Clyde L. Mings
11/6/2005 10:17:04 PM | Our B-17, Madame Queen, IN-Q was probably the only bomber who had a black lady as our nose art on the aircraft and on our jackets. If you are a real old coot and remember the Amos n' Andy show, Madame Queen was the imperious, bossy colored lady who ran things with an iron hand and sharp wit. Actually, the real reason for the name was not so esoteric-it was that the phoenetic name for the letter "Q" was Qween.
About D-day time, some wheel decided that each crew should send one crewmember to some sessions on basic German phraseology so that it would improve our chances of evasion/escape if we had some German language knowledge. Our engineer-Robert Greenleaf- was drafted . On a mission to Schweinfurt we were more than slightly apprehensive since the losses on that target were legendary, and we were replacements for a crew lost on the previous Schweinfurt target. I said " Bob, if we get shot down today, what is a good German phrase to remember?" He pondered and said " Wo ist ein toilette?" ( where is a toilet?) "Wonderful!" I said. We go from one john to another all across Germany? Gonna be a long war!" BTW, I have been unable to trace him-any help would be appreciated
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