105 Days
Henry Woodrum’s French ‘Walkout’ in Print…
:ALL WELL AND SAFE. PLEASE DONT WORRY. LOVE AND KISSES=HENRY WOODRUM.1944 SEP 3 PM 7 46
On May 28, 1944, a 26-year-old bomber pilot from Redding was on a mission over Nazi-occupied France when anti-aircraft fire shredded his plane, forcing the six-man crew to bail out over the outskirts of Paris.
“Walkout,” Henry Woodrum’s account of that fateful day – and the 105 days that followed as he evaded capture with the valiant help of the French Resistance before finally rejoining the Allied forces – was posthumously published by his sons Mike and Hank.
Eighty years later, almost to the day, the two sons returned to Cormeilles-en-Parisis, the village where their father’s Martin Marauder B-26 crashed, to be present for the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the plane and its crew. “The French still honor the soldiers and airmen who helped them win their freedom from the Nazis,” Mike Woodrum says.
The Woodrum sons’ visit, their fourth trip to France, represented the latest chapter in an emotional story so filled with twists, turns, revelations, discoveries, friendships and international bonds that Mike Woodrum is only half joking when he says it should be made into a movie.
The story begins in 1940 when Henry Woodrum enlisted in the Army as an infantryman. Acting on a lifelong love of flying, the young soldier was transferred to the Army Air Corps and stationed at Wheeler Army Air Field in Hawaii, where he was present when Wheeler was targeted by the Japanese during the bombing raid at Pearl Harbor.
By 1944, Lt. Woodrum was a member of the Army
Air Force’s 495th Bombardment Squadron’s 344th Bombardment Group. On that fateful day in May, 10 days prior to the D-Day landings at Normandy, he was at the Stansted airport being briefed in advance of his 35th mission.
The objective that day was to destroy a railroad bridge over the Seine River. A briefing officer warned the men to avoid bailing out over Paris due to increased German activity. Henry Woodrum had been looking forward to a three-day pass that he planned to enjoy in London. Instead, he filled in for an ill flier and settled in for an early-morning mission that was supposed to last a few hours. It ended up lasting 105 days.
In gripping fashion, “Walkout” details how the plane was shot out of the sky. “…The fire in the bomb bay was blazing, and I knew we’d never get it out. I reached for the throttle and reduced power on the good engine, bringing the left wing down a little. We had to abandon the ship. ‘Bail out! Bail out,’ I yelled on the intercom, while wondering if I was doing the right thing.”
As his parachute floated down, German pilots fired at the airman. From the book: “I focused on the ground and spotted the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe a mile or so to the south. The Seine curved and twisted its way through the city. Suddenly I remembered our briefing officer’s advice – avoid Paris at all costs – and I laughed aloud.”
Henry Woodrum landed on a house in the town of Nanterre with his parachute wrapped around the chimney. Quickly, he cut his way out of his harness, dropped to the ground and his adventure behind enemy lines was underway.
At the heart of Henry Woodrum’s story are the brave and kindhearted French citizens who put their own lives at risk to hide the American from German soldiers, moving him from safehouse to safehouse until he was finally delivered to safety and able to send a telegram to his mother, Edith, saying =All well and safe. Please don’t worry. Love and kisses=Henry Woodrum.
Just as inspiring are the efforts made by Henry Woodrum, and later his sons, to contact the many people who played a role in keeping the senior Woodrum safe. Some of those relationships lasted until Henry Woodrum’s death in 1990 from multiple myeloma. Henry Woodrum’s wife, Alberta, passed in 2008. Mike Woodrum, who is well known to North State diners as the longtime bartender and former co-owner of Jack’s Grill, and his brother Hank, a retired Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from Mesa, Ariz., have kept in touch with members of the Berty family (whose late parents and grandparents housed Henry Woodrum in 1944) and Franck Signorile, a family friend and avid historian. Signorile researched the people and places mentioned in the book and helped the Woodrum brothers retrace their father’s “Walkout” trail.
After his escape, Henry Woodrum returned to Redding and had just been named co-manager of the Redding Airport when he was recalled to Europe to assist in the Berlin Airlift.
Mike Woodrum says his father enjoyed that mission, being able to use his pilot skills to help people rather than drop bombs on them.
Henry Woodrum continued serving with the Air Force from 1947 to his retirement as a lieutenant colonel in 1964, after which he was appointed director of Shasta County’s Civil Defense Department. From that position, Henry Woodrum went to serve as Redding’s airports manager for four years before retiring.
He wrote the “Walkout” manuscript in the mid-1980s but failed to find a publisher prior to his passing in 1990. He provided copies to his sons so they would know his story. Some 20 years later, his sons brought to life their dad’s dream of seeing his story in print.
In another bit of serendipity, Madeline Dubre-Beduneau, who grew up near where Henry Woodrum’s plane had crashed, in 2004 spent a year at Shasta High School as a foreign exchange student. Her French teacher, Tami Bennett, subsequently sent her a copy of the book and Madeline, with the help of her husband, Charles, translated “Walkout” into French.
Madeline went on to become a teacher herself and during Mike and Hank’s 2018 visit to France, they spoke to Madeline’s English language students about their father’s unique tale of survival and friendship.
While Henry Woodrum’s journey was harrowing, the process of turning the story into a book was profoundly rewarding. “We thought we were doing something for my dad, and my mom by association, but we were the ones that got the gift,” Mike Woodrum says. •
Copies of “Walkout” are available at Jack’s Grill, 1743 California St. in Redding; signed copies are available by emailing Mike Woodrum at [email protected];
and online at https://a.co/d/ebvRklv