The clouds hung low, barely 300 feet of ceiling, that Sunday over Station 131, a US Army Air Base at Nuthampstead Hertfordshire England. Typical of Air Bases built throughout the United Kingdom to support long range bombing efforts in stopping Nazi Germany. Station 131 consisted of three runways, with taxiways surrounding the perimeter of the base and dispersal areas where individual Squadrons prepared aircraft for their deadly missions.
Today’s mission for the 55th Fighter Group was to provide protection for 151
B-17 long-range bombers, dispatched to hit the Focke-Wulf plant at Posen, Poland and the Heinkel plant at Warnemunde, Germany.
A flurry of activity encompassed the base that morning, ground crews loaded Newell Anderson’s P-38J Lightning with 2000 rounds of ammunition, to feed the four Browning 50 caliber machine guns. Equipped with one Hispano 20 mm cannon, an additional 150 rounds were loaded, to arm that deadly gun. For this day’s long-range mission, two drop fuel tanks, each holding 150 gallons, were attached to the bottom of the wings. This procedure was repeated for the many P-38’s flying this day.
Two Allison liquid-cooled turbosupercharged V-12 engines, rated at 1,725 hp each, powered the P-38J that Newell piloted. When introduced to the European Theatre of Operation in September of 1943, it quickly became an imposing adversary for the German Luftwaffe. With top speeds of 443 miles per hour and a effective range of 1300 miles, the P-38 required a skilled man to pilot effectively.
Newell was such a man, at the age on 22, in April of 1943; he graduated from the Advanced Flying School at Williams Field, Arizona. Using his new skills, he joined the 338th Fighter Squadron April 12, 1943, and was appointed Flight Officer of the Army of the United States. Assigned to the 55th Fighter Group by August 1943, the personnel had finished with their stateside training and began the preparations for the trans-Atlantic deployment to England.
On 4 September, the group embarked on the HMS Orion. This ship could normally carry 1,500 persons across the ocean. For this trip, 300 officers and 3,200 enlisted men made the voyage. The Group arrived in England and was posted to Nuthampstead.
Quite impressive for a young man from central Utah. His paternal grandparents, converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints, immigrated to Utah from Sweden in the 1860’s. Born 1921 in Glenwood Utah, he was the eighth child of ten born to Parley and Hattie Anderson. His youth was spent in Burrville, a small farming community in Sevier County, where many of his mother’s family had settled. Graduating from Richfield High School in 1939, he worked as a mechanic and truck driver prior to joining the Utah National Guard in 1941.
It is now June of 2006; I had traveled to Nuthampstead for a commemoration and memorial service of my fathers Bomb Group, the 398th HV. In addition to the 398th memorial services a new marble memorial was dedicated to the “Little Friends” of the 398th, the 55th Fighter Group. At the dedication, a booklet was provided, with the names of the men of the 55th who had lost their lives. Reading each account I came upon the following:
“Lt. Newell Anderson (338th FS.)
O9th April 1944
Lt. Newell “Dandy” Anderson was born in Utah on 16 March 1921 and died just 24 days after his 23rd Birthday. He was taking off on a combat mission when one engine failed and he crashed with belly fuel tanks on near Gypsy Corner Farm, just North East of airfield. He was buried with honors at Cambridge American Military Cemetery and Memorial, Colton, Cambridge, England. After the war he was buried in Annabella Cemetery, Annabella, Utah.”
As a Utah native, I had to learn more about Newell. My first search was on FamilySearch ™ the genealogy resource for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints. I was both excited and saddened by what I discovered in Newell’s family history. In researching his parents I discovered that his mother Hattie, at the age of 61, passed away April 4th, 1944, just 5 days before Newell was killed. I suspect that Newell had not been notified of his mother’s death, prior to his crash. An additional irony, his father Parley, at the age of 67, died April 25, 1944, just two short weeks after his son.
In 2007, while attending an annual reunion of the 398th Bomb Group in Phoenix Arizona, I was fortunate to meet Frank Birtciel, a Pilot who flew with the 55th Fighter Group. I inquired if Frank had known Newell Anderson. The expression on Frank’s face noticeably changed, as if sixty plus years had suddenly disappeared. With a surprised tone to his voice, he asked how I knew of Newell. As I related my experience in England, and my subsequent search for information about the day Newell was killed. Frank put his hand on my arm, and said “let me tell you about Newell Anderson”. He began to relate the story of that day in April, 63 years earlier. I quote:
“As for Newell Anderson's crash it was one of those things that really made an impression on both Don Porter and myself. April 9, 1944 was a bomber escort mission. The weather that day was bad with a low overcast sky with the cloud base at around 300 to 400 feet above the terrain at Nuthampstead.
The 343rd Squadron was the last squadron for takeoff and Don Porter led the element. I was flying his wing as the last man. We had moved along the perimeter track and parked on the inactive East West runway and made our engine checks before moving on to the North East South West runway for takeoff. Newell had reported an engine out earlier and all of a sudden his P-38 popped out of the low overcast and was headed right straight into Porter and myself. His 150-gallon drop tanks were still attached to the ship and he managed to pull up over us and crashed just a moment later with a large explosion and black smoke. The entire event taking just a matter of seconds.
We completed the mission and talked of the accident. Porter and I both thought we were going to be killed that day.”
A second account related by Malcolm Osborn, who lives near Nuthampstead, and has studied the wartime history of the base, revealed some additional insight.
Newell’s P-38 had two drop tanks filled with fuel, and the standard procedure in this type of emergency would be to drop the tanks. An experienced pilot, Newell chose not to do that, because of the dense cloud cover, he could not see the ground and did not want to drop them on anyone who might be below him. When he came around the airbase to make an emergency landing, finally breaking through the cloud cover, he saw Porter and Birtciel on the runway. He used what power he had remaining with one engine to pull up to miss them and the plane went off the runway crashing into a field. A young resident of Nuthampstead was working in the field near the crash and ran to give assistance to Newell. When Newell saw him approaching, he waved the boy away, just as the plane exploded.
And so it is that Newell Anderson was truly a hero. Had he dropped the tanks, his life may have been saved, because of the dense cloud cover, he chose to protect unseen humans on the ground instead. His skill as a pilot prevented a collision with two other aircraft on the runway, sparing the lives of two other pilots. Fully aware of his circumstance he waved off a young man coming to his rescue.John Chapter 15, verse 13 records: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
I was overwhelmed by the story; Newell was now far more than a name on a Marble Memorial. To me Newell was a hero, a man who not only left home and family to serve his country, but also gave his life protecting others. As I pondered this sobering account I felt haunted by the unanswered question of what happened to Newell’s family? Did they know of his courage that day? I was compelled to learn more of his life and try to find the answers.
While continuing my research, I stumbled upon a Blog of the Anderson and Ogden families, posted by Brad Ogden, a great nephew of Newell. I was fortunate to contact Brad, and related the details of Newell’s last mission. In response Brad wrote in an email:
Kevin,
I just finished reading your article. I had tears in my eyes as I read of the details that I had not known. I just hate to get emotional (but once every few years it happens). My mother (Newell’s niece) was only a young teenager when he died, but he left quite an impression on her and she held him in very high esteem throughout his life. I really don’t think that the family ever knew of the details of that last mission, which might be explained by the turmoil created by the death of the parents so soon before and after Newell’s.”
…Thanks again for your work and for brightening my day.
Brad
As Brad observed, perhaps due to the circumstances of his parent’s death, or because of the urgency of the war effort. Specific details of that April day in 1944, never reached the family. Continuing research on Newell led me to a poignant discovery—one that haunts me to this day. The telegram about Newell’s death arrived while arrangements were being made for their father’s funeral. Imagine the trauma to the surviving children of this devoted family to lose their parents and a brother in a three-week span of time. The family responded by holding a joint memorial for father and son.
Newell’s short and courageous life was always an Anderson family legend, now he can be remembered as a true American hero as well.
I’m saddened this story has remained untold for so many decades, but grateful that I play a small part in bringing it to life. These many years after Newell's tragic death, my life is richer for having been touched by his. His story needs to be told, for Newell Anderson is an unsung Utah hero.
I was overwhelmed by the story; Newell was now far more than a name on a Marble Memorial. To me Newell was a hero, a man who not only left home and family to serve his country, but also gave his life protecting others. As I pondered this sobering account I felt haunted by the unanswered question of what happened to Newell’s family? Did they know of his courage that day? I was compelled to learn more of his life and try to find the answers.
While continuing my research, I stumbled upon a Blog of the Anderson and Ogden families, posted by Brad Ogden, a great nephew of Newell. I was fortunate to contact Brad, and related the details of Newell’s last mission. In response Brad wrote in an email:
Kevin,
I just finished reading your article. I had tears in my eyes as I read of the details that I had not known. I just hate to get emotional (but once every few years it happens). My mother (Newell’s niece) was only a young teenager when he died, but he left quite an impression on her and she held him in very high esteem throughout his life. I really don’t think that the family ever knew of the details of that last mission, which might be explained by the turmoil created by the death of the parents so soon before and after Newell’s.”
…Thanks again for your work and for brightening my day.
Brad
As Brad observed, perhaps due to the circumstances of his parent’s death, or because of the urgency of the war effort. Specific details of that April day in 1944, never reached the family. Continuing research on Newell led me to a poignant discovery—one that haunts me to this day. The telegram about Newell’s death arrived while arrangements were being made for their father’s funeral. Imagine the trauma to the surviving children of this devoted family to lose their parents and a brother in a three-week span of time. The family responded by holding a joint memorial for father and son.
Newell’s short and courageous life was always an Anderson family legend, now he can be remembered as a true American hero as well.
I’m saddened this story has remained untold for so many decades, but grateful that I play a small part in bringing it to life. These many years after Newell's tragic death, my life is richer for having been touched by his. His story needs to be told, for Newell Anderson is an unsung Utah hero.
