WWII, the first being that he was talking to friends in town who would have knowledge about when men would be called to serve. While talking with them, he got the impression that "His time was up", so if he wanted any controll over where he served he better get on it immediately. As such, he then took himself over to Hartford and joined what was then the Army Air Corp. He chose that branch as from his childhood days he had watched the planes flying overhead from the Pratt & Whitney facility in East Hartford, and always dreamed of someday flying a plane of his own. Turns out that whoever tipped him off got it right - two days later a draft notice was waiting for him when he got home from work. As he had already enlisted, he got to stay with the Air Corp.

Once he took his physical, off he went to Arkansas for flight school. He always stated that it was the hottest place he had ever been, with temps exceeding 80 degrees by 7:00 AM. No air conditioning, student uniforms that were not best suited for the climate - he was not the happiest camper ever known, but the flying made it all worthwhile. After flight school, he was transferred to a base in southern Indianna where he actually spent time learning how to control a variety of planes. While I can no longer remember exactly where this base was (maybe in the Vincennes area?), I do remember the story he told about Graduation Day for the cadets, and how they got into minor trouble by singing an unapproved song (The Raggedy-Assed Cadets Are on Parade) down the main street of the local town on their way from the base to the train.

Overseas, he eventually got his own plane - a B-24D bomber, and as pilot he learned the differences between what the manual stated the plane could do and the reality of the situation. Where it was protocol to have the oxygen mask on at a certain level (10,000 feet is what I think he said), most of the time neither he nor many members of his crew actually put it on as it interferred with sight range as well as general mobilty. He received promotions, eventually arriving at lieutenant colonel, which increased his responsibilites from just his plane and his crew to acting as officer of the day. That responsibility meant he had to assign the crews to various missions being flown. These decisions haunted him for years after the war. He only started to talk about it in his late 70's and early 80's, and the guilt that he still felt over being the guy who sent men to their deaths could still overwhelm him. That being said, it probably explains his love for pranks and making others laugh. He had half the men on his base convinced that they were being reassigned from the European theatre to the Pacific based on nothing else than there being an inordinate amount of airplane fuel being stored. His story was so convincing that as the rumor spread, he started to wonder if he had actually figured out something ahead of the announcement and began to believe his own story.

His more light-hearted stories involved his involvement in the April 1'st bombing of Switzerland (his navigator stated for many years after the war that it was not a mistake in that all landmarks matched and there was a real target under the bombs - believe it was a Luftwaffle flight school), and the fact that Jimmy Stewart missed a target not once, not twice, but three times. (For the record, two was the top amount you were supposed to try, as by the third run the flack guns would have your range and speed, and you were going to be shot down.) After the third miss, there was a concern about having enough fuel to make it back to England so there was no discussion regarding a possible fourth run.

Less light-hearted stories involve not being able to find his group on D-Day. What he talked about was that due to the cloud cover not lifting at the level that his group had been told to assemble at, he (and a lot of other crews) were on their own to get above the clouds, line up in formation, and go bomb something. He stated that he had no idea whatsoever what other crew(s) he was flying with that day, what bases they were from, or anything about them beyond their planes having the correct markings to let him know they were Allied planes and not German. There was a discussion held amongst the pilots that as they could not see the ground due to the clouds and where the landing forces were located, the best thing to do was to fly farther inland and bomb there instead. There has been much discussion from the landing forces over the years regarding this lack of backup from the air, and it all came down to the reluctance of the pilots to possibly end up bombing their own guys. There was also the mission to Hamburg (aimed at the docks and gas storage facilities) when for whatever reason he was not able to keep up with the formation. The navigator looked around to discover some form of military target and they bombed that (never mentioned what it was), but doubt that much could have been accomplished. This is not casting doubt on the crew - Dad mentioned that the Air Corp would count any bomb hit within a 50 yard distance as a direct hit. This also explains his cynicism regarding the pinpoint accuracy shown during Desert Storm.

It was customary for crews to be sent home after flying 35 missions, so when their number was up (literally), the crew started checking the bulletin board for formal notice of who was being sent home. Say Dad's crew was Crew 52 (cannot remember exactly what it was) - so Crew 50 got posted and they left, Crew 51 got posted and left, then Crews 53 and 54 sent home. Dad's crew started getting nervous, as they had been sent to the north of Scotland a month or so earlier with no explanation. (Dad loved the area, and it was the only area he ever expressed an interest in revisiting.) Turns out they had been under consideration for a series of missions that would overfly Norway to drop supplies to the resistance there, and then continue on to landing fields in Russia to refuel and return to home base. They were not chosen as they were at the 32'd or 33'd mission level when they arrived in Scotland, and would not have the mission time left to justify the training they would receive. It was the paperwork from Scotland coming back to their original base that was slowed down, and this caused the delay in their departure. Paperwork arrives, and Crew 52 had their notice on the board.