Gable, William Clark, MAJ

Gable spent most of the war in the UK at RAF POLEBROOK with the 351st. Gable flew five combat missions, including one to Germany, as an observer-gunner in B-17 Flying Fortresses between 4 May and 23 September 1943.

Actor. Born under the name William Clark Gable, his early life was ordinary, unhappy and confusing. Two towns claim him as a native son, Cadiz, Ohio and Meadville, Pennsylvania. His mother died when he was but a few months of age. He attended the Hopedale Schoolhouse in Hopedale, Ohio, which then was both a grammar and high school housed in the same building located on a hilltop directly behind the family residence. With his family, William attended Hopedale Methodist Church where his father was a Sunday School teacher. A poor student, he became a school dropout leaving home to take a job with Firestone Tire in Akron, Ohio.

The biggest attractions in the city for William Gable were movies and especially the Akron Music Hall where a stock company was doing a live performance. He hung around the hall until landing an unsalaried position. He found out what he wanted to be and no amount of adversity, hardship or negative opinion would ever change his mind. A long indirect journey to Hollywood began with many odd jobs along the way leading him to Portland, Oregon. He landed a job with a stock company gaining valuable training from the woman who would become his wife and lead him to Hollywood and a career which spanned three decades with appearances in 92 movies including "Gone With the Wind," one of the most popular film of all times.

Gable won an Academy Award in 1934 for his role in "It Happened One Night." His third marriage to actress Carole Lombard ended with her tragic death at 33 in a plane crash in 1942 while participating in a bond drive.

Distraught, he withdrew from his career and though well over the draft age, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps becoming an aerial gunner during World War II flying in five bombing missions over Germany and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal. Discharged with the rank of Major, he returned to Hollywood and resumed film making. Two weeks after completing his last movie, "The Misfits," He suffered chest pains and was transported to Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles where he was diagnosed as having suffered a coronary thrombosis.

On the ninth day of his confinement he was gone. Clark Gable was buried in a closed casket. An Episcopal service was led by an Air Force chaplain accompanied by an honor guard at the Church of the Recessional at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. His fifth wife Kay had arranged for him to be interred next to his third wife, Carole Lombard. A few weeks later she delivered a boy at the same hospital where his father died.

Clark Gable flew five combat missions as an observer-gunner – although, most remember more. While he was primarily tasked with capturing combat footage, he did participate in some action. The first of his raids occurred over Belgium on May 4, 1943, during which he fired a few shots from his M2 Browning machine gun and suffered frostbite. The second and third were equally as uneventful, taking place over France and Norway, respectively.
 

The fourth raid was arguably the most dangerous. Occurring on August 12, 1943, over Germany, it saw him serve as the gunner aboard the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Ain’t That Gruesome. During this particular engagement, a 20 mm shell broke through the flight deck, coming so close to hitting Gable that it took off the heel of his shoe.
 

The fifth mission was rather uneventful, given the poor weather. Occurring on September 23, 1943, Gable was charged with manning the B-17‘s nose gun, but when half of the group failed to join up, he and his fellow airmen returned to base.
 

The Germans were aware that Gable was serving in the skies over the European Theater, and it’s alleged that the Reichsmarschall offered a substantial cash reward for his capture, as he was one of the Führer‘s favorite actors. According to Gable’s son, John, the actor had actually been worried that he’d be paraded around in propaganda films, should someone successfully take him hostage.

After news of the flights reached MGM, the studio’s executives began to badger the US Army about removing Clark Gable from combat, meaning his days in the skies were over. In November 1943, he returned Stateside to edit his footage into what would become Combat America and was assigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit in Culver City, California.
 

While he’d hoped to be redeployed to Europe, it appeared his combat days were over, as he was placed on inactive duty. On June 12, 1944, the then-major had his discharge papers signed by Capt. Ronald Reagan, with him fully resigning his commission in ’47.
 

For his service during World War II, the actor received several decorations: the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.