To the editor:

The flyover of World War II airplanes stirred up some past memories for this 88-plus-year-old WWII veteran, especially when the B-17 “Flying Fortress” roared directly over my house on Mississippi Street en route back to the Lawrence airport.

I was present on a field in Normandy on another hot July afternoon (July 25, 1944) when waves of B-17’s flew over our area to bomb the German lines at St. Lo. We cheered them on as Gen. Patton’s tank columns roared forward along a dusty road past our installation.

The roar of the motors of that Flying Fortress as it passed over my house Monday brought back lots of memories, good and bad, of that wave of bombers dropping their bombs on the front lines less than a quarter mile away, and of World War II and my part in it.

Eugene C. Bovee,

Lawrence