In the Service of Our Country--Navy Patrol Bombing Squadron (VPB-111)

                                  

 

                                   In the Service of Our Country

    Member-Navy Patrol Bombing Squadron One Hundred Eleven (VPB-111)

By Peter P. Bresciano

Louis "Louie" Bresciano was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts on June 20, 1912. Born to Alfredo Bresciano and Palmina (Mastantuan) Bresciano who emigrated from Italy in the early nineteen hundreds, he grew up in Greenfield, Massachusetts and at the age of 12, starting working as an apprentice cobbler for his uncle, Vincent Tataro.  In 1931, Louie opened his own shoe repair shop in his hometown and in 1939, married Irene J. Chmielewska.  In March 1944, at the age of 31, with a wife, two children ages 1 and 2, and the sole proprietor of a shoe repair business, he closed up shop and joined the Navy as a way of serving his country in a time of great crisis.

His recruit training took him to the U.S. Naval Training Station, Sampson, New York, and upon completion, Seaman Second Class Bresciano headed to North Africa where he would become a member of Navy Bombing Squadron ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN (VB-111) located at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Port Lyautey, French Morocco.  Shortly after his arrival, the Squadron received orders to deploy back to the States and prepare for deployment to the Pacific Theater of Operations.

As luck would have it, the base the Squadron deployed to was Quonset Point, RI, not far from Louie's hometown of Greenfield, Mass.  Unfortunately, the stay at Quonset Point was very short, only long enough for some flight training, the addition of six new Liberators, and adding new personnel to the Squadron because of reassignments in Squadron personnel to the European Theater of Operations prior to leaving North Africa.  After only four weeks at Quonset Point, crews and their aircrafts, on 20 August 1944, began the transit across the U.S. to the West Coast with the rest of the Squadron personnel following by train. The troop train took these Navy aviators through St. Louis, MO, Little Rock, AK, El Paso, TX, Tucson, AZ, Phoenix, AZ, Los Angles, CA, and finally on to San Diego, CA where they arrived on the 23 of August. 

On 24 September 1944, 13 officers and 102 enlisted members of VB-111 boarded the USS Makassar Strait, CVE-91, a Cassablanca class escort aircraft carrier for the trip to Hawaii.  With a brief period of training at NAAS Camp Kearney, Calif. under their belts, and the ground personnel having arrived in Hawaii, VB-111 crews and their Liberators departed ConUS on 1 October and by 5 October, all Squadron aircraft, their crews and support personnel were at NAS Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Those weeks and months in late 1944 were spent at NAS Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii where the Squadron conducting training exercises, refresher courses and operational searches in preparation for movement into the Pacific Theater of Operations.  Besides normal duty activities, Squadron personnel took advantage of all the "liberty" they could get and spent that time in the big city of Honolulu.

In December of 1944, orders came down to re-deploy, at which time Louie and the re-designated Patrol Bombing Squadron ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN (VPB-111), transferred to the Pacific combat zone, which took them to NAS West Field, Tinian, a small island in the Mariana's chain, just three miles north and across a narrow channel from Saipan. Here the squadron's Navy PB4Y-1 Liberators conducted strategic long-range searches, far out into the Philippine Sea, in search of Japanese shipping and naval movements.

 In January of 1945, VPB-111 was relocated to NAB Morotai, Dutch East Indies to relieve VPB-101 and in so doing so, to conduct long-range reconnaissance and anti-shipping patrols in the Borneo and Celebes Island areas. Being so close to the Equator, this place was miserable and there were many Japanese troops still on the island and even more on the island of Halmahera, just across the Straits from the airfield on Morotai.  Three weeks on Morotai was more than enough to make any man cry uncle.

On 1 February 1945, Louie relocated with the squadron to Tacloban Air Base, Leyte, Philippines where the squadron conducted the same type of operations as those at Morotai. By the middle of April 1945, with the defeat of the Japanese in the Philippines, VPB-111 moved to the Army Air Field on the island of Palawan just out side the city of Puerto Princessa. Combat operations against the Japanese were conducted from the far northern coast of Indo-China to as far south as Singapore. Long-range, single aircraft patrols employing both the Liberator and the new PB4Y-2 "Privateer" were conducted right up until the war's end and for a short period thereafter.

By this time Seaman Bresciano had acquired the rate of Aviation Machinist Mate Third Class and had performed duties within the squadron as a runner, driver, mechanic, and crewmember on the squadron's Liberators. It wasn't until the 29^th of September 1945 that the "Skipper," Lt. Cmdr. Gordon R. Egbert finally secured orders for Louie to return stateside.  It is my belief that my dad was the last of the original squadron members who departed from North Africa in 1944 and was still assigned to VPB-111 on Palawan that had not yet rotated back to the ConUS.  Around 20 October Louie left Palawan as a member of the "Skipper's" crew and headed back to the States with stops on Samar, Guam, and Hawaii.

After eight days in Hawaii, Louie secured transport back to the States on the USS Saratoga CV-3, which had been pressed into service supporting Operation Magic Carpet.  The Saratoga was responsible for transporting over 29,204 Pacific War veterans back to the States, a record that was unequaled by any other individual ship.

By 19 November 1945, Louie was back on the East Coast and honorably discharged from the Navy at the Boston, Mass. personnel separation center.  Within days of separating, Louie reopened his cobbler shop and ran his own store for the next 43 years. In May 1945, a third son was born into the Bresciano family and in 1946, yet another boy began his life in that household. Within a few years, these four boys were in a neighborhood that numbered 16 boys and 2 girls. Louie's wife, Irene passed away in August 1963 at the young age of 51. In 1983, Louie retired from the shoe repair business and not long afterwards, suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed.  "Louie" Bresciano was deceased on November 6, 1995 at the age of 83. 

My dad never forgot VPB-111, the men he served with, the crews he flew with, and the families he and my mother befriended while assigned to VPB-111.  I will never forget the nights we boys spent lying on the living room floor with his photo album spread out before us and my dad telling us about the "fellows," as he called them, and the times they had in the South Pacific.  The sacrifices these "fellows" of VPB-111 made will forever be remembered in this family and as my grandchildren become older, they to will be lying around on the living room floor with these albums spread out before them, hearing about their great-grandfather and the men of VPB-111.  As a 30-year career serviceman myself, I salute and thank you men of VPB-111, Americans of the greatest generation, for having served your country in time of need.

AMM/3c Louis Bresciano's awards and decorations consist of the World War II Victory Medal, American Theater Ribbon, European-African-Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon, Asiatic-Pacific Theater Ribbon with 3 stars, and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon with 1 star.

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