 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
Italy 1943-45
Chapter XXIV |
||||||||||||||||||
|
This is a pictorial history of an American bomber crew that had its prayers answered. Our battalion of anti-aircraft guns was placed around the 15th Air Force, and my aid station was at least a mile from its center landing field. Returning flights would come in for a landing low enough overhead to make the violent vibrations rattle the bottles off our shelves. It was not unusual to see returning aircraft come in on just two engines with flak or machine gun holes in the fuselage; alternatively, with one engine feathered and smoking. We, on the ground, often wondered how many of the crew were alive inside the aircraft besides the pilot. We knew about the absence of atheists in foxholes. No doubt, the Air Force had religion too.
On Friday, March 5th, 1943, this B-17 American bomber came lumbering home to the Foggia Airfield in Italy from a bombing run somewhere over Europe. Its tail section was nearly sliced off by a German aircraft, yet it landed without falling apart. The original picture was taken in the air by a gunner from another B-17 that was accompanying this aircraft returning home. He said that he took his camera along to take photographs of other aircraft in flight; he thought that he could readily sell them to other crew members to send home. Having friends in the photography section of the 15th Air Force, I obtained a print from the original negative. It was an odd size measuring 2x3 inches. The editors of the Stars and Stripes also got a copy and made a headline story of this episode several days later.
The capton says: Almost cut in two by a crashing ME 109, this B-17 wobbled home without a casualty among her crew. S-Sgt. Sam Serpolus of St. Clair Mich. was in the tail gunner's position when the German plane hit, leaving a three-foot wing tip wedged in the gash. He crawled forward and joined Sgt. Mike Zuk of Detroit, 1st. Lt. Kenneth Bragg, pilot from Savannah, Georgia, and others of the crew. Boeing officials looked at the plane as it landed and said that it was “aerodynamically” impossible to fly. The likelihood of this “aerodynamically impossible to fly” aircraft surviving the damage without a fatality and flying all the way back to its base is indeed a miracle. |
||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||
|
© 2006 Dr. Jack H. Sanders – All Rights Reserved |
||||||