The February program meeting for the Bridgeville Area Historical Society was a reprise of Georgeanne Abood Henson’s excellent presentation about three very special members of the Greatest Generation – her grandfather, George Abood; his cousin, George Shady; and their boyhood friend, Peter Calabro. These three young men grew up together in the same neighborhood, served as Army Air Force crewmen in World War II, were shot down, and ended up in the same Prisoner of War Camp.
Ms. Henson had given a presentation on the same subject in November, 2019; since then her research has generated so much additional detailed information that it warranted an embellished retelling. Much of the research was done on the Internet; perhaps more valuable was that obtained by contact with the families of the three airmen, supplemented by actual artifacts that were borrowed and eagerly examined by members of the audience.
George Abood graduated from Bridgeville High School in 1934; George Shady, in 1939; and Pete Calabro, in 1941. The Calabro family lived at 690 Bower Hill Road, on the southeast corner of its intersection with McLaughlin Run Road. Nearby was the Abood residence at 704 McLaughlin Run, just beyond its intersection with Baldwin Street. Around the corner and “six doors down” on the south side of Baldwin Street at number 652 was the home of the Shady family. In addition to these young men being neighbors and friends, Shady and Abood were first cousins; their mothers being sisters.
Sergeant Shady was the first of the three to fall into the hands of the enemy. A radio operator/gunner on a B-24 Liberator based at Hethel Air Base in England, his plane was shot down, on its eighteenth mission, by four Luftwaffe aircraft over Brunswick, Germany, during “Operation Big Week” in February, 1944. Eight of the ten crewmen successfully bailed out and were immediately captured. Much of the speaker’s information on this specific mission was taken from a fine book, “Sky Scorpions” by Paul Wilson and Ron Mackay, the story of the 389th Bomb Group. Shady eventually ended up in Stalag Luft IV, in Poland. Among the artifacts Ms. Henson displayed were censored letters he sent to his family while he was interred.
Shortly after Shady was shot down, his cousin George Abood arrived at Hethel Air Base. He was a ball turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator, that was shot down on its eighth mission, over St. Lo, France, during Operation Cobra late in July, 1944. He was captured after bailing out, apparently the sole survivor of the crew. When he arrived at Stalag Luft IV, he learned that his cousin was also interred there, one of 8,000 prisoners of war. His family’s first knowledge that he was safe was a note in one of George Shady’s letters, saying he “was taking good care of ‘Bootsie’”.
Sergeant Calabro got to Stalag Luft IV by a much longer itinerary. He was stationed at the massive Foggia complex in Italy, a top turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress. It is easy to speculate that all three of these young men qualified as gunners because of their experience shooting pop bottles in McLaughlin Run with BB guns. On its thirtieth mission, as part of Operation Market Garden, his plane was badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire during a raid on Buda Pest late in September, 1944. After nursing the aircraft to a point over Banja Luka, Yugoslavia, the crew bailed out. Calabro was immediately captured by German soldiers.
After a convoluted journey through ten different POW camps Calabro eventually arrived at Stalag Luft IV. When he told someone he was from Pittsburgh, the response was “Maybe you know ‘Shades’, the guy who runs the dice game”. Sure enough, “Shades” was his old neighbor, George Shady. A particularly interesting artifact the speaker showed was Calabro’s POW ID card.
At this point the two cousins were in different sections of the camp. Somehow Calabro and Abood were able to “switch beds”, enabling Shady and Abood to be together. This turned out to be extremely important the next year, when the “Black March” occurred. Toward the end of the War the rapid advance of the Russians prompted the Germans to move the POWs west to camps inside Germany. Calabro was fortunate; his section was transported by train to Moosburg, near Nuremberg.
Abood and Shady were less fortunate; they were part of nearly 100,000 Allied prisoners who were marched five hundred miles in eighty-seven days in the depth of winter, with a bare minimum of food and medical attention. The vast majority of the marchers suffered from dysentery. Perhaps one thousand of them died en route. During the march, Shady became deathly ill. He credited his cousin with saving his life by “carrying him the rest of the way”. The march of the prisoners was complicated by the fact that it coincided with several hundred thousand civilians also heading west, mostly on foot, to avoid the Russians. The horde scavenged everything edible or useful for fuel in its path.
Eventually all three young men were repatriated, nursed back to health, and returned safely to their families. All three stayed in Bridgeville, started families, and enjoyed productive careers. The audience for Ms. Henson’s talk was filled with members of all three families, properly appreciative of the honor being paid to their progenitors.
The large audiences for the past two months suggests that programs with specific local historical interest may be more popular than general interest ones. We are fortunate that Ms. Henson is such a skilled researcher and presenter and that her interest is so relevant to our community. Perhaps this will inspire others to produce similar programs.
Next month the Historical Society will return to its Tuesday night format on March 28, 2023, at 7:30 pm. Ed Blank will discuss “The Greatest Movies and Worst Celebrity Reviews” in the Chartiers Room of the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department.