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WWII pilot escaped enemy territory
By Blake Spurney Editor
C.O. "Jug" Kell, 88, has deep family roots in Rabun County even though he was born and raised in Atlanta.
He and wife Tootsie recently moved into a rental home here while they struggle with medical issues. Both are dealing with Alzheimer's disease, and Kell expresses frustration while trying to remember details of that day in September 1944 when his B-24 Liberator was shot down over Yugoslavia.
However, most of the details pour forth as he describes his hard landing when his parachute malfunctioned and how he and his crew mates escaped enemy territory with the help of the Partisans, supporters of the allies.
Kell also kept a diary during the three months he spent in a military hospital recuperating from a crushed tailbone and other injuries.
Kell and other members of his squadron were awakened at 2:45 a.m. Sept. 13 for a briefing on a mission to bomb an oil refinery in Blechhammer, Germany. It was his 13th mission during the war and his eighth as a pilot. The trip heading from Cerignola, Italy, to the target was uneventful, but on the way home their plane ran into heavy flak - so heavy he could see it all around him.
"We got hit right in the cockpit," he said. "It wasn't directly in the cockpit, but it knocked out one engine and we lost another."
According to Kell's diary, the flak hit the plane's horizontal stabilizer, and the No. 2 engine began losing fuel at a tremendous rate. He got the plane under control for about five minutes, "and everyone was very jubilant."
About 10 minutes later, the fuel pressure and oil pressure dropped. His plane then began to fall out of formation as it lost altitude.
"They shot us up really bad, now," he said. "We couldn't get back over the Alps."
Kell wrote in detail how he and the other nine members of the crew bailed out of the plane after it lost engines 1 and 3. "Parkins and Rittenhouse went out the nose wheel door. Parkins went first, Rittenhouse got hung in the door and was dangling out in mid-air. He was able to pull himself up into the nose again and get a new start.
"When I reached the flight deck, Stohlman and Oltaryewski were still on board. Oltaryewski didn't even have on his chute, so, of course, I raised hell with him. He stood there fumbling with gloves and cap, so I went on back to the bomb bay and there stood Mike on the catwalk with a silly expression on his face."
Kell jumped out and pulled the ripcord a fraction of a second later. His feet got tied up in the lines, and his parachute wouldn't open. He kicked his feet free, and he heard the distinctive pop.
"No will ever know how good I felt," he wrote. "Of course my chute didn't open just right and I had a chute in two sections."
As he kicked and twisted to try to turn the chute back, he realized that the plane had made a 180-degree turn and was heading back toward the string of chutes. He then hit the rock face of a mountain. He landed hard on his rear end and then fell forward and hit his head.
"I beat everybody down," he joked. "They thought I was racing them."
Kell then had to deal with his injuries. He could barely get up, and his head was bleeding. "I was scared. I thought I was going to die, and I wasn't particularly ready," he said.
Kell then heard three shots close by, and he ran for about 15 minutes. Close to exhaustion, he found a place hide and rest for a few minutes, and then he heard three more shots.
Because he was in the mountains, where there were a lot of Partisans, he decided to get out in the open and surrender. He saw two men leading packhorses on a mountain trail in an area that looked similar to Rabun. He whistled and walked toward the men, one of whom pointed a rifle toward his head.
"He was jabbering in his native language and all I could say was, 'American! American!,'" he wrote in his diary. "He understood and a smile came over his face as he said, 'Me Partisan.' This Kell boy was so happy that he threw his arms around that dirty lad and really hung on. He called to his friend, 'Americano' and we were all very happy."
Kell later learned two crew members ended up being captured by the Chetniks, who sided with the Germans. He had landed within a mile of the Germans, and the two men who picked him up had killed four Germans that day.
In the coming days, Kell reunited with five of his crew, and they were led from village to village. Capt. O' Mara, with the Office of Strategic Services, helped arrange their escape back into friendly hands. A girl, 13-14, led them over the German line. The men piled into an oxcart, and she covered them with hay.
"She guarded us. It was something else," he said.
After his three-month stay in the hospital, Kell was declared unfit for combat flight. He was knocked back to being a co-pilot and flew six more missions, and he had to bail out again, this time over southern France when mechanical failure brought his plane down.
"I didn't write anything down. I was bitter. I lost all my friends," he said about being reassigned to a new crew.
After the war, Kell visited his old high school, Southwest DeKalb, and the principal offered him a job. He spent the next 41 years teaching and coaching football and girls basketball. His career included stops in Cartersville and Union County.
Kell said he and Tootsie, to whom he has been married for 66 years, came back to Rabun because he has a lot of cousins in the area. His father, Curt, was born in the Warwoman community, and his mother, Susie, was born in Wiley.
He came to Rabun every summer as a child, tagging along with his mother, who was coming to see her mother. On one such trip, he remembers hitching a ride to town by flagging down Fred Turpin, who had horses for rent. He rode to the post office and waited there for his uncle, Clyde Ramey. He also worked one summer at the Mountain City Playhouse.
Rabun also played a role in his nickname. While at North Georgia Military College in Dahlonega, he used to come here to get a charred keg of white liquor to take back to his classmates.
"Kids would see me coming back, and boy, they couldn't stand it," he said about their anticipation.
Veterans dinner
The 11th annual Veterans Appreciation Dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Rabun County Civic Center. Veterans, widows and widowers eat for free. General admission tickets cost $20, or $10 for spouses of veterans. Reservations must be made by Friday. For more information or to make reservations, call the Rabun County Chamber of Commerce at 706-782-4812.
He and wife Tootsie recently moved into a rental home here while they struggle with medical issues. Both are dealing with Alzheimer's disease, and Kell expresses frustration while trying to remember details of that day in September 1944 when his B-24 Liberator was shot down over Yugoslavia.
However, most of the details pour forth as he describes his hard landing when his parachute malfunctioned and how he and his crew mates escaped enemy territory with the help of the Partisans, supporters of the allies.
Kell also kept a diary during the three months he spent in a military hospital recuperating from a crushed tailbone and other injuries.
Kell and other members of his squadron were awakened at 2:45 a.m. Sept. 13 for a briefing on a mission to bomb an oil refinery in Blechhammer, Germany. It was his 13th mission during the war and his eighth as a pilot. The trip heading from Cerignola, Italy, to the target was uneventful, but on the way home their plane ran into heavy flak - so heavy he could see it all around him.
"We got hit right in the cockpit," he said. "It wasn't directly in the cockpit, but it knocked out one engine and we lost another."
According to Kell's diary, the flak hit the plane's horizontal stabilizer, and the No. 2 engine began losing fuel at a tremendous rate. He got the plane under control for about five minutes, "and everyone was very jubilant."
About 10 minutes later, the fuel pressure and oil pressure dropped. His plane then began to fall out of formation as it lost altitude.
"They shot us up really bad, now," he said. "We couldn't get back over the Alps."
Kell wrote in detail how he and the other nine members of the crew bailed out of the plane after it lost engines 1 and 3. "Parkins and Rittenhouse went out the nose wheel door. Parkins went first, Rittenhouse got hung in the door and was dangling out in mid-air. He was able to pull himself up into the nose again and get a new start.
"When I reached the flight deck, Stohlman and Oltaryewski were still on board. Oltaryewski didn't even have on his chute, so, of course, I raised hell with him. He stood there fumbling with gloves and cap, so I went on back to the bomb bay and there stood Mike on the catwalk with a silly expression on his face."
Kell jumped out and pulled the ripcord a fraction of a second later. His feet got tied up in the lines, and his parachute wouldn't open. He kicked his feet free, and he heard the distinctive pop.
"No will ever know how good I felt," he wrote. "Of course my chute didn't open just right and I had a chute in two sections."
As he kicked and twisted to try to turn the chute back, he realized that the plane had made a 180-degree turn and was heading back toward the string of chutes. He then hit the rock face of a mountain. He landed hard on his rear end and then fell forward and hit his head.
"I beat everybody down," he joked. "They thought I was racing them."
Kell then had to deal with his injuries. He could barely get up, and his head was bleeding. "I was scared. I thought I was going to die, and I wasn't particularly ready," he said.
Kell then heard three shots close by, and he ran for about 15 minutes. Close to exhaustion, he found a place hide and rest for a few minutes, and then he heard three more shots.
Because he was in the mountains, where there were a lot of Partisans, he decided to get out in the open and surrender. He saw two men leading packhorses on a mountain trail in an area that looked similar to Rabun. He whistled and walked toward the men, one of whom pointed a rifle toward his head.
"He was jabbering in his native language and all I could say was, 'American! American!,'" he wrote in his diary. "He understood and a smile came over his face as he said, 'Me Partisan.' This Kell boy was so happy that he threw his arms around that dirty lad and really hung on. He called to his friend, 'Americano' and we were all very happy."
Kell later learned two crew members ended up being captured by the Chetniks, who sided with the Germans. He had landed within a mile of the Germans, and the two men who picked him up had killed four Germans that day.
In the coming days, Kell reunited with five of his crew, and they were led from village to village. Capt. O' Mara, with the Office of Strategic Services, helped arrange their escape back into friendly hands. A girl, 13-14, led them over the German line. The men piled into an oxcart, and she covered them with hay.
"She guarded us. It was something else," he said.
After his three-month stay in the hospital, Kell was declared unfit for combat flight. He was knocked back to being a co-pilot and flew six more missions, and he had to bail out again, this time over southern France when mechanical failure brought his plane down.
"I didn't write anything down. I was bitter. I lost all my friends," he said about being reassigned to a new crew.
After the war, Kell visited his old high school, Southwest DeKalb, and the principal offered him a job. He spent the next 41 years teaching and coaching football and girls basketball. His career included stops in Cartersville and Union County.
Kell said he and Tootsie, to whom he has been married for 66 years, came back to Rabun because he has a lot of cousins in the area. His father, Curt, was born in the Warwoman community, and his mother, Susie, was born in Wiley.
He came to Rabun every summer as a child, tagging along with his mother, who was coming to see her mother. On one such trip, he remembers hitching a ride to town by flagging down Fred Turpin, who had horses for rent. He rode to the post office and waited there for his uncle, Clyde Ramey. He also worked one summer at the Mountain City Playhouse.
Rabun also played a role in his nickname. While at North Georgia Military College in Dahlonega, he used to come here to get a charred keg of white liquor to take back to his classmates.
"Kids would see me coming back, and boy, they couldn't stand it," he said about their anticipation.
Veterans dinner
The 11th annual Veterans Appreciation Dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Rabun County Civic Center. Veterans, widows and widowers eat for free. General admission tickets cost $20, or $10 for spouses of veterans. Reservations must be made by Friday. For more information or to make reservations, call the Rabun County Chamber of Commerce at 706-782-4812.
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Vet wrote on Nov 7, 2009 12:34 PM:
Thanks so much for going. "