Henry A Potter (Doolittle Raider) B26 ETO Paper Group

[bryang]

I picked this paper grouping up from a fellow forum member.

 

Henry A. Potter took part in the famous April 1942 the Doolittle Raid, and was the Navigator on Crew #1, which was Colonel Doolittle's aircraft.

 

The items here are actually related to Potter's service in the ETO, over Africa and Mediterranean. Here Potter was Navigator on the B-26 Marauder "Hell Cat."  The "Hell Cat" was celebrated as the first B-26 to have completed 50 missions over this theater, and its crew returned to the U.S. for war bond drives and other domestic activities.

 

This grouping has a publicity photo which features the crew of the "Hell Cat," with a brief biography of the crew.  In it, Potter is noted for having been Doolittle's Navigator.  Also a fairly large poster welcoming home Potter and the "Hell Cat" crew.  There is a small poster of the officers of the Office of the Field Air Inspector, Colorado Springs, Colorado, in which Major H. A. Potter is depicted (second row from the top, third from the right).

 

Finally are a pair of First Lieutenant officer commissions for Henry Alpheus Potter, one dated the 25th of June 1944, and the other has the commission in the Regular Army date effective the 7th of December 1944 (this commission is dated 19th of June 1947).  As Potter held the rank of Major during the war, these commissions to First Lieutenant threw me off.  However, as I recall, many of the promotions held by officers and senior noncommissioned officers were temporary.  At the war's end, many officers and NCO were either discharged from the military, and those who remained often reverted to their previous permanent rank.  In the case of these two documents, I can't help but notice the wording that this officer's commission is "... in force during the pleasure of the President of the United States, for the time being."

 

I've had no success learning anything more of the "Hell Cat" and its crew, nor of Potter's post-war Air Force career (he retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1970 at the rank of Colonel).  His part in the famed Doolittle Raid seems to have eclipsed his other WW2 service, as well as his later military career.  Colonel Potter settled in the Austin, Texas area, were he worked with the Confederate Air Force (later changed to the Commemorative Air Force).  Colonel Potter passed away on Memorial Day, 27th of May 2002

 

The seller reported that these items had come from a storage locker in Austin, Texas several years ago, the locker having been rented by Potter's son, Steven.

 

The photographs I've posted here of Potter, as well as the Doolittle Raider crew #1, and of the B-26 "Hell Cat" are simply ones I was able to find online and are NOT photos which came with this grouping.