Eldred Frederic (“Jack”) Whipple

Eldred Frederic (“Jack”) Whipple (service #O-745777) was born on 21 May 1916, in Tecoma, Elko County, Nevada, the son of Frederick Nicholas and Lillian Vilate (Catlin) Whipple. His father was a lead and silver miner. His mother was a homemaker. Jack was the middle child, having an older sister, Althea, and a younger brother, Wallace.

Jack grew up in the small town of Montello, Elko County, Nevada. He graduated from Montello High School, where grades 1-12 were all in the same building. After graduation, he attended (what is now) Utah State University and then went to work for the Kennecott Copper Corporation. He entered the service from White Pine County on 4 July 1942.

After attending flight school at Marfa, Texas, Jack graduated and was commissioned a second lieutenant on 22 May 1943, and sent to multiengine aircraft transition training at Hobbs Army Air Field in New Mexico. The beautiful Betty Lee Perry from Ely, Nevada, and Jack were married on 12 June 1943. Near this time, Jack wrote that his greatest ambition was to become the "oldest living pilot." That was not to be.

From Hobbs Field, Jack and Betty moved to Spokane, Washington’s Geiger Field where Jack and his crew came together and began training as a B-17 "Flying Fortress" combat team. The crew flew day and night at Geiger Field preparing for its overseas assignment, which came in October 1943. Betty returned from Spokane to live with her parents where she soon began working at the Steptoe Valley Hospital.

Jack's deployment orders were to fly a B-17 to Nebraska, pick up a new B-17, and fly it to England. On the way, he buzzed his hometown of Montello and then buzzed Betty’s home in Ely, dropping a small parachute with a letter for her (to his crew’s and the towns’ amazement). The new plane was not ready, so Jack and his crew had to take a British ocean liner to England, dodging German U-Boats.

1LT Whipple and his crew arrived at Liverpool, England, on 20 November 1943, and traveled by train to the 8th Air Force Combat Crew Replacement Center at RAF Bovingdon. There the crew spent Christmas before being assigned to the 1st Bomb Wing's 305th Bomb Group at RAF Chelveston, about 50 miles north of London. Upon arrival at Chelveston, they were assigned to the 366th Bomb Squadron of the 305th Bomb Group where they were given their own B-17.

Jack was the aircraft commander of B-17, Tail Number 42-37957, and named the airplane, "Betty Lee," after his wife. His crew tasted battle, often returning to RAF Chelveston with holes in the "Betty Lee." On their 17th mission, they returned with one engine dead. The loss of power meant they could not keep up with the Group and arrived well after the rest of the aircraft. After a low-level pass over the airfield followed by a 180-degree picturesque B-17 banking turn onto the final approach, Jack made one of his customary perfect landings. Taxiing toward the battle-damaged airplane's hardstand, he leaned out the cockpit window and smiled at the anxious but relieved bystanders.

On that fateful day, 22 March 1944, the 305th Bomb Group was headed to Berlin for the fifth and last time that month. The Group's primary targets were the Heinkel Plant at Orienburg and the Bayerische Molardwerke at Bosdorf. Its secondary target was the Friendrichstrasse Section of Berlin. 1LT Whipple was flying his 20th mission.

Less than an hour from Berlin, Whipple’s number one engine was damaged by antiaircraft fire, creating tremendous drag that made the aircraft difficult to control. Jack jettisoned their bomb load through the cloud cover in an attempt to maintain airspeed and altitude. But the loss of power and the drag kept the "Betty Lee" from maintaining position with the rest of the bomb group. Jack turned the aircraft back towards England, flying just above the cloud cover to use the clouds as an aid against attack by German fighters from below. However, the struggling aircraft was once again hit by antiaircraft fire—and this time the blasts were fatal.

Several crew members were killed, and 1LT Whipple’s leg was mangled, but he continued to fly the airplane so the five surviving crewmembers could bail out. It was later confirmed that Jack could not have maintained the plane in flight--so the others could bail out--and still save himself. The five crewmembers who bailed out became prisoners of war but lived to tell the story of the heroism of 1LT Jack Whipple, who received the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

Jack and the other crewmembers that lost their lives were buried on 3 April 1944 in a new cemetery the Germans established for Allied causalities at Oldenburg, just west of Bremen. After the end of the war in Europe, their remains were moved to the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neupre, Belgium. 1LT Eldred “Jack” Whipple is buried in Plot B, Row 36, Grave 4.

1LT Whipple was survived by his wife, Betty Lee; his parents, Fred and Lillian; and his siblings, Althea Whipple Tooley, and Wallace Whipple (who also served in World War II). In February 1945, Betty received Jack’s Purple Heart.

In 1947, Betty Whipple married Jessie Barker, a naval aviator from Utah who flew SBD "Dauntless" dive-bombers and F6F "Hellcats" in the Pacific during World War II. After 32 years of Navy service, they retired and lived in the San Francisco Bay area.

(Much of the information in this short bio is from a newspaper article by retired Colonel Kenneth Tollefson, a Montello native: https://elkodaily.com/a-nevada-war-hero-remembered/article_63af5169-0cb6-5269-843b-cf132c3c14b7.html)

Sources:

Global Find A Grave Index

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56361583/eldred-frederic-whipple

1920 U.S. Federal Census in the Household of Fred and Lillian Whipple

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GS47-QJY

1930 U.S. Federal Census in the Household of Lillian Whipple

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/GS47-QJY

1940 U.S. Federal Census

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/338514:2442

U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2315873:8939

U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/13468007:2238

U.S. Headstone and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/23975:9170

U.S. World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/153971:4283

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Eldred F Whipple