Captain Anthony Carras was born on November 23, 1920, in Detroit, Michigan, to Greek Asia Minor parents who came from the greater Smyrna region. His father, Charalambos Karasoglou, worked as a cook and, being a Turkish national, was conscripted into the Ottoman Army during World War I (1914–1918). His wife, Aikaterini (Katina) Karasoglou, came from a wealthy family of the Smyrna upper class, with a Greek father and a French mother, and spoke both Greek and French fluently. After surviving the war, Charalambos began to realize that the future of Hellenism in Asia Minor was increasingly uncertain. This was especially true following the rise of the Young Turk movement in 1908, whose nationalist policies soon turned hostile toward Christian minorities. Many Greeks, increasingly viewed as scapegoats for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the loss of its Balkan territories, began to seek refuge abroad. In May 1919, under Allied authority, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos ordered the landing of Greek troops in Smyrna to protect Christian civilians from nationalist violence. In the early stages of the campaign, the Hellenic Army advanced inland and reached the outskirts of Ankara. Nevertheless, Charalambos and Katina, who had just married, decided by the summer of 1920 to emigrate. On June 23, 1920, they left Smyrna for the port of Piraeus and boarded the ocean liner Patris, arriving in New York on July 14. At Ellis Island, their names were recorded as Charalambos Karasoglos and Katina Karasoglous. At the time, Katina was already three months pregnant. They initially settled in Gulfport, Mississippi, near Katina’s uncle Angelos Saricopoulos, but later moved to Detroit. Soon after, Charalambos anglicized his name to Harry J. Carras for ease of pronunciation. Due to complications during pregnancy, Katina gave birth prematurely to Anthony on November 23, 1920. He weighed only 1.5 kilograms and bore a permanent mark on his forehead from the forceps used during delivery. Despite this, the seven-month-old infant survived and grew into a beautiful child with blond hair and blue eyes. In 1922, responding to a letter from Katina’s parents—who were still living in Smyrna and desperate to see their grandchild—Katina traveled back to her homeland with 20-month-old Anthony. Tragically, only weeks after their arrival, the Turkish Nationalist Army launched a full-scale counteroffensive. Following the collapse of the Greek front and the infamous burning of Smyrna, Katina found herself hiding in the ruins of a house, clutching her terrified child in her arms. Together with her mother and grandmother, they were the only surviving members of her family. A Muslim neighbor helped them escape and board a refugee ship to Greece. Thus, young Anthony Odysseus Carras—before reaching the age of two—had already narrowly escaped death twice. Katina and Anthony made it back to the U.S., but the other two women remained in refugee camps in Mytilene, Athens, and eventually Ellis Island, awaiting immigration approval. Their legal issues were finally resolved in 1924. Over the next 15 years, the family enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous life. Anthony grew into a kind, athletic young man with a deep fascination for airplanes. In a 2017 interview with historian George Chalkiadopoulos, Anthony’s late daughter, Mrs. Cathy Carras Cwiok, recalled:

"My father's first language was Greek, then French. He didn’t learn English until he started school. He always spoke Greek with his parents. I’m not sure why they named him Anthony, but his middle name was Ulysses — which he always pronounced the Greek way: Odysseus. He spent his early years in Michigan, but in 1933 the family moved to New York, where my grandfather Harry worked as a chef at the luxurious Waldorf Astoria hotel and eventually became head chef. My grandmother Katina worked as a seamstress. When my father turned 18, he took a job at Sikorsky Aviation because he wanted to become an aeronautical engineer. But once the war broke out, he joined the Air Corps and became a bomber pilot, rising to the rank of captain. After the war, he went into show business and became a successful Hollywood film producer and director."

ΙΝ ΤΗΕ USAAF ΑΝD THE 8TH AIR FORCE

Anthony Carras enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces on February 15, 1942—approximately two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—and applied for aviation cadet training. He was assigned serial number O-767993. Though his family does not have official documents indicating where he trained, he likely graduated in late 1942 as part of Class 42-K. Scoring high during his assessments, he was selected to fly heavy bombers and assigned as a B-24 Liberator instructor at Lowry Field, Colorado. From early 1943 to mid-1944, Carras trained combat crews from various Bomb Groups, including the 380th (later deployed to the Pacific) and the 466th (bound for Europe). On March 13, 1944, he married his beloved Catherine M. Davis, and soon after requested overseas deployment. Having formed deep bonds with the men he trained—many of whom were now serving in combat—he felt a moral duty to join them and face the same dangers. By mid-1944, the USAAF was graduating thousands of new aircrew every month, far exceeding operational demand. Lieutenant Carras submitted a formal request to be relieved of his instructional duties and transferred to an active combat unit in the European Theater. His request was approved, and he was assigned to the 786th Bomb Squadron, 466th Bomb Group, which at the time was based at RAF Attlebridge, Norfolk, England, under the Eighth Air Force. There, Carras would complete a full combat tour of 35 missions, flying B-24 Liberators in the skies over Nazi-occupied Europe.Anthony Carras was assigned as co-pilot to the crew of Lieutenant Harry C. Merritt. Following the required training in the United States—designed to help crew members learn to function cohesively as a team—they began their transatlantic journey, ferrying a B-24J to the 466th Bomb Group’s base at RAF Attlebridge in Norfolk, England. They arrived in early October 1944. By that time, the group had already seen seven months of combat operations, and the need for replacement crews was constant due to losses and the rotation of personnel who had completed their combat tours. Upon arrival, the crew was officially assigned to the 786th Bomb Squadron and designated as Crew #671. After a series of orientation and familiarization flights over the local terrain, Carras and his crew received their baptism of fire on October 14, 1944, during a bombing raid against a factory complex in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Just three days later, on October 17, they participated in an attack on a railway marshalling yard in Cologne. For the new crew, the first encounters with intense flak and aggressive German fighter attacks were harrowing. However, as the missions continued, they learned to endure the concussions of exploding flak shells, manage battle damage to aircraft systems, and engage enemy fighters with growing effectiveness. They also came to understand that the loss of comrades during operations would become an unavoidable and frequent reality. Nevertheless, one of the crew’s most terrifying experiences did not come in the skies over Germany—but during a landing back at base.