Valor Friday

I talked a while back about one of Norway’s greatest heroes, Captain Gunnar Sønsteby. During World War II, as a member of the Norwegian Resistance, he thrice earned that nation’s highest honor of the War Cross with Swords, among many other awards. The War Cross with Swords is analogous to an American Medal of Honor or the British Victoria Cross.

The War Cross with Swords, instituted in 1941, has been awarded only 290 times, with almost all of them awarded for actions in World War II. As Norway was under occupation for most of that war, she relied a lot on her allies, so a full 126 have been awarded to foreigners. The foreign recipients include;

• 66 France (mostly French Foreign Legion and Chasseurs Alpins)
• 42 UK (including a gracious award to their Majesties, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, King Haakon’s host and hostess “for the duration”)
• 13 Poland (the Polish Independent Highland Brigade)
• 2 US
• 1 Denmark (but serving with the Royal Norwegian Air Force)
• 1 Greece (a “courtesy award” to his kinsman George II, King of the Hellenes)
• 1 Canada (serving with the Royal Engineers)

Today I’ll talk about one of the Americans so honored. Unfortunately, there’s little to be found about Lieutenant Colonel Keith Allen, USAAF.

Keith Nichols Allen was the son of Howard R. and Lodica Edna Nichols Allen, from Eaton County, Michigan. Born in 1908, he was employed as a pilot with American Airlines. He started working with the airline in 1936, receiving his training at Randolph Field, Texas. A 1938 photo (below), notes on the reverse that he had more than 2,700 hours of flight time (as of 1937).

That pre-war experience would have made him exceptionally seasoned when he joined the Army Air Forces during WWII.

A pilot in the service, Allen was assigned to the 1403rd Base Unit in the European Theater of Operations. Their primary mission was to support Norway and Sweden. While Norway was under German occupation, Sweden was officially neutral (though they heavily favored the Allies).

Over the course of the summer of 1944, Allen flew a dozen sorties over occupied Norway. During these missions, he would ferry Norwegian Resistance forces into and out of the country and bring weapons, ammunition, and food to the freedom fighters. One of these flights brought two Norwegian fighters in who set up a clandestine radio station that was used in the successful bombing of the German battleship Tirpitz.

On 20 September 1944, the 36 year old Allen was leading another supply mission to Norway. Flying from Scotland, they were to drop supplies to the underground troops in northern Norway. He was joined by co-pilot Captain Schreiner and 7 crew members. I’m not exactly sure which airframe they were flying. It was a four-engined bomber, so it could have been either a B-17 or B-24. Since the aircraft is described as having a nose wheel, that would mean they were in a B-24, as the B-17 was a tail dragger.

After crossing the coastline in Norway, the number 1 engine (the outer engine on the left/port wing) began to smoke and run rough. This condition persisted until they reached the target area and released the containers. The mission complete, the engine then caught fire and was feathered. Luckily, the fire extinguished itself.

They decided to head for Murmansk to avoid the risk going back across the North Sea. The plane finally crossed the mouth of the Kola inlet, and the crew looked for a place to land. Three searchlight cones of three each were turned on, indicating an airfield. While turning back toward the airfield, Allen, unknowingly, flew over the Russian Battleship Archangel.

The aircrew turned on all their lights, including the landing lights, and called on international distress frequencies. They also fired the Russian colors of the day from their flare gun to indicate they were a friendly aircraft in need of assistance.

Despite this, the battleship Archangel opened fire, along with some shore batteries, hitting Allen’s engine number 2 which caught fire. The anti-aircraft fire also shot off the left rudder and damaged the left wing.

With the plane on fire, Allen ordered Schreiner and the rest of the crew to bail out, advising that he would follow. The engineer released two life rafts through the bomb bay. The right waist gunner was hit by flak and bailed out, the navigator escaped through the nose wheel well after destroying the classified material and making sure the IFF was destroyed.

Allen stayed with the aircraft and did not get out before the aircraft exploded. His courageous action, at the cost of his life, earned him the U.S. Army’s second highest award for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross. Only four of the aircraft’s crew survived, but they were eventually returned to Britain.

Norway awarded Allen their highest honor, the War Cross with Swords, for his heroism in action that day.

Allen’s wife Agnes died in 1999 at the age of 94. They had no children, and she never remarried.

Category: Air Force, Distinguished Service Cross, Historical, Valor, We Remember, WWII