Alfred Asch

Asch joined the USAAC in September 1941 and graduated from Flying School as a pilot in April 1942 with Class 42-D. He was assigned to the 93rd Bomb Group with B-24s and was soon flying combat against the Nazis in late 1942 with the 8th Air Force in England. The early high-altitude bombing missions were generally without fighter escort and with small formations; the group suffered heavily from Luftwaffe attacks.

On the first mission over Lille, France on October 8, 1942, the group was hit by heavy flak and attacked by German fighters from every direction. Asch was flying with Joe Tate when their B-24 received numerous 20mm hits, one of which ruptured a fuel line in the bomb bay. Engineer A.F. Moses held back the fuel from the ruptured line with his bare hands and later made superficial repairs with emery paper and friction tape despite frost-bitten hands. Joe's oxygen system was shot out and he was kept from passing out by a walk-around oxygen bottle. The crew made an emergency landing at a sod fighter field on the west coast of England with two flat tires on the nose and right main gear.

After that mission Asch received his own crew and aircraft, Wham Bam, and went with the 93rd to North Africa and the Libyan Desert to help defeat Rommel's forces. After completing 28 combat missions, he returned to the U.S. with four other officers and helped organize the 455th B-24 Bombardment Group. He subsequently flew combat in Italy with the 455th against the Nazis, then held several positions in the AAC and accepted a regular officer appointment. He earned his Command Pilot Wings, helped introduce automation to the Air Force starting in the early 1950s, and retired as a full colonel in 1958.