John L. Sullivan was a bombardier and navigator for the 93rd Bombardment Group during World War II. The first B24 unit to arrive in England, the 93rd was based at Hardwick Aerodrome 104. The most decorated, most traveled, and most effective bomb group in the 8th Air Force, the 93rd completed 396 missions. On D-Day, as part of “Operation Overlord”, they carried out 94 missions. After D-Day, the 93rd carried out relief work air-dropping supplies to the troops. In July 1943, the group was on the cover of Life magazine. The 93rd also suffered some of the greatest losses by a bomb group when in August of 1943 during the “Tidal Wave” mission which involved flying to Ploesti, Romania from Africa to bomb out oil fields, plans went awry. 178 planes went out. 88 never returned. 446 men were killed.
Today, Hardwick is long abandoned. There are green fields surrounding empty overgrown runways. Many of the buildings still stand, rusted out, broken down with crumbling concrete while others have nothing left but a concrete base where a doorway to a quonset hut once stood. But the 93rd is not forgotten. There is a reunion group of veterans and their families, second and third generations, who gather each year and share memories, photos, scrapbooks, not only as a catharsis for themselves but as a means of passing the torch to future generations so that not only is the sacrifice and bravery of the men and women of the 93rd not forgotten, but that the reasons for that sacrifice, for their dedication to their country and to democracy is not forgotten.
Filmmaker MICHAEL SELLERS is a third-generation member of the Hardwick 93rd Historical Group. He is the grandson of John L. Sullivan. Long hearing about his grandfather’s time and exploits in the 93rd, Sellers and his family eventually went to Hardwick for the annual Hardwick reunion of veterans and their families. Michael Sellers was hooked; not only being in awe of his grandfather and his grandfather’s brothers in arms, but from a filmmaking standpoint. Their stories needed to be documented. Chronicling the 2015 reunion at Hardwick, Sellers began his labor of love with the full support of the men and women of the 93rd. That labor of love started as merely documenting history for the group and for sons and daughters and grandchildren to look at it in the future. But it didn’t take long before the idea grew into that of a feature documentary.
Working on the documentary over the course of almost five years, RETURN TO HARDWICK was born. Completely self-financed by the members of the 93rd Bomb Group, through it all, they had one mandate for Sellers – tell our story, focus on our history. Fortunately, the 93rd not only has a historian who already has long maintained many records and is instrumental in the annual reunions for next-generation kin, but a museum. But Sellers has met their objectives. He has focused on their history. He has focused on the stories of the 93rd.
Finding a cinematic throughline starts with an entre into the film through three individuals: John Marx, the nephew of pilot Robert Marx who was killed in action on December 19, 1944. Marx learned about his uncle and the crash that took his life from veteran Leland Spencer, after joining the 93rd group and coming to a reunion; Gail Mailloux, the daughter of Helen MacDonald, a professional secretary who enlisted with the Red Cross and was assigned to Hardwick and the 93rd. It was at the 93rd that Helen not only met her husband but married him. And how teary will you get as Gail finds the church where her parents married and with a picture from the wedding, is able to go through the now long-remodeled church and stand where her mother stood. But Gail also has hundreds of letters her mother wrote home, all neatly typed and filled with stories of her day-to-day life on the base; and then there’s George Jung. George’s father died when George was 15 and never spoke about the war or the 93rd, but through the 93rd historical group, George has learned about his father and others. Through each of them, we intersect with history complete with newsreel footage, home movies from the base, photographs, cards, letters, historical military documents, and interviews with many of the men and women who served in the 93rd.
A war story unlike any others we have seen to date, there is a homespun and heartfelt, yet polished, scrapbook styling to RETURN TO HARDWICK that is warm and welcoming. We are being invited into the memories and hearts of these soldiers and are now going along on the journey with their loved ones, keeping the flame alive for these brave men and women.
Narrated by Michael Cudlitz, known best for his portrayal of Bull Randelman in Band of Brothers and as Abraham Ford in The Walking Dead, you feel the depth of his conviction and somber gratitude from the getgo, setting the tone for what is to come.
The stage is set thanks to a prologue that takes us back in time with a meld of archival footage from 1943 dissolving into present-day and the abandoned airfield. We see bombers in the distance behind a cloud cover while aerial gunfire and B24 engines roar. We hear the reading of a piece written by Ed Reilly, a 93rd veteran, after he visited Hardwick in 1975. And then Sellers takes us to Pearl Harbor. December 7, 1941. Archival footage fills the screen with images we know all too well after these almost 80 years. But that leads us to newsreels of the Grand Central Air Graduates and the 8th Air Force and the 93rd. The 8th Air Force was created to fly over Germany on bombing missions. Buck Schuler, former commander of the 8th talks as do pilots Fernley Smith and William Brown, gunner George McLean, radio operator Leo Bates and Willard Hunzeker, all recalling the excitement generated by the arrival of the 8th Air Force and the 93rd Bomb Squad. America had arrived.
This is the story of the 93rd Bomb Squad through the eyes and ears of the men and women who lived it and their families who now embrace it.
RETURN TO HARDWICK is an important addition to our cinematic history as it preserves a chapter of history important to the world, and to the families of these men and women.
Writer/Director: Michael Sellers
by debbie elias, 06/09/2020
