Bonham Cross
World War II B-25 Bomber Pilot

Bonham Cross and his crew were assigned the B-25G model which they flew from Florida to northern Africa by way of South America, Ascension Island and Liberia. From there they arrived on the island of Corsica where a runway had just been completed. Bonham's first of 70 missions began from there the first week of February, 1944. His first B-25 was unique, in that, instead of a bombardier in the nose of the aircraft, there was, instead, several 50-caliber machine guns plus a 75 mm cannon! His early missions were along the west coast of Italy, some within a few feet of the ocean surface where he and other planes like his, stopped all shipping coming down to support the Germans who were resisting the Allied invasion at the Ansio beach head.
The B-25s accomplished this using the cannon, skip-bombing, and strafing targets on the water and nearby land. Sometimes the aircraft acted more like a fighter than a bomber. Soon they were issued the latest B-25J (standard) model, which was flown in boxes of six aircraft in close formation at altitudes of 10,000 to 11,000 or more feet, nearly two miles above the Ground. The most frequent targets were the railway bridges along the mountain range and the ships in the three largest harbors on Italy's west coast, all strongly defended by the enemy's 88mm anti-aircraft guns. Between accurate anti-aircraft fire and several attacks by German fighter aircraft, missions were rarely boring, some downright scary! Bonhams 70 missions were completed in late August. Upon return to the United States, he was assigned to LaJunta, Colorado, where he was put in charge of training recently graduated pilot officers who were preparing for overseas duty.