I was born in Springfield, Illinois in November 1922. The first of four children of Robert F. and Dorothy M. (Jones) Jagitsch. I attended grade and high schools in Rockford and Peoria, Illinois and Springfield Junior College, Springfield, Illinois in 1941-1942. In October 1942 I joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, and was called to active duty from junior College in February 1943. I enlisted n the Aviation Cadet Program. I graduated with an experimental class, one of only 48 cadets. We were graduated from the Martin B26 Marauder transition school at Del Rio, Texas in March 1944.
My aircrew were assigned at Lake Charles, La., where we undertook combat training. We were then shipped overseas to England on the French liner Isle de France. I was stationed at Great Dunmow near Bishop/Stortford thirty miles north of London with the 286th Bomb Group, 9th AF. We subsequently operated from Beaumont sur Oise, 30 miles north of Paris, and at St. Trond, Belgium, 50 miles from Liege.
My first mission was in support of the British paratroop landing at Arnem, Holland in September 1944. A book about that operation was written by Cornelius Ryan. It is enlisted "A Bridge Too Far" and was one of his trilogy, the others being "The Longest Day," and "The Last Battle."
I hold many memories of the thirty missions which I flew with the 555th Bomb Squadron of the 286th Group, 9th Air Force, during the period from September 1944 until the war ended. We then trained for operations against Japan prior to shipment to the Far East. However, I departed the ETO to return to the States on VJ Day 1945.
In Feb. 1945 we converted from the Martin B26 Marauder to the then, Douglas A26 Invader, a similar, but even faster aircraft, with a smaller flight crew. I flew my first mission in an A26 Invader in Feb., 1945. Our old Faithful B26s were transferred to the French AF.
I led a flight of six A26s back to the U.S., the last batch flying to the United States from Valley Wales, via Keflavik Iceland, Bluie West One Greenland and Goose Bay Labrador, finally landing at Windsor Locks, Conn. In August 1945. On the light to BW1, I iced up flying through an old occlusion (an old weather center with occluded frontal systems in it) and stalled out at 13000 feet.