S/Sgt Damacio Escoto Nogales Jr – Born Dec 18th, 1924, in High Rolls, NM
Damacio (Deano) Nogales was the ninth child of Inez and Damacio Nogales and joined the rest of the family in the High Rolls home. He went to the local grammar school and attended and graduated from Alamogordo High School in June 1943, two months later Deano was starting basic training in the Army. In June 1944, as his older brother Cruz was starting bombing missions over France and Germany, Deano started training at the Army Gunnery school located near Yuma, Az.
After gunnery school, Sgt Deano Nogales was assigned to a B-24 Liberator training base to become part of an Army Air Force replacement crew. The pilot of this newly formed crew was Lt. Alfred J Cohn from Buffalo, NY and in the summer of 1944 the crew trained on a daily basis.
The massive all-out training of Army airmen led to errors where there was no margin. Training mistakes led to takeoff crashes, mid-air collisions, and landing crashes. A mid-air collision of two B-24 aircraft could result in the immediate death of 20 young airmen. The number airmen that died in US training accidents was 10 times the number of American deaths on D-Day. Between Dec. 1941 to Aug. 1945, 14,903 US army airmen were killed while training at bases in the continental United States!
Bomber aircraft accounted for 54 percent of all aircraft training deaths. Not surprisingly more airmen trainees were killed in B-24 accidents than any other aircraft. Unfortunately, the crews knew the situation they were dealing with, there was a sad reason the B-24 bomber was nicknamed the “flying coffin”.
The “Cohn Crew” completed their training in Oct. of 1944 and were assigned to the 8th Air Force. On 12 Nov 1944 Lt. Alfred Cohn, S/Sgt Deano Nogales and the rest of the crew joined the 577th bomb squadron, part of the 392nd Bomb Group, which was stationed at Wendling, England. They had now joined the massive bombing campaign to destroy the industry, transportation infrastructure, oil production and military sites of the Nazi’s Third Reich.
Hanau, Germany 12 Dec 1944 - Deano and the Lt. Cohn crew were part of 30 B-24 bombers that headed to Hanau, Germany (8 miles east of Frankfurt) to destroy a German military facility. The visibility was excellent, and the lead squadron was able to hit the target with pin-point accuracy. The low and high squadrons, however, dropped off the target for unexplained reasons. No fighters were encountered but flak was accurate enough to damage four returning B-24s, but all returned safely.
The 1st mission for S/Sgt Deano Nogales and the crew was complete and they had experienced combat. The flak explosions around the B-24 formations were bad enough to feel the concussions surround your body, a feeling they would never forget. Another very unpleasant experience was the freezing temperatures, at 25,000 feet during the winter months the outside temperature could plunge to 60 degrees below zero.
Battle of the Bulge Dec 1944 - On 16 Dec, the Wehrmacht launched a huge offensive against American positions in the Ardennes Forest on the Belgium border. The German armies were able to create a huge bulge. This remarkable progress was made possible by the very poor weather, which not only made Allied bombing and strafing impossible, but allowed multiple “supply lines” to feed the German panzer and infantry divisions in the bulge.
Ruwar, Germany 24 Dec 1944 – The weather was finally clear. The 8th Air Force saw an opportunity to finally make a major strike against the German supply lines. Dozens and dozens of key bridges, railroad marshalling yards, key roadways and communication centers were identified. Mission # 760 of the 8th Air Force saw more B-17s and B-24s put into operation than ever before. Lt Cohn, S/Sgt Deano Nogales and the crew attacked a railroad traffic center at Ruwer. Bombing photo analysis showed good results.
Photo of Deano Nogales at work.
Without question the waist gunners, Deano and Walt, experienced the worst conditions of the air crew. Manning the waist guns in front of an open window (60 below zero) was freezing beyond compare and hazardous, even with heated suits and gloves. Frostbite, hypoxia, and the challenge of operating in bulky flight gear and flak jackets made aiming and firing the guns a constant challenge.
Euskirchen, Germany 31 Dec 1944 – The target was marshalling yards and the formation started on its bomb run. Suddenly the squadron was hit by 15 Me 109 enemy fighters which made firing passes at the squadron. With adrenaline at full capacity, Sgt Deano Nogales fired his 50 calibers machine guns at the attacking Messerschmitt’s which fired 20mm canon shells at the B-24s. For some unknown reason the Me 109s only made two passes at the bomb group and there was one enemy fighter claim in this short engagement. The attack caused the 392nd bomb group to abort the mission with all bombs being jettisoned to lighten the aircraft. It was time to get the hell out. Several airmen in other B-24 were wounded by shrapnel from the 20mm shells.
Over the next 8 weeks, S/Sgt. Damacio Nogales flew major missions to:
Lauta, Germany 16 Jan 1945 – A deep penetration attack on the synthetic oil complex near Dresden, Germany (not far from the Polish border).
Magdeburg, 3 and 9 Feb – Major oil refinery which was heavily defended by hundreds of flak batteries under radar control.
Aschaffenburg, 25 Feb – Large marshalling yard complex.
Bielefeld, 10 Mar – German infrastructure viaduct system.
Hesepe, 17 Mar – Luftwaffe airfield and facility.
Wesel Drop Zone 24 Mar 45 - The mission for the 392nd BG was to drop supplies at the American Wesel zone to support the US paratroopers during Operation Varsity. Lt. Alfred Cohn and the other pilots were instructed to fly at the altitude of 500 ft to ensure surprise. The pilots were warned not to exceed 150 mph air speed at time of dropping lest parachutes be destroyed, and the supplies lost. Bundles were to be released from a height of 300-500 feet. Deano was on the hook to push out multiple bundles making sure the static line did not catch his feet. To land in the designated drop zones, all large bundles had to leave the plane in less than 20 seconds.
By early April, German resistance became non-existent in combating the Allied bombing raids, the end was in sight. On 20 Apr, S/Sgt Deano Nogales, Lt. Alfred Cohn the rest of the crew would fly their last mission. The 392nd bomb group would fly its last combat mission on 25 Apr 1945. There were no more targets for the 8th Air Force. On 30 Apr, Adolf Hitler committed suicide and one-week later the once mighty German Third Reich would surrender unconditionally.
On June 6th, 1945, exactly one year after D-Day, S/Sgt Deano Nogales would be back on American soil. Like his nephew Ramon and his brother Cruz, Deano was part of the largest and most comprehensive bombing campaign the world had ever witnessed.
Lt Alfred Cohn, S/Sgt Deano Nogales and the crew flew 23 combat missions which ended when Germany was defeated.