TPS Book

Empty Dispersal
Diaries of 1st Lt. Thomas Paxton Sherwood

The personal experiences of airman and officer 1st Lt. Thomas Paxton Sherwood in the European Theatre of Operations from the air power buildup through the the massive bomber offensive of WWII (1942 - 1945) as witnessed first hand and recorded in his diaries.

Being compiled, written, and edited by John W. Sherwood & Family

1st Lt. Thomas P Sherwood, 0-437872 Active & Combat Service 11 July 1941 - 16 June 1946 Thirteen (13) decorations: Distinguished Flying Crosss DFC, Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters one every five combat missions after Air Medal award, Distinguished Unit Citations DUC, April 4, 1943 422nd Squadron 305th Group, October 8, 1943 - Bremen Germany 535th Squadron, 381st Group, January 11, 1944, Anklam All 1st Bomb Division Groups, Four Battlestars Four (4) Campaign Ribbions, Pre-Pearl Harbour, American Theatre, European Theatre of Operations (ETO), Victory Medal Europe, Civilian Award, Caterpillar Club life saved by a 'chute Planes flown: PT-19, BT-9, BT-13, AT-6, BC-13, A-17, Tigermoth, Piper Cub, Oxford twin, O-52, B-18A - twin, B-18 B, B-17E, F & G - four engine

With the 381st Bmb Gp he was briefed 94 times and flew 25 of the briefed missions, his Group went 51 times. With the 305th Bm Gp briefed five times flew one mission and scrubbed/aborted two.

Prisoner of War 13 4 44 to 13 5 45 Stalag Luft I Barth (on the Baltic Sea), Germany. He was liberated by Russian allies but after some tense days, uncertain if the Russians would allow their freedom, he was flown out in a bold move of the American Army Air Force (AAF) and his own 535th Group B-17.

His eight diaries/writings comprise a gripping first-hand account of a loving, religious, man who deeply wanted to fly. But to achieve his dream he had to first perform his duty to his country at a critical moment in world history. Lt. Sherwood's simple dream to be a faithful, loving husband and fly the open skies was completely eviscerated by his role as an American B17 (heavy bomber) pilot in the air war of the European Theatre. Reporting to England right at the beginning of The Eighth Air Force attacks Sept. 1942, before The Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) of the January 21, 1943 Casablanca Directive, and before Operation POINTBLANK, shipped out from his homeland he survives years of physical separation from his bride of six months. He overcomes periods of hopefulness, hopelessness, plain boredom, surreal hours of tiring fierce combat, tragic and bewildering losses of almost all his youthful air cadet friends who are befallen by every unimaginable horror fighting the air war. Sherwood "writes, prays, and fights - writes, prays, and fights". His loneliness in performing duty to God and country can be as daunting to overcome as "Schwarmms" of German FW-190s but what arises in his writings is the story of an incredible determination to make it back to his wife, America, and his future. His story is an inspiration to us all at a time when America seems to have lost it's inner guiding compass. Lt. Sherwood's writings show us how today, more than ever, how important it is to reach deep inside, grasp our core values and strive against all odds to be the best individual we can be regardless of a crumbling world.
Lt. Sherwood's story flows from leaving his wife Agnes behind in the USA, after a February wedding in Texas, in September 1942 aboard the massive Queen Mary... sailing pass the Statue of Liberty into the darkness of the German U-Boat patrolled Atlantic... a myriad of experiences as Assistant Operations Officer in preparing his base in England for the newly arrived B-17E's, in training Officer Pilots on new technology (Small Beam Approach radio technology for blind landings in England's bad weather conditions and nighttime combat operations) his career and life itself is commandeered by events ... becomes Operations Officer for the 535th then enters additional grueling combat missions at the height of strategic bombings in a an Allied attempt to knock out the Nazi war machine (Big Week 1944)... all conceived in the early years of air combat as planners executed the Combined Bombing Operations authorized at Casablanca and built on the strategic Army (Air Corp) War Plans Division of 1942. Just when he thinks he might finish his twenty-five missions, and return to "his Agnes", he is shotdown over Schweinfurt Germany, on his twenty-fifth mission, and becomes a prisoner of war for another year. His prisoner of war diaries are a beautifully written first hand account of conditions and emotions. They show a man with a stubborn will to survive who was living through the starvation, uncertainity, tuberculosis and bleeding somach ulcers, and terror of the unknown (when Gestapo took over control of the camp from the Luftwaffe in early 1945) no matter how overwhelmed by events he was writing, and praying, and hoping, for a return to his wife and the country he loved. .- J. W. Sherwood

Diary Sets
Volumes 1-3

Volume No. 1
Now completely transcribed, digitized, and ring bound (as of April 2010).

Diaries of Army Air Force Officer and B-17 Pilot 1st. Lt. Thomas P. Sherwood
VOLUME No. 1 England -1 9 1942 to 13 4 1944- (arrival to being shotdown over Schweinfurt Germany)
Complete Set of Four Personal Diaries/Writings. 437 pages.
Includes three personal diaries covering dates from leaving New York to his last mission before becoming a prisoner of war and his Pilot Flight Record Book..

Volume No. 2
Now completely transcribed, digitized, and ring bound (as of August 2010)
Now processing (8/2012) a newly discovered 24 page POW Diary Jan. 23 - Apr. 30, 1944.

VOLUME No. 2 Barth, Germany - Stalag Luft I 4 1944 to 5 13 1945 (capture to liberation).
Complete Set of Four Personal Diaries/Writings.
Includes early months and later (end of war) change of captor administration from the Luftwaffe to Gestapo.

In progress of transcribing and digitizing ...
VOLUME No. 3 Home
Complete Set of Documents and Correspondence with Air Force officials and hundreds of 8th USAAF 381st Bomb Group veterans.
Volume 3 includes his experiences in the post-war years recovering from TB (contracted in the German prisoner of war camp) and years of trying unsuccessfully to get (through the post-war bureauacracy) the promotion he was promised just days before being shot down (then "promotionally forgotten") and finally records his honoring his fellow veterans by Founding & Organizing the 381st Bomb Group (Heavy) Memorial Association and the placing of a black granite memorial at their base in Ridgewell England.