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Hand Full of Blood

In January of 1962, the Kannapolis NC Daily Independent newspaper featured

Charles Woodrow Ramseur on the cover of its Sunday magazine insert. That

story written by Franklin Scarborough highlighting the 54 missions he flew

in WWII is repeated below:

There Were Many Narrow Escapes - Ramseur Flew 54 Missions in War

October 16, 1943 American bombers droned their way over a point near the

Volturno River in Italy. Their mission - a raid over Nazi installations.And the Krauts didn't like it at all. They were sending up a sky full of

flak and bombers up there were feeling the effects of gunnery skills.

This was the 26th bombing mission for Charles W. Ramseur, and the only onein which he was wounded. But in his total of 54 missions over enemy

territory he experienced many narrow escapes.

Looking through his gun port, Ramseur saw an American bomber catch a round offlak thrown up by the Germans. The plane went streaming downward. Then, up

ahead and just to the right an explosion rocked another plane and sent it

spinning in a spiral of smoke.

Suddenly he felt something slap him on the hip and looked around. A large

hole had appeared in the side of the ship. He turned and saw another hole.

"When I felt the slap," Ramseur said, "I thought the other gunner had kicked

me. Then I drew my hand back and it was full of blood."

Ramseur said the other gunner, who was in a position just above him, looked

around when the plane was hit. The gunner saw a large hole appear in the

back of Ramseur's parachute and figured it was all over for his buddy.

The two of them didn't know at the time, but their ship had received a death

blow and was on its way to a forced landing.

They landed near an Italian farm house. One of the other two planes saw them

and swept in low and gave them a signal that all would be well. Then the

aircraft swarmed off in a formation to complete their mission.

Ramseur was wounded, and to try to walk back to their lines wasn't possible.

The other gunner and the pilot left him at the farm house and struck out

walking to a point seven miles away.

"The people at the farm house tried to give me food," Ramseur said. "But I

was afraid they might have poisoned it, and I wouldn't eat it."

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A few hours later a British ambulance came for him and carried him to ahospital.

When he opened the parachute he had been wearing he found that a piece of

flak had struck it and lodged in the chute against a K-ration candy bar. The

wound would have been fatal had it not been stopped.

"I guess we were lucky when we went down," Ramseur said. "The farm house was

located in a 'no man's' land. It wasn't our territory or the enemies."

For two months Ramseur remained in the hospital before he was finally told

he could return to his outfit. He was turned out on his own to make thejourney the best way he could, no transportation provided. His base was in

Foggia, Italy, and it took him three days of hitchhiking and walking to get

there.

In one phase of the journey he got a ride on a military plane for a ways.Then he was walking again.

One night he stopped over at a railway station and found a place where he

could crawl under and not be seen. But early in the morning he was surprised

to look out and see a group of men around the station.

"They were Italians, I guessed," he said. "But I didn't want them to see

me."

Finally he managed to escape without being seen, and continued his trip.

That mission two months before was the only one in which Ramseur was

wounded. "But it wasn't the roughest trip of all," he said.

The German Luftwaffe during this time was strong and the pilots exercised

great skill in combat. U.S. bombers were harassed by enemy aircraft onalmost every mission.

One day, Ramseur recalls, he especially remembers a run-in with a group ofME-109s while on a mission.

Ramseur was on his gun watching them as they came in. A bunch of planes

swooped skyward and came rolling down on them showing the white sides oftheir bellies as they screamed forward in a maneuver with smoke trailing

from them.

"I saw them coming, and at first I thought they were full speed toward us.The sky was full of them. All I could do for a minute was stand there with

my mouth open. One of them came in close and I fired at it. Then I turned my

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gun on another one coming in. The gun jammed. And I still can't figure out

how I got out without being hit."

This was just one of his 54 missions in which his nerves were becoming

shaky. But the fear that was building up in him was not of enemy fire. It

was fear of the aircraft he was riding in.

"I'd seen so many of the planes crash at different times," he said, "that I

was beginning to get scared. Some of the planes would come in after amission out of gas and make a forced landing that was fatal to the crew."

Ramseur had made his quota of missions and was due for a transfer but thedoctor said he was still fit for a few more missions and it was only after

he had passed his quota that he was given a rest.

In April of 1944, Ramseur met Ernie Pyle, a war correspondent who was

dedicated to writing of front line men and their jobs. Pyle went to thefront lines and lived with the soldiers while writing his stories for the

newspapers back home.

Pyle's stories also appeared in magazines. And in his spare time he wrote

some books.

In an interview with Pyle, Ramseur showed him a sample of his engraving. An

artist with a pen, Ramseur was mentioned in Pyle's book "Brave Men".

Just a few months after that, Pyle left Europe and went to the Pacific

Theater to write stories of the men fighting the Japanese there. In 1945

while on the battlefield at Ie Shima he received a fatal wound from a

sniper's bullet.

Ramseur today has an aluminum album with Ernie Pyle's signature engraved on

it.

Born in 1916 in China Grove, Charles W. Ramseur was reared in an orphanage

near Rockwell. After the war he returned to North Carolina and married theformer Miss Hazel Wagner.

A carpenter with Tadlock Construction Company, he and his family live at

Route 1, Kannapolis. There are six children, Linda Marlene, 14, Mary Jane,9, Kathy Bell, 8, Charles W. Jr., 6, Gail Elizabeth, 4, and Sherry Louise,

1.

They are expecting an addition in February.

"And if it's a boy," Ramseur said. "I am going to name it after Ernie Pyle."