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Christmas 1945
George Edwin (Ed) Farrar had written to his family in Atlanta, Georgia on December 10, 1945. He stated in his letter that he would be leaving Chicago, Illinois on the 15th to come home for a family Christmas. I don’t know his method of travel. He may have traveled with another person by car, or perhaps by train. He expected to be home by the 16th of December. He sounded in high spirits and was looking forward to reuniting with older brother Carroll Jr. on the visit.
Left to Right: Carroll Johnson Farrar, Jr. and George Edwin (Ed) Farrar.
May 8, 1941
Carroll Sr. and Raleigh Mae Farrar had nine children, four of them boys. Carroll Jr. was the oldest and had also served with the Army Air Forces during WWII, but in the Pacific theatre. My dad, George Edwin, was the middle child and second son. Younger brother Bob was the third Farrar son to serve in WWII, in the Navy aboard the USS Intrepid. The youngest boy, Gene, was too young to join the fighting.
Raleigh Mae was excited about having most of the family home that year to celebrate Christmas and to celebrate that her three sons in WWII had all made it back home alive. Carroll Sr. was very ill and bedridden, but was anxious to see his boys back together again.
Left to Right: Carroll Johnson Farrar, Sr. and Raleigh Mae Farrar
Date Unknown
Youngest daughter, Beverly, who was only eight years old at the time, remembers that Christmas to this day. Bob and Carroll Jr. had arrived home first. Carroll Jr. decided the house needed some sprucing up and took to painting and wallpapering the interior. There were no decorations, presents, or even a Christmas tree, so instead of a festive holiday atmosphere, the house was a wreck with Carroll Jr’s paint and wallpaper supplies scattered about.
Six of the Farrar children gathered at their parents’ home for the holidays – Janet, Carroll Jr., Ed, Bob, Gene, and Beverly. Only three – Geraldine (Gerry), Martha, and Dorothy (Dot) – were absent. Ed was the last to arrive.
Carroll Sr. had been waiting to see his boys all together, home from the war. He had been holding off the business of dying, waiting for his sons to arrive. A few days after their arrival, Carroll Sr.’s condition worsened and he was taken to the hospital. Beverly was sent to a neighbor’s house, the Patterson’s, while the rest of the family gathered at her father’s hospital bedside. Carroll Sr. died at Grady Hospital on December 20.
Beverly remembers Carroll Jr. coming to the Patterson’s very late to take her home. He told her their father had died. She would spend her eighth Christmas, just five days away, without her father. Instead of planning a joyous holiday, the Farrar’s would be planning a funeral.
Christmas Eve came with no Christmas tree and no presents. After Beverly was sent to bed, older brother Gene, fourteen years old, walked over to North Kirkwood in search of a Christmas tree. The tree lot was closed, but he found a tree he liked remaining and brought it home. When Beverly arose on Christmas morning, she was surprised to find a decorated Christmas tree and a Christmas present for her, a pair of skates, under it.
Carroll Farrar, Sr. didn’t live to see that Christmas, but he did live to see what was much more important to him. He made death wait to take him until he saw with his own eyes all three of his sons who had survived WWII come together again for a family Christmas.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
The Stearns Family Looks for Answers
Just five days before a very sad Christmas without their son, Bobby Stearns’ mother wrote to George Edwin Farrar’s mother. Their son was the bombardier aboard Lead Banana who was killed in the September 28, 1944 mid-air collision with Lazy Daisy. They hoped Farrar, the only survivor aboard Lead Banana, could furnish some details of the loss of their son that the Army Air Forces had apparently not provided them.
December 20, 1945
Lapine, OregonMy dear Mrs. Farrar:
Last evening we had a letter from the Quarter Master General stating that Bobby is buried in the U.S. Military Cemetery at Margraten, Holland in Plot “L” Row 12, Grave 299 – this is the same location as Lt. Henson’s grave – his is 297. While we hoped for a far different ending to this final chapter, it’s a relief to know he had a decent burial by his own people.
We hope your son is recovered from his ordeal in the prison camp. I know he wants to forget it all as quickly as he can but there are just a few questions I’d like to ask and maybe some time when he feels like it he could write. 1 – Just how did the accident happen? We’ve heard several different versions but would like to know which is true. 2 – Were any of the boys killed by the collision or did they all get out? 3 – Did they go down over the city or country? 4 – Anything else that would help us have it straight in our minds.
Like all the rest of the country we are having a severe winter which began in early November. We have been feeding the cattle since then so this will be a long winter for us. Had 16 in. of snow at the deepest and 17° below the coldest. Today’s paper says it has even reached as far south as Georgia.
Our son Jim is discharged now and he and his wife June are home with us now. We are so glad to have them home.
I hope your family is all together and that you are all well. That’s the best thing I can think of to wish you for the new year.
With best wishes,
Sincerely,
Mrs. Carey Stearns
As for answers, I don’t know if the Army Air Forces divulged any of the details during my dad’s lifetime. He died in 1982. The reports are no longer confidential and reflect that:
- Lazy Daisy collided with Lead Banana due to confusing and quick maneuvering to avoid colliding with another group head on. There was no flak and no ground fire that hit either fort.
- None of the boys on Lead Banana except my dad made it out of the aircraft before it crashed. They all died either from the collision itself or the ensuing fire and crash.
- I don’t know the exact location of where each fort went down, but I do know that the collision was said to happen near Magdeburg, Germany at 52°06′N 11°39′E. Both planes crashed approximately 20 miles northwest of this location. Lazy Daisy crashed near Erxleben and Lead Banana crashed approximately one and one-quarter miles north of Ostingersleben. Today, Google Earth shows this to be mostly farm land, or countryside, rather than a large city. (Note: Google maps do not show Erxleben in the correct location. If you want to locate Erxleben on the map, search on Ostingersleben and you will see Erxleben nearby, about 5km to the northeast).
Robert Sumner Stearns has since been reburied at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno (San Mateo County), California, Section B, plot 302. He also has a memorial marker at the Juniper Haven Cemetery in Prineville (Crook County), Oregon.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Christmas Plans
Again, I don’t know the date my dad, George Edwin Farrar, moved to Chicago, Illinois to live with the Buslee family. This letter from my dad to his mother does show he was living in Chicago in December of 1945 and records a planned trip home to Atlanta, Georgia for Christmas.
December 10, 1945
Neumann – Buslee & Wolfe, Inc.
Chicago, Ill.Dearest Mother:
Received your very welcomed letter this noon, and also the package. While I am thinking of it, if you receive another check from the Government, do not send it here. Just keep it there for me until I get there, as I am leaving here the 15th. And if it comes after you receive this, it would not reach me in time, and they would just have to send it back to Atlanta, and I don’t need the money at the present any-way.
Was really wonderful news to hear Carroll was back in the states, and I know he is as glad as all of us put together, in fact that is the way it was for me. Hope he will be home by next Sunday, so we can all have Dinner together. I think that is the grandest bit of news I have had in some time.
In your last letter you asked if I had heard from Mr. Henson. As yet I haven’t heard from him, but received a letter from Jeanne, but she didn’t say anything about her Mother or Father. He must be O.K. or she would have mentioned it, I am sure.
About the turkey you spoke of. If twenty-two pounds is the largest Mr. Cobb can let you have, get it by all means, but if he should have another larger, get that one. I am going to pay for it. So just get the largest you can. I have had turkey about ten times, at dinners since Thanksgiving, and they are better each time. As you know Carroll and my-self will both be there at least a week after Christmas, and the bird will come in handy.
The formal Saturday night turned out grand. I didn’t tell you all about it, or I can’t now, but here is a little. If you remember when I came from Chicago last I rode with Bill Olson, the buyer for Curtis Candy Co. Well Bill lives in Park Ridge, and is about 47 years old. Mr. Buslee and me made a call on him, about a week ago and invited him to the party, but as he was going to be out of town he was very sorry as his wife would just love to go. Well, we talked a bit, and after a call to his wife, the conclusion was that I take Mrs. Olson. Well I did and we had a grand time. I drove Mr. Buslee’s car, and Mr. and Mrs. Buslee went with me, while Jan and Gene went in their car. We had a gay time, and did not come home until having breakfast at four thirty in the morning.
I sincerely hope Dad is feeling better by now. Hate so bad to hear he isn’t getting along well. He had better get better by Christmas, because he has just got to cut that turkey. He cut the last one when I was home for Christmas.
Went over to Bill Farrar’s yesterday for dinner. He has a nice little place, and isn’t a bad cook at all. He had a couple other fellows up, and his table is just right for four.
Don’t know if you will hear from me again, before I get to Atlanta, or not as I will be there a few days after you receive this. I would come there any-way now that Carroll is there. As it has been some time since I have seen him, and he never did answer my letters(S). I hope he reads this.
Well I had better cut here so take it easy, and don’t work to hard so you will feel good for Christmas. I have been looking for a call from Hugh all day as he was to come here for the Soft Drink Convention, to which I am going. He may be in tomorrow, I hope nothing has happened.
Love to all,
EdPlease pardon my mistakes, as you know I don’t have a chance to type often.
Notes:
- Carroll was George Edwin Farrar’s oldest brother who served in the Pacific theatre during WWII.
- Mr. Henson was the father of William A. Henson, the navigator aboard Lead Banana on September 28, 1944. Jeanne was William’s sister. The Hensons lived near the Farrars in Atlanta.
- Jan and Gene were Jan (Buslee) and Gene Kiefhofer. Jan was John Oliver Buslee’s sister and she was married to Gene.
- Bill Farrar was likely a Farrar relative, but there are many and I don’t know which one specifically.
- Not mentioned in the letter, but Ed’s younger brother, Bob, was also supposed to be home for Christmas that year. Bob was the third Farrar son who served in WWII, in the Navy.
- According to my Aunt Beverly, Carroll and Bob both made it home to Atlanta for Christmas before my dad arrived from Chicago.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Mr. and Mrs. Buslee Visit
I can’t pinpoint a date when all of these events occurred, but I do know they must have occurred in the Fall of 1945. My father, George Edwin Farrar, received his Honorable Discharge and Separation from the Army Air Forces on October 29. The date he physically returned home – to his parents’ home in Atlanta, Georgia – from WWII I do not know. I do know that Mr. and Mrs. Buslee traveled all the way from Chicago, Illinois to meet my dad and offer him a job with Mr. Buslee’s company, Neumann, Buslee, & Wolfe, Inc. My Aunt Beverly, eight years old at the time, remembers Mr. and Mrs. Buslee sitting in the living room of the Farrar home and visiting with my dad and his mother. Her father was very ill and bedridden and was not able to join the group.
The Buslees primarily wanted to hear anything my dad knew about the events of September 28, 1944, specifically, the mid-air collision over Magdeburg, Germany between the Lazy Daisy and the Lead Banana, on which their son, John Oliver, was the pilot. My dad was the waist gunner on John Oliver’s crew and was the only survivor on the Lead Banana.
I don’t know if what my dad was able to tell them put their minds at ease, but it was something they wanted to hear in person. As a result of their visit – and I don’t know if they considered this in advance or if it was just a spur of the moment decision – Mr. Buslee offered my dad a job. Neumann, Buslee & Wolfe were “Merchants, Importers, and Manufacturers” and they made and sold flavorings and essential oils. Mr. Buslee would teach my dad to be a salesman. My dad moved to Chicago into the Buslee’s home and as my Aunt Beverly put it, he “lived in their son’s room, wore their son’s clothes, and drove their son’s car.” He lived and ate with the family and was treated like he was their own son.
What a difference a year can make in two different families’ lives. A year previous, both the Farrar and Buslee families were worried about their sons, missing in action after a mid-air collision over Germany. And now, the Farrar family had their son back and the Buslee family knew that theirs was never coming back. But the Farrar family was losing their son again. Yes, a positive move for him and only as far as Chicago, Illinois. But they were probably not ready to let him go even that far after what he had gone through the past year to make it back to them alive.
The Buslees had a temporary replacement for their son lost in the war. Maybe my dad’s presence in their home softened the loss of their own son. Or maybe it made it all the more painful, a reminder on a daily basis that their son was gone. What a difference a war can make.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Caterpillar Club
On November 20, 1945, George Edwin Farrar became a member of the Caterpillar Club. He was granted entry into the club due to the fact that a parachute saved his life on September 28, 1944. Stanley Switlik, owner of the Switlik Parachute Company sent him this nice letter, certificate, and pin. I have the certificate hanging in my home.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Dear Friend
By now with everything the families of the Buslee crew had all been through together, they considered each other friends. Not a happy friendship, but one brought together by sadness and loss. More of a family, really, as their loved ones were as close as brothers as they served their country in WWII.
Raleigh Mae Farrar hadn’t received a letter from one of the crews’ families in many months, but in November 1945, Gerald Andersen’s wife took the time to write.
Gerald Lee Andersen
November 19, 1945
Stromsburg, NebraskaMrs. Raleigh Mae Farrar,
Atlanta, Ga.Dear Friend:
I have wondered so many times if your son S/Sgt. Geo. Farrar has gotten home after I received word from you that he had been released from prison Camp. I have been so in hopes that he could give us some information.
I received the following information from Quartermaster General, Washington, D. C. concerning my husband’s burial.
“The remains of your husband were interred in the United States Military Cemetery at Margraten Holland, Plot R, Row 3 Grave 51. This cemetery is located twelve miles Northwest of Achen, Germany and eight miles Southeast of Maastricht, Holland.”
I do hope your son is in good health. Was he near this Cemetery?
I am trying to contact someone in the Occupational Forces, to visit the cemetery and get pictures of a same.
I am teaching again this year. The time passes and when you are busy you don’t have time to think.
I would appreciate very much to hear from you and to know if your son has come home.
Sincerely,
Your friend,
Mrs. Esther E. Andersen
Gerald Andersen has since been reinterred in the Fort McPherson National Cemetery in Maxwell (Lincoln County), Nebraska, Section F, Site 1229.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Instructions for Presentation of Claims
On November 15, 1945, just two weeks after George Edwin Farrar’s honorable discharge and separation, the Army’s Claims Division sent him a letter. It outlined the instructions for reimbursement of personal property losses while in the service as long as the loss was within the regulations. I wonder if my dad was able to claim the loss of his watch during the prisoners’ march across Germany, which he had to trade for bread. Do you think trading an item in lieu of starvation was covered in the cited regulations?
November 15, 1945
Headquarters, Army Service Forces
Office of the Judge Advocate General
Washington 25, D. C.Instructions for Presentation of Claims
(AR 25-100)1. Army Regulations 25-100, 29 May 1945, provide a means whereby reimbursement may be obtained by military personnel and civilian employees of the War Department or of the Army for private property damaged, lost, destroyed, captured or abandoned in the service when the circumstances of the loss are within the purview of the cited regulations. (For further details see AR 25-100, 29 May 1945, obtainable at any post, camp, station or military establishment.)
2. A claim for private property lost in the service should be made on WD Form 30B, 1 June 1945, and submitted to the Commanding Officer of the organization to which the claimant belongs or with which he is serving if practicable, otherwise to the Commanding Officer of any post, camp, station or military establishment, if practicable the one nearest the point where investigation of the facts and circumstances can most conveniently be made. Claims may also be submitted to the Commanding General of any Service Command or any Air Technical Service Command, within the United States, its territories and possessions, or to any office of the Command Claims Service in any Theater of Operations or other command outside the continental limits of the United States. In any case where submission under the foregoing provisions is impracticable claims may be submitted direct to The Judge Advocate General, Washington 25, D. C.
3. Blank forms and assistance in the preparation of a claim may be obtained from the Claims Officer at the post, camp, station or other military establishment where the claim is submitted.
RALPH G. BOYD
Colonel, JAGD
Chief of Claims Division
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Honest and Faithful Service
On October 29, 1945, my dad, George Edwin Farrar, received an honorable discharge from the Army of the United States. The Honorable Discharge certificate declared…
GEORGE E. FARRAR
14 119 873 STAFF SERGEANT 384TH BOMBING GROUP 8TH AIR FORCE
Army of the United States
is hereby Honorably Discharged from the military
service of the United States of America.
This certificate is awarded as a testimonial of Honest
and Faithful Service to this country.
His date of separation was October 29, 1945 and place of separation was SAD AAFPDC, San Antonio, Texas. Listed on the separation form were decorations and citations:
- American Theater Ribbon
- EAME Ribbon w/3 Bronze Stars
- Good Conduct Medal
- Purple Heart
- Air Medal w/1 Bronze Cluster
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
The Eight-Digit Number
My dad’s youngest sister, Beverly, was only seven years old when my dad’s B17 collided mid-air with another B17 on September 28, 1944. With three of her older brothers away serving in WWII, her childhood was entrenched in the war. One of the memories that she still recalls vividly to this day was of her mother awakening from sleep with the thought of an eight-digit number in her head, which she quickly wrote down upon rising. By the way, premonitions were apparently a common occurrence for my grandmother.
My Aunt Beverly told me about this incident, but she didn’t know what the number signified, or what the eight digits actually were. My dad’s Army Air Forces serial number was eight digits, but he had been assigned that number when he enlisted. My dad’s POW number was only four digits. Again, not a good candidate for matching the story.
It wasn’t until I ran across this letter that I wondered about that eight-digit number again. From this letter my dad received, I can only presume that his mother told him the story of awakening with that number in her head upon his return home from the war. In turn, my dad wrote to the Parachute Department of the 544th Bomb Squadron of the 384th Bombardment Group, now stationed in Istres, France, inquiring about the eight-digit serial number of the parachute that had saved his life on September 28, 1944.
September 11, 1945
Istres, FranceS/Sgt. George E. Farrar
79 East Lake Ter. S. E.
Atlanta, Georgia
A. S. N. 14119873In regards to the parachute you used on Sept. 28, 1944.
It is impossible anymore for us to give you the exact number of the chute which you used.
I am enclosing the number of one which did go down at about the time you stated.
Mfg. Reliance
Serial No. 42-263628We hope this will be satisfactory and was glad to hear that we were of some help to you.
S/Sgt. W. A. Carnahan
544th. Bomb Sqd.
Parachute Department
A parachute saved my father’s life on September 28, 1944, but he had a little more help than just the parachute that day. In the mid-air collision at 30,000 feet, he was knocked unconscious and thrown from the aircraft. He didn’t even know he was out of the plane until he came to after free falling 25,000 feet. He wrote down the events of that day several times since it happened, but he always left out one detail.
That detail was part of my dad’s story when he would tell it to me as a child. It would be bedtime and my dad would sit on the side of my bed until I fell asleep. I would ask for a story, the one about his airplane in WWII, or the prison camp, or the march across Germany when he had to sleep in the hay. He would tell how another plane flew into the side of his plane, cracking it open like an egg. He woke up out of the plane and falling, falling. He was here sitting on the side of my bed, able to tell me about these experiences he had in the war because he woke up only 5,000 feet from the ground when he heard his mother calling his name.
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
Request for Details
By mid-August 1945, George Edwin Farrar was back in the states, but I do not know if he had returned home to Atlanta, Georgia by this time or not. The Army Air Forces sent him a letter on the 16th inquiring about the death of crewmate Sebastiano Peluso, presumably at the request of the Peluso family. The Peluso family must have finally received word that their son had died in the mid-air collision between Lazy Daisy and Lead Banana, on which he was the radio operator on September 28, 1944.
Peluso was the last crew member identified from the wreckage of the two flying fortresses. James Brodie, pilot of the Lazy Daisy, was also not identified early on. Notification of his death had not come until July 6.
Unfortunately, Farrar would not have much information to offer to the Peluso family as he had been knocked unconscious in the collision, coming to in free fall and just in time to deploy his parachute. He was told in prison camp that he was the only survivor of his crew. He had no information on the other crew members other than they were in position at the time of the collision. One thing he did say when I asked repeatedly as a child how he came to be the only survivor, was that all the other boys thought they were out of harm’s way and had already removed their chest chutes when the collision occurred, but that he had left his on.
August 16, 1945
Headquarters, Army Air Forces
WashingtonSUBJECT: Staff Sergeant Sebastiano J. Peluso, 12182596
TO: Staff Sergeant George E. Farrar, 14119873
79 East Lake Terrace Northeast
Atlanta, Georgia1. This headquarters has received a request for details of the death of Staff Sergeant Sebastiano J. Peluso, 12182596, radio operator of your aircraft, B-17G, Serial Number 43-37822, which disappeared on 28 September 1944.
2. Request that you forward to this headquarters any information you may have concerning the circumstances of the death of Staff Sergeant Sebastiano J. Peluso, or any details you may be cognizant of regarding his status after your Fortress disappeared.
BY COMMAND OF GENERAL ARNOLD:
N. W. REED
Major, Air Corps
Chief, Notification Branch
Personal Affairs Division
Asst Chief of Air Staff
© Cindy Farrar Bryan and The Arrowhead Club, 2014
The Arrowhead Club 