John Warner White (1921–2010) was an American Army Air Corps Major who completed fifty bombing missions in 1943 in the Allies' Tunisian, Sicilian, and Italian Campaigns of World War II.

[1] As a first lieutenant in the 487th Bombardment Squadron, he flew many raids as lead bombardier facing enemy fighter aircraft and concentrated anti-aircraft fire which caused frequent casualties.

White was born into a prosperous and well-connected family in Nashville, Tennessee, where a major public park is named for his grandfather Percy Warner.

[3]: 29  His great grandfather, James Cartwright Warner, was the mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1861[5] but moved to Nashville when the Civil War broke out.

[3]: 4 White was born at a large quarried-stone house built by his grandparents, Margaret and Percy Warner, called "Royal Oaks", a 32 acre (13 ha) estate off Nashville's West End Avenue.

[3]: 10  At age 20, he was the first person to enlist at an Army Air Corps recruiting station on July 10, 1941, in downtown Nashville .

He spent months of training in Arizona, which included learning to use the top secret Norden bombsight,[3]: 21  a gyroscopic device that could provide high accuracy in placing bombs.

[7] After receiving his commission as a Second Lieutenant, he was sent to South Carolina where men of different Air Corps specialties were put together to form bomber crews.

[3]: 24 : 80  White and his crew embarked on training missions, striking practice targets in both day and night bombing simulations over the southeastern US.

Passing time, White won $200 in a card game and took his crew members to Chicago to the Palmer House Hotel, where they received greatly-discounted rooms.

Entering a nearby club, they heard a fine orchestra, led by noted bandleader Gene Krupa, who came to their table to sit with them and ask about what they were doing.

[3]: 29  On February 18, 1943, White's squadron left Morrison Field in West Palm Beach with fourteen B–25 bombers and crews headed for North Africa.

[3]: 125 After a voyage through the Caribbean, South America, and Egypt, the B–25 bombers reached North Africa and were ready to begin combat missions.

White's crew was ordered to destroy a heavily-defended airfield in the city of Tunis which was a crucial supply line for the enemy.

[3]: 55  Rather that sleep in tents, his crew found an abandoned Arab block house about 30 feet square (900 ft2 or 84 m2) with one door in front.

As the planes began to take off, the fourth ship in line could not get up— it crashed in a ball of fire with high flames just beyond the end of the runway.

[3]: 59  In the invasion of Sicily, for example, the B–25s would take off from North Africa, and fly over Malta where RAF Spitfires would come up and form a box pattern above the bombers.

The importance of this campaign was that it drove enemy forces from Sicily and thereby re-opened Mediterranean sea lanes for Allied ships.

At his quarters one afternoon between raids, White was surprised to look overhead to see thousands of allied aircraft of all types, including DC–3s filled with troops and towing gliders to drop over Sicily.

Now his team was tasked with destroying the airport in Palermo which was heavily defended by German 88-mm anti-aircraft guns coupled with powerful searchlights.

When the lead officer opens his bomb bay doors, it signals the trailing formation, which may include 25 or 30 bombers and their fighter escorts.

[1] As for his ship, Tuff Stuff, it remained in service for many more missions until being destroyed by fire while parked at Pompeii Airfield just south of Naples.

Nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted in March, 1944,[10] and burning ash destroyed the air base and about 88 of the B–25 bombers parked there.