Jimmy Stewart’s Private Battle With Guilt and PTSD That Nearly Broke Him

Beloved actor Jimmy Stewart, the gentle soul who charmed the world with his warm smile and humble grace, was nearly destroyed by the horrors of war.

While America adored him on the silver screen, few knew that Jimmy had gone “flak happy” — a WWII term for combat fatigue — while flying deadly bombing missions over Europe.

Haunted by the deaths of so many innocent people who died because of bombs he dropped from the sky, Stewart plunged into such dark despair that he even contemplated suicide.

It was only the steadfast support of his best friend, Henry Fonda, that pulled him back from the brink.

Both men were already Hollywood royalty when the United States entered World War II — but they didn’t hesitate to trade in fame for uniforms.

Jimmy was drafted into the Army Air Corps in 1941. Henry enlisted in the Navy the following year, telling friends, “I have to do my duty, I’m no different than any other man.”

At first, Jimmy was relegated for publicity work for the Air Force — a role he hated. He wanted to get in on the action.

He fought hard for a combat position, and eventually became captain of the 703rd Squadron of the 445 Bombardment Group, flying B-24 Liberators on high-risk bombing runs deep into Nazi territory.

Jimmy and the group were sent to England, and flew missions out of a base in Tibbenham.

His first mission was to bomb a Nazi submarine base in Kiel, Germany, and his unit didn’t lose a plane.

After that, he flew mission after mission — over Kiel, Bremen, Gotha and Mannheim. But the war turned personal when his luck ran out and he began losing friends, planes and fellow soldiers.

Meanwhile, Henry was on a ship that was hit by a Japanese kamikaze plane in the Pacific.

Both men endured severe trauma. But Henry was able to shrug off his war experiences better than Jimmy, who suffered great guilt over having killed civilians from high above.

According to author Robert Matzen, in the deeply moving book “Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe,” the all-American hero carried “a thousand black memories” with him for the rest of his life. He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t eat. He aged a decade in just a few years. And the guilt became so unbearable, he quietly sought psychiatric help while stationed in England.

“The terror in the skies got to him — and it got to him fast,” Matzen writes. “He wasn’t just flying missions. He was making choices that meant life or death. He brought that anguish home with him.”

The survivors “told horrific tales of bodies flying through the air and planes exploding in front of them,” Matzen says. During a mission to take out a V-1 rocket facility, Jimmy’s group killed innocent civilians by mistakenly dropping 30 tons of bombs onto Tonnerre, France, after his cockpit instruments malfunctioned.

Stressed out, Jimmy was unable to sleep or keep down solid food. At one point, he was sent to a “flak farm,” where fliers suffering from shell shock, now called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), were treated.

When he returned to Hollywood, Jimmy was just 37 but looked 50. The boyish charm that he’d displayed on scene before in his prewar roles was gone. In its place was a man who understood grief, rage and sorrow.

Because of the trauma he’d suffered, Matzen says Jimmy would funnel it into films like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which he played George Bailey, who believes his life isn’t worth living until his family and friends show him otherwise.

“I don’t think he had that kind of capacity before the war,” Matzen says. “It enabled him to be ferocious and to have that raw emotion.”

Meanwhile, Henry Fonda saw horror of his own — stationed on a seaplane tender in the Pacific, where his ship was hit by a kamikaze near Okinawa. Fourteen men were killed, 28 injured.

But somehow, Henry was able to put the war behind him more easily than his friend.

When they reunited in 1948 for “On Our Merry Way,” the two veterans finally spoke openly about the war trauma they’d buried. Jimmy confided the truth of his tangled emotional state, and that he thought about ending his life.

But Henry wouldn’t let him spiral. He reminded Jimmy that while mistakes were made, he and his squadron had saved countless lives, shortened the war and fought with honor.

“You did what you had to do,” Henry told him. “And because of you, a lot more people got to go home.”

Says Matzen, “Henry told Jimmy that while some civilians died, many, many more lived because of the sacrifices he and his men made. That helped ease Jimmy’s mind a great deal.”

Henry’s wise counsel didn’t erase his friend’s pain, but it helped him carry it with the grace and courage that made him a Hollywood star.

Henry passed away on Aug. 12, 1982, but best friend Stewart lived 15 more years, dying in 1997 at age 89.

He never boasted about his service, but he showed his millions of fans he was far more than a movie star — he was a man who had walked through hell — and came back with heart enough to show the world what it meant to be human.