H. E. Tanner Junior

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Lawrence Lile [send private message]

Biography

Henry was born in 1920. He was the son of Henry Tanner and Dott Jones. He passed away in 1967.

I remember Uncle H. E. as a gruff, practical man who had a way with children. Sometimes we'd visit and he'd ride around his neighborhood with a riding lawnmower, all the kids would hitch up their little red wagons and we'd have this wagon ride around and around the block. Maybe ten kids riding along behind him, a little parade.

H.E. had a Ham radio set in the basement. He has always was fiddling with some gizmo or building some contraption. He made a garage door opener, back in the day when such a thing was almost unheard of, from scratch. There was a special key switch out on the driveway, you'd drive up and open the garage door with a key and this contraption would open the garage for you.

He installed a laundry chute in the house, which was a hit with us kids as you could send secret messages to the basement.

H. E. Loved to hunt. One year we went to a cabin in Arkansas with H. E., his wife Gladys, Pat Tanner Lile and us her two children, some other folks I can't remember. He took me out to the woods and we sat on a log until he spied a squirrel, picked it off with a rifle and we had it for dinner.

Another time we rented a cabin on the Gulf of Mexico, he took us out in a boat and started throwing nets into the Gulf. We drew in all manner of creatures, some of which we threw back and most of which we put into a big pot for dinner.

H. E. had no patience for a whining little kid like me. One time I was showering at his house, got soap in my eye and was whining about it as children will do. He hollered through the closed bathroom door - "Got soap in your eye? Well wash it out!" He expected people to take care of themselves and their own problems.

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H. E. Tanner enlisted in World War II February 10, 1942, with two years of high school, and his civilian occupation was listed as "Semiskilled mechanics and repairmen"^[2]

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005.

Seargent H. E. Tanner, Jr. Diary, 1943: "In 6 days we flew 6000 miles, crossed the equator 7 times and International Date line 1 time. Made 4 missions in 8 days flew 10,000 miles 11-13-43 to 11/21/43 From 11/13/43 to 12/12/43 crossed equator 17 times, approx 19000 miles, 25 hours in combat. Feb 28: [lists 10 comrades lost at sea] Sun march 7: Went on a raid. No zeroes [Mitsibushi Zero, a Japanese fighter plane] A.A. [anti-aricraft fire] gave us a good jolt but no holes. Over target at 5:25. Took pictures [He was in charge of photography on these missions] dropped 9-500 lbs bombs. Hit our target. Flew back to Nanumea (Tuvalu) in formation of 3. One plane had no navigator as he was shot up. Landed at 11:30 had coffee at 2:00. In ten days flew approx 10,000 miles crossed equator 9 times. Recieved Christmas packet from Dot (mother). March - April he was sent back to the states. Mentioned Compton, Bakersfield, eating steaks, saw several shows, dating quite a number of women (one of them married!), drank plenty of whiskey, ran track, shot 6 bullseyes on the rifle range, left the San Francisco docks at 10:00 AM April 22 under the Golden Gate. "Chow is bad on the boat. Hotter than hell in the hole, slept out on deck." Sunday May 2 Landed at Honolulu Pier 11. Saw Huey (his old buddy from previous post) sitting on 2nd story porch. Couldn't talk to him because we were both in quarantine." Shipped to Kualoa (oahu) May 7 "Went swimming most every day." Sunday May 23: Worked on Green Hornet (an airplane) Monday 24: Green Hornet lost at sea. Phillips crew. Monday June 7. Asked for Combat with Lt Thompson. He was later killed over Wake Island on Eason's crew. June 10 "Was assigned to Stay's crew as engineer. June 11 met crew. Charley and I went and looked over the plane. He gave me a few pointers." The plane was called The Peggy. There is a photo of it but the logo is NSFW. June 25. arrived in Canton at 7:00. Bombing mission to (illegible). We were listed as missing in action for a while because they didn't know which plane blew up. July 24. Took off at 5:30 AM for Wake Island. 5 planes in formation, ours in lead. Cason's crew went down. One plane shot up bad killed 2. July 26: 5 day pass to Honolulu. Got a room for $5 a night. Slept in the next day. [ Much debauchery ensued. Won $150 at dice.] [August was mostly training runs, sea searches for downed crews, and another shore leave. One day they circled Pearl Harbor and Diamond Head just for fun. Several days of gunnery school in dummy turrets. More debauchery ensues. ] November 12: Flew in to [illegible] at 2:00. Air raid at 12:00 midnight. Slept in fox hole. 2 planes blown up including the Dirty Girty. Took off for raid on Tarawa at 6:00 PM. No opposition. November 25: Made a spear. Went fishing. Speared about 8 rock cod. Jordan cooked them. Got a letter from Agnes and Dad. Sunday Dec 12: Landed at Tarawa Island. We were blown to hell. [this is the crash landing described in an attached photo and below] 5 Marines flew us back to our base. [I believe there was still a pitched battle going on at Tarawa.] All told he lists 30 bombing raids, some of the later ones unopposed but many of the earlier ones harrowing with heavy losses. At least two of his planes were shot up badly enough they made it back but were junked after that. ^[3]

My uncle H. E. Tanner crewed this B-24 which crash landed November 1943. It returned from a disastrous bombing raid running on two engines, and landed on the beach with only a few gallons of fuel left. On the back of the photo he writes: "Did a swell job of returning on 2 engines. Several 20mm holes. Some A. A. (Anti Aircraft fire holes). Couple hundred 7-7 holes. (7.7mmX58MM cartridge used by Japanese aircraft). Note on the picture says Midway but other notes and his diary says this was on the island of Tarawa, just as the US was finishing one of the bitter island-hopping battles to take it from the Japanese. Tarawa is in the middle of the Pacific closer to Australia than to Hawaii. Another picture shows an airplane tail fin, and the notes say "patched 1200 holes, mostly A. A. but some 20MM" Another time, they started in a shot-up plane to go on a raid, but as they took off the landing gear snapped off and they went skidding sideways down the runway shedding propellers and parts. They collected their wits, put on clean pants, and jumped in another plane. In another photo, he lists smiling members of his crew, then lists how many of them were killed in action or were sent home with a nervous breakdown. My uncle was in charge of photography for his bomber crew, and apparently he kept a few of the photos that he took because normally these kinds of photos were not allowed to be sent home through the mail. In between bombing raids, his diary mostly mentions chow, gambling with card games and whiskey. He often wrote down home much he won (the notes on how much he lost are missing, unless he won some money later that night). It seems like a bleak existence, and everyone there knew it could be cut short at any time.

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H. E. Tanner is buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery 2900 Sheridan Road St. Louis, MO 63125 Plot: Section F Site 2458 ^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Personal recollection from his nephew Lawrence Lile
2. ↑ National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland, USA; Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938-1946; NAID: 1263923; Record Group Title: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, 1789-ca. 2007; Record Group: 64; Box Number: 02452; Reel: 102
3. ↑ Personal diary of Sgt H. E. Tanner 1943-1944
4. ↑ Excerpted from personal diary of Sgt H. E. Tanner 1943-1944
5. ↑ National Cemetery Administration; U.S. Veterans' Gravesites National Cemetery Administration. U.S., Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2019 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.

• Find-A-Grave Memorial ID 81387403 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81387403/henry-e-tanner
• Personal knowledge of his nephew Lawrence Lile
• H. E. Tanner's diary from 1943 and 1944