Hello welcome to another episode of the World War II podcast I'm Angus Wallace

in this episode we're going to be looking at the story of Howard Snyder

a B1717 Flying Fortress pilot flying with the US 8th Air Force from Britain.

Through letters Howard wrote to his wife and exhaustive research his son Steve has pieced together the remarkable

story of his father and what happened after his plane was brought down in Belgium. The book is shut down. But before we get to Steve

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Steve thanks for joining me. Let's start by looking at your father pre-war.

What was your father doing in 1939 when the war broke out?

Oh in 39 he was 24. He went to high school but he didn't go on to college. You know not that many people went to college back then actually

He was working for a clothing store Desman's clothing in Los Angeles.

There was a chain they had, I forget now,

off the top of my head, but they had quite a few stores

in Southern California.

And so he was an assistant warehouse manager there.

So he was into clothes, he was kind of a dapper, dapper guy.

...