Story By: Karla Wall
TANNER is shown here holding A WORLD WAR II-ERA SILK MAP. silk maps were given to pilots and air crews in the event they were shot down over UNFAMILIAR, enemy territory. theSE HIGHLY-DETAILED MAPS are thin enough to be tucked into a boot or A coat lining, and THEY ARE durable enough to survive MOISTURE AND wear and tear in the field.
Back in early 2006, while Sulphur resident Harry “Doug” Tanner waited for the latest item in his extensive collection of World War Il air war memorabilia to arrive from Joplin, Mo., he and his wife, Lorene, discussed where to display the model airplane, a replica of the P-51 Mustang called “Jersey Bounce,” flown by Lt. Mahaney of the 55th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force.
“We had a place picked out on a table for it,” Tanner says. The Jersey Bounce model arrived just after Hurricane Rita came through, but it wasn’t displayed on its designated spot on the table. Rather, I was sitting in Tanner’s garage, and I was privileged to be perhaps the first outsider to get a look at the plane — all six or seven feet of it, with its five-foot wing span taking up about a quarter of the garage.
Tanner had just taken it out of its seven-foot-long woodcrate.
“It’s just a bit bigger than we thought it’d be,” Tanner laughed at the time. But back then, as now, he wasn’t about to send it back.
Though the Jersey Bounce replica is indeed interesting, it’s the vast collection of the much smaller items in Tanner’s home that really packs the wallop. A history buff feels like a kid in a candy store walking around the place. Tanner has collected over 50,000 pieces of memorabilia concerning the planes and pilots of World War II, from autographed photos to biography sheets to maps to plane models.
Tanner, a Central Louisiana native, says he’s always been a collector.
He began collecting autographs when, at a horse show with his father, he got an autograph from ‘50s Western movie actor Dale Robinson. A sports fan, he went on to collect autographed photos of sports stars, particularly baseball stars.
A small room holds numerous signed photos of baseball heroes, including several of Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. There are also racks of signed baseballs.
He went on to collect autographs from all manner of public figures.
But Tanner’s searches for memorabilia have most often been inspired by his longtime enthusiasm for airplanes. He took flying lessons as a boy. He’s also, he says, always been into World War II aviation history. So when, in 1998, he obtained an address list called “Men and Women of Distinction” and found that the list contained the names and addresses of 500 World War II “aces,” or pilots who had shot down five or more enemy planes, his real collecting began in earnest. He sent index cards, form letters and return envelopes to all of the aces he found on the list.
“ I figured I wouldn’t get any response,” he says.
They all not only signed his card, but also sent him photos, written histories of missions they’d flown, biographical fact sheets and much more.
ORIGINAL B-17 TRAINING MANUAL
TANNER HAS PLANS IN PLACE TO BUILD A MUSEUM ON HIS PROPERTY TO PROPERLY DISPLAY MANY OF THE ARTIFACTS OF HIS VAST COLLECTION
“And that’s what started the hobby,” Tanner grins. He then proudly leafed through another six-inch-deep binder filled with autographs and notes from Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-214, aka the Black Sheep Squadron, and with photos and bios of Tex Hill and the Flying Tigers, who flew missions in China before the war began. “There were about 16 Flying Tigers left in 2006,” Tanner says.
There are photos of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay of Hiroshima fame, and the B-29 Bockscar, which dropped the world’s second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki. Both photos are signed by the crews.
There’s also the photo of the B-17 Memphis Belle, also signed by the crew. There are autographed photos of Lt. Colonel James Doolittle, who led a group
“And that’s what started the hobby,” Tanner grins. He then proudly leafed through another six-inch-deep binder filled with autographs and notes from Marine Fighter Squadron VMF-214, aka the Black Sheep Squadron, and with photos and bios of Tex Hill and the Flying Tigers, who flew missions in China before the war began. “There were only about 16 Flying Tigers left in 2006,” Tanner says.
There are photos of the B-29 bomber Enola Gay of Hiroshima fame, and the B-29 Bockscar, which dropped the world’s second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki. Both photos are signed by the crews.
There’s also the photo of the B-17 Memphis Belle, also signed by the crew.
Annelle Bulechek, WORLD WAR II WASP PILOT FROM LAKE CHARLES
There are autographed photos of Lt. Colonel James Doolittle, who led a group of sixteen B-25 bombers in what was perhaps the first bombing mission launched from an aircraft carrier, the Doolittle Tokyo Raid, which was a retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Tanner showed off an autograph of Jim Seibert, who not only flew in the Halverson Mission during the war, but also witnessed the autopsy on President John F. Kennedy.
Tanner’s collection also includes mementos from many German air force pilots, many of whom now live in the states, and who, Tanner says, don’t mind sharing their stories. In fact, Tanner eventually became close friends with German World War II fighter ace Horst Petschler. Petschler, who flew the Messerschmitt Bf 109, ended up working for Boeing and living in Wichita, Kan.
The collection Tanner received from Petzschler includes written histories of his missions, and maps marked with the sites of downed planes in various air wars he was invloved in, such as the air war over Magdeberg, in central Germany.
Tanner also has an autograph and photos of the German pilot who sank the Italian battleship Roma.
Perhaps the most impressive piece in Tanner’s German pilot collection, however, is the autographed photo including Adolph Galland, head of the German Luftwaffe during World War II.
His collection also includes one of the original bright red leaflets dropped by German planes onto enemy territory before an invasion. The flyer states “Sie Kommen,” or “We’re coming.” It takes nothing at all to imagine the dread those simple pieces of paper must have instilled.
Tanner received many of his German pilots biographies and correspondence written, not surprisingly, in German, and had them translated by Sulphur resident Maria Clifton.
Though most of Tanner’s collection is held in his dozens of binders, some of his most interesting pieces are displayed throughout his house. Framed photos, paintings and drawings of heavy bombers, signed by crews, adorn the walls. An original plastic-covered “score-board” that once hung on the wall in the command center of a fighter squad still has marks listing how many enemy planes, buildings, trains, factories, etc. each pilot in the group had destroyed. A copy of Life Magazine features Jimmy Stewart in full fighter pilot gear on the cover.
ABOVE: INDEX CARD FILLED OUT BY Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal , WHO joined the 100th Bomb Group (FEATURED IN APPLE TV’S ‘MASTERS OF THE AIR’) in AuG. 1943. on his third mission, HE was the only pilot to safely return to base following the Munster raid on Oct. 10, 1943. HE WAS LATER SHOT DOWN OVER FRANCE IN SEPT. 1944 AND EVADED CAPTURE. HE WAS ALSO SHOT DOWN OVER GERMANY IN FEB. 1945, WAS PICKED UP BY THE RED ARMY, AND RETURNED TO DUTY
A sheet protector holds an original set of orders for a flight squadron. And Tanner also has silk “escape maps,” which were carried by pilots, usually sewn into the linings of jackets, which highlighted specific locations, terrain and escape routes in case of emergency.
Tanner also owns an original pamphlet, which was handed out to new recruits and pilots, which outlines what was to be done and what a soldier’s rights were in case of capture.
Though Tanner’s “not big on uniforms,” three U.S. World War II uniforms, some still with medals attached, sit in a closet in Tanner’s study, a room which holds shelves full of those gigantic binders, as well as two four-drawer file cabinets full of mail, photos and autograph cards that remain to be sorted through.
“It’s almost like a full-time job,” says Tanner.
A lot of work it might be, but Tanner’s efforts in continuing to build his collection have paid off, earning him recognition in historical circles. In 2006,
Tanner was made secretary of the 8th Air Force Historical Society, (he would later become a past president) and is founder and president of the group’s Louisiana chapter. He’s also a member of the P-40 Warhawk Pilot’s Association; a life member of the 15th Air Force Association; and a member of the 9th Air Force Association, the A-1 Sky Raider (a Vietnam fighter plane) Association, the B-47 Association and the B-52 Association, none of which are open to the average history buff.
TANNER HOLDING AN ORIGINAL PILOT LOG BOOK, WHICH DOCUMENTS MISSIONS FLOWN IN 1943 AND 1944.
“I am where I am today with these groups because of this collection,” Tanner says.
Tanner has lectured not only at area schools, but also at reunion meetings of the different historical groups associated with fighter squadrons. He’s been invited to national meetings in Kansas City, Washington, D.C., and Colorado Springs, Col., to name but a few. He usually brings items _ mostly larger ones _ to display at those meetings and reunions, “But my real collection is in these albums,” he says, referring to his multitude of inches-thick binders, which are full of autographs and documents. Not only do the autographs preserve a now rapidly-fading era, and one about which first-hand information is becoming increasingly difficult to come by, but they also, says Tanner, represent a good deal of personal investment.
“Each one of these autographs is from people I contacted personally” he says. He’s formed relationships, even
friendships, with many of these people.
The collection also represents quite a financial investment on his part. Index cards, paper, envelopes, stamps and copies for hundreds of pieces of correspondence add up quickly.
What’s the most satisfying aspect of the hobby for Tanner? “Simple possession of some of these things,” he answers.
“Knowing that I’m preserving original things, and that I’m preserving part of history.”
And people appreciate it, he says, particularly veterans and their families.
“I get letters from relatives of airmen wanting information on their father, grandfather or uncle,” Tanner says. “I enjoy being able to help them.”
What amazes Tanner, he says, is that “people don’t realize what I have here.”
A quick trip through Tanner’s collection would make a believer out of anyone. But there is no such thing as a quick trip through the collection, as I soon realized.
After hours of touring through rooms full of binders, photographs, mementos, frames of autographed paintings and models, I emerged a bit overwhelmed at the bits of history which were right there in my hands.
Tanner’s collection is his way of paying homage to the greatest generation via preserving the stories and photos of this part of our nation’s, and the world’s, history. What Tanner has accumulated is an incredible collection that is a history buff’s dream come true.
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