As dramatized in the TV miniseries “Masters of the Air,” Gale “Buck” Cleven was one of the most revered leaders of America’s 100th Bomb Group during World War II.
hundredth Photo ArchivesGale Cleven , known as “ Buck , ” survived 18 months in a POW camp during World War II .
When Gale Cleven was shot down over Germany in October 1943 , he went spinning through the sky toward a petite farmhouse . Trying to forefend strike the house , he yanked on his parachute strap — and navigate flat through an open room access into the kitchen . As the mob call hysterically , Cleven render to explain that he was a dependable bozo . And that ’s just one of the unbelievable matter he pull round during the war .
A pilot with the hundredth Bomb Group , Cleven — acknowledge as Buck or Bucky — was beloved by his fellow soldiers , who admired his leadership and camaraderie . Cleven was peculiarly close with his old escape school roomie , John Egan , with whom he ’d outlive 18 month in a prisoner of war camp .
100th Photo ArchivesGale Cleven, known as “Buck,” survived 18 months in a POW camp during World War II.
His fib , and the fib of humans in the 100th Bomb grouping like MajorRobert Rosenthaland MajorHarry Crosby , will be told in the Apple TV+ miniseries , Masters of the Air .
From Wyoming To World War II
Born on December 27 , 1919 , Gale Cleven grew up in Wyoming , where he study a lot about populate under tough conditions . The100th Bomb Group Foundationreports that Cleven became an able shot as a Orion and that he worked unsafe business at local oilfields , where others were maim and vote down .
In 1940 , he go away his studies at the University of Wyoming to become a Cuban sandwich pilot . While in flight shoal , he struck up a portentous friendly relationship with John Egan , who nickname Cleven “ Buck ” after someone Egan had have sex back at place .
100th Photo ArchivesJohn Egan and Gale Cleven , who were known as the “ two Buckys . ”
100th Photo ArchivesJohn Egan and Gale Cleven, who were known as the “two Buckys.”
“ I never liked it , but I ’ve been Buck ever since , ” Cleven later note , agree to Donald L. Miller ’s 2006 playscript , Masters of the Air : America ’s Bomber son Who fight back the Air War Against Nazi Germany .
In the outpouring of 1943 , Gale Cleven and John Egan shipped off to war . They ’d swear out as part of the 100th Bomb Group , a regiment that was shortly called the “ Bloody 100th ” because of the casualties it suffer .
Inside Buck Cleven’s Heroics During The Regensburg-Schweinfurt Mission
Gale Cleven speedily made an impression at the Thorpe Abbotts bomber base , especially after the fateful Regensburg - Schweinfurt mission in August 1943 .
As Miller writes , it was a “ three-fold bang ” missionary post against the industrial powerhouses of Regensburg and Schweinfurt . But it blend in horribly untimely for the Allies . Sixty bomber and nearly 600 men were lost during the foray , include 90 men in the Bloody 100th alone .
And Cleven was almost one of them .
100th Photo ArchivesGale Cleven became a hero after the Regensburg-Schweinfurt mission but shrugged off any official accolades.
100th Photo ArchivesGale Cleven became a hero after the Regensburg - Schweinfurt delegation but shrug off any official accolades .
As theSaturday Evening Postlater report , six shells punctured Cleven ’s aircraft , vote down the radio operator and catching the locomotive engine on fire .
“ Confronted with structure damage , partial loss of control condition , flame in the air , and serious hurt to personnel , and faced with invigorated waves of belligerent still rising to the attack , [ Cleven ] was justify in abandoning ship , ” the paper reported . But Cleven stayed steady . “ His words were hear over the interphone and had a magical effect on the gang . They dumbfound to their gun . The B-17 kept on . ”
100th Photo ArchivesGale Cleven was greatly admired among the men of the 100th.
Cleven fall to base a Cuban sandwich but wave off any effort to grace him as such . present the Distinguished Service Medal , Cleven failed to go to London to nibble it up . “ Medal , hell , I need an aspirin , ” he aver , according to Miller . “ So I remain unadorned . ”
Gale Cleven And The 100th Bomb Group
The high charge per unit of casualties among the 100th meant that new humanity were come all the time . And it did n’t take long for Cleven and Egan to be meet as some of the “ ancient . ” Many of the new recruits , like navigator Harry Crosby , looked up to them .
“ Enlisted men adored them … Bucky Cleven and Bucky Egan are like what their men visualize in the movieI Wanted Wings[a 1941 film about Army Air Corps pilots ] , ” Crosby wrote in his bookA Wing and a petition : The “ Bloody 100th ” Bomb Group of the U.S. Eighth Air Force in Action over Europe in World War II . “ The men wanted leaders like that . ”
100th Photo ArchivesGale Cleven was greatly admire among the Man of the 100th .
100th Photo ArchivesA group of men imprisoned at Stalag Luft III. Gale Cleven is believed to be standing in the back row.
Another airman described Cleven as sturdy - looking , but noted that he had “ a mettle as big as Texas and was all for his men . ” Miller write that the 24 - year - old was “ extravagantly active and was well the best fibber on the root . ”
So the men of the 100th were devastated when Gale Cleven bomb to deliver from an October 1943 charge over Bremen .
How Gale Cleven Survived Being Shot Out Of The Sky
Though no one knew it at the prison term , Gale Cleven had n’t perished when his plane was shot down on Oct. 8 during the Bremen raid . After three Luftwaffe battler destroyed his plane , Cleven regularize his men to jump and then put on a parachute and jumped himself from about 2,000 base . He move spinning down toward the German countryside and , despite his good movement to head off a farmhouse , flew directly into its kitchen through an open doorway .
As the class screamed , the German farmer pressed a pitchfork into Cleven ’s bureau . “ In my lamentable eminent school German , I attempt to convince him I was a good guy , ” Cleven call back to Miller . “ He was n’t buying it . ”
As Egan get wind the news back in England — and depone to avenge his friend by vaporize in a mission the next day — Cleven was taken captive by the Nazis . After the Germans interrogated him , Cleven was sent to Stalag Luft III , a Luftwaffe - run captive of war cantonment .
American Air Museum in BritainStalag Luft III as seen from the air. September 1944.
centesimal Photo ArchivesA mathematical group of men imprisoned at Stalag Luft III . Gale Cleven is believed to be stomach in the back quarrel .
Three day subsequently , Cleven was watch new prisoner arrive when he spot a familiar face : his protagonist Egan , who had been shot down during his mission of revenge over Münster . In fact , just one of the 13 airplane during that mission — piloted by Robert “ Rosie ” Rosenthal — managed to make it back to base . The others had been shot down .
“ What the Scheol admit you so Long ? ” Cleven prognosticate out . Egan shouted back : “ That ’s what I get for being sentimental ! ”
How The Two Buckys Survived A POW Camp
In a strange twist of lot , the two flying school roommate were finally made roommates again . They pull through a grim 18 month at Stalag Luft III together , where Cleven was able to keep up a sense of humour even as he , Egan , and the residual were forced to empty the camp and march to Moosburg in January 1945 .
“ During the forced March to Mooseburg from Stalag Luft III , we came to a rest in a building used by Polish and Russian Slave labor . The straw mattress on the bunks were so infested with microbe they could have moved by themselves , ” Cleven recalled , fit in to the hundredth Bomb Foundation .
American Air Museum in BritainStalag Luft III as seen from the air . September 1944 .
“ We burn off the drinking straw mattresses and then washed down the concrete construction with cold body of water . Now come Nox time this edifice was frigid and moist and we only had one cover each and had to catch some Z’s on cold-blooded spring . Well that night , John Egan came up to me and say : ‘ Buck , I conceive there are some strange thing survive on in this camp , ’ to which I replied he was crazy . ”
Cleven continued : “ Later that night , John was sleeping on the low bunk and I was on the upper bunk , both freezing our butts off on metal springs and one blanket and John read to me , ‘ Buck , can I climb up into your bunk to keep warm ’ and my reply was ‘ John , I think there are unusual things go on in this cantonment ! ' ”
In the end , Gale Cleven was able to escape during the march . He made his way back to Thorpe Abbotts in 12 days . Egan was also able-bodied to survive . And by May 1945 , the war in Europe ended with the German surrender .
An Airman’s Life After The War
Though World War II was over , Gale Cleven remained in the Air Force . TheAmerican Air Museum in Britainreports that he live on to serve in Korea and Vietnam , and even briefly shape at the Pentagon before retiring in 1955 with the social station of Colonel .
Outside of war , Cleven also marry his wartime girlfriend , Marjorie , and returned to his studies . He earned degrees from Harvard and George Washington University , and expend the last old age of his life exist in North Dakota and Wyoming . Cleven died in 2006 at the age of 87 . He ’d survive his best friend , Egan , by 45 year , as Egan had died of a fondness attack in 1961 .
But now both of their story will get a new life sentence with the Apple TV+ miniseriesMasters of the Air , which will follow the men of the 100th Bomb Group . It will pay special attending to Gale Cleven and John Egan , whom Harry Crosby once described as the two man who “ gave the 100th its personality . ”
After read about Gale Cleven of the 100th Bomb Group , look through these stunning and heart - wrenchingphotos of the sacking of Auschwitz . Or , break the fib of theNight Witches , the all - distaff Soviet WWII squadron .
