Ken Bell to unveil mystery of 'Marauder Man' title

MARAUDER MAN:
Ken Bell flew 17 missions as a radioman and waist gunner aboard B-26 bombers during World War II over France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

Everyone who knows Ken Bell, a fixture in and around Anderson since 1974, knows that Bell, 84, is a "Marauder Man," but few know the full extent of what that nickname means.

Bell intends to set the record straight on Jan. 29, when he makes a presentation at 11:45 a.m. at the VFW Post 9650 located at 3210 West Center St. in downtown Anderson.

Seating is limited so reservations are a must, Bell said, noting that the presentation includes a lunch hosted by the Anderson Chamber of Commerce as well as the VFW Post 9650. To reserve a seat, call the Anderson Chamber of Commerce office at 365-8095 before 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23.

A child of the Great Depression, Bell was born Nov. 27, 1924, in the mining community of Leadore, Idaho, approximately 50 miles from Salmon. His father worked in a grocery store there.

Several moves later, mostly to small mining towns in Western Montana including Bannack, Townsend and Basin, Bell's mother decided her husband was working too hard in the grocery business and convinced him to go into banking and work as a Notary Public, which he eventually did in Rupert, Idaho, where young Ken Bell, an only child, graduated in the summer of 1942 from Rupert High School.

By then, the small farming community of nearly 4,000 was home, but Ken Bell, an aspiring pharmacy student, was enrolled at the University of Idaho's southern campus in Pocatello, Idaho.

With war raging overseas in both the European and Pacific theaters, young Bell and two roommates were approached by several military recruiters during a visit to the local post office, where he was enticed, despite the deferment, to take a test and physical examination for possible induction into the U.S. Army Air Force, but only if he could return to his home town and obtain three letters of recommendation.

After completing his basic training as a radio operator, Bell was assigned to a six-member flight crew for the B-26, also known as the Martin Maruader. It was the fastest bomber operated by the Allied Forces and was rushed into production to meet the demands of wartime use.

Powered by two radial engines, the single-fuselaged plane had a nose gun operated by the navigator/bombadier, a top turret operated by the flight engineer and a tail gunner who was the flying warship's armorer.

Only the pilot and co-pilot did not have other duties as their hands were usually full trying to avoid artillery barrages and flak, as well as air-to-air attacks from enemy fighter planes.

"I was stationed in the radio/intercom station in the center of the plane, and also had responsibility for a 50-caliber machine gun that could be mounted on either side of the plane's waist," Bell explained.

"Because of my two side windows, I could see better than anyone what our bombs did after we dropped them," Bell added.

An 18-day flight across the southern Atlantic by way of Puerto Rico, British Guiana, Brazil and Ascension Island smack dab in the Atlantic Ocean, the flight crew finally arrived in Dakar, Senegal, then on to Liberia and Marrakech, Morocco, across the Straight of Gibraltar from Spain, which was a neutral country in World War II.

After flying around Spain to England, Bell and his squadron were assigned to a recently liberated airfield in Bouvee, France, from where they flew their first bombing mission in January 1945.

"Our most successful mission was when we went to bomb Wurzberg, Germany. There were some hills around there that we had to avoid, and because we were behind the hills, the Germans didn't hear us coming. As we flew over the town, I could see a lot of German people running for the bomb shelters," Bell said with a noticeable shudder as his voice caught slightly.

"I'm pretty sure we killed quite a few of them that day," he said, wiping away a tear before continuing.

Although Bell flew a total of 17 missions, he was only given credit for 15 since the bombadier was unable to loose the bombs on two runs, either due to malfunctioning equipment, heavy flak or poor weather conditions and zero visibility.

All in all, Bell's 322nd Bomb Group dispatched 13,000 aircraft on a total of 425 missions and delivered 17,395 tons of bombs on designated enemy targets during the waning days of the war, he said.

The cost, however, was high. More than 504 men were killed in action, and another 181 were wounded.

Bell suffered a small sliver of flak that lodged dangerously close to his left eye and could have left him blinded in that eye if it had been even a millimeter larger, but a squadron doctor was able to dig the razor-sharp piece of metal out of the eye socket before it did any damage.

"The war ended May 7, 1945, some six weeks after we had made our first mission.

After Victory in Europe Day, Bell and his crew joined the Army of Occupation and ferried nearly 600 used B-26 bombers to a storage facility where they were eventually destroyed rather than flown back to the United States. He returned home to Rupert, Idaho, on Feb. 7, 1946, his parent's wedding anniversary.

"I wouldn't do it over again for a million dollars, but I wouldn't take $10 million to have missed it," Bell said.