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Remembering Schweinfurt | Wally
Today | Chapter
1: Growing Up
Attention all
Teachers --- WORLD
WAR II “WHEN WE WERE KIDS WE WENT TO WAR”
THE DEATH OF A FLYING FORTRESS
Ó There were two reasons we managed to
survive those bombing trips over Germany in an “aluminum coffin”. The
first was the plane; the B 17 Flying fortress. She became alive once the
engines were started and with the crew settled into their positions the
plane became a veritable part of us.
We knew full well the Fortress, if it had only a final gasp of
breath and although being totally battered and bent with hardly anything
left, would somehow get us home. You don’t fly a Fortress for months for years without becoming intimate with that gallant lady in the most respectful sense. You know her sturdy construction, the manner in which she flies and every detail about her, as she sustains not only my life but also each life in my crew. You know that this lady would never give up without a valiant struggle. With her engines shot out or burning, or with a wing cut to pieces and the vertical fin and rudder in shattered pieces, or with the oxygen system blazing she is somehow still going to fly. With their aircraft in such a state, the pilots, all too often smeared in blood with enemy steel in their bodies and with the control cables shot to ribbons struggled hand in hand with the gallant lady to survive. Many times these bombers could well have been abandoned but still flew home with badly wounded crewmen who were not able to depart the plane. Which brings up the other reason we survived.
We would watch helplessly as another Fortress in
the same formation started to slip and slide out of the combat
formation. Flames pour from
an engine on fire with the fuel streaming and burning as it engulfs the
plane. Soon she is falling off on her side as the Fortress picking
up more speed, begins her death throes.
Then she begins to shudder as her nose pointed skyward. The
plane hangs on the edge of a stall and buffets in warning of final
disaster. The plane hangs almost on her nose, when the lift is almost
gone and then as the last of the aerodynamics is gone.
The nose drops and slews to the side wallowing in a helpless
skid. The nose comes back
up again, but the wings are almost vertical and she seems to groan and
then quits. You can almost hear the groan as she falls back into a
vertical spin to her death. The Fortress dies hard, as do the 10 men of
the crew inside her. This
was their Fortress they made come alive, trying to hold on to that last
thin thread keeping her in the air. With tears in our eyes we watch and count the
parachutes all the while loudly shouting, "Get Out—Get Out".
Those men were our friends, our buddies we drank and played poker with,
sitting around in a BS session talking about the world of tomorrow.
We all knew all too well there was very little chance of tomorrow for
any of us. Some survived, and came home. But the question always
remains: “Why Us”? Why
not them? Wally Hoffman 7131 Timberlake Dr. SE Olympia, WA 98503
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