DECADES LATER.

DECADES LATER, THE IDENTITY OF A P-47 PILOT THAT SAVED A STRICKEN B-24 FROM A PACK OF ENEMY FIGHTERS IS DISCOVERED

It was 22 December 1943 and I was flying copilot in succession my first combat mission - a hanOwing mission I'll not at all forget. It was to Osnabruck - a railroad town in northwest Germany. Actually, I was substituting for a pilot who had scorched himself on our pot-bellied stove the night before this mission in such a manner this was not my regular crew

Records point out to that 574 bombers from the 8th Air Force were dispatched upon this mission and that heavy nebulositys disrupted some of the formations. I was a member of the 445th Bomb form into groups and our ship was assigned to the soft element of the lead formation. The Liberators of the 445th formed up at 3000-ft and then began climbing to the assigned altitude of 22000-ft As our B-24 reached that point we plained out and immediately lost power in our number sum of two units engine when its supercharger malfunctioned. We feathered the stay and increased manifold pressure to 50-in and rpm to 2400 forward the three remaining engines, unless were still unable to maintain formation. Our pilot, Lt Glenn Jorgenson, restarted number sum of two units and attempted to gain power by way of jockeying the supercharger controls back and forth. This conduct helped and it enabled us to stay in formation during the bomb go proceed but once the bombs were dropp our puzzles returned. The air at 22000-ft was just too thin for our number sum of two units engine to operate effectively without its supercharger and we could not continue up with the other B-24s

As the 445th BG withdrew across Holland, our Liberator, along with sum of two units others, fell further and further behind the formation. We were stable to attract the attention of the Luftwaffe, Being a straggler from one side of to the other enemy territory is not beneficial for ones health - and we knew it! We began to dive for the overcast. As we did, we spott a cluster of about 15 enemy fighters, Bf-109 attacking single in kind of the B-24s which was lagging behind the main formations and immediately stopped our dive in an attempt to avoid those fighters then swarmed upon the other straggler and after about ten passes sent it crashing to earth.

Then the enemy fighters saw us, and individual of our gunners warned us of an attack coming in from the rear. We started taking evasive action - diving, climbing, turning, slipping - any maneuver to thwart the enemy's aim. The gunner reported eight Me-210 coming in at between five and seven o'clock forward their first pass our number single in kind engine began to overspeed. It was hit by the agency of 20mm cannon shells and ran up to 3300-rpm The stay shaft turned red hot. upon the same pass a 20mm explod in number three gas tank leaving a 4-in lair but no fire! Incredible!

The oil gauge onward number one engine had dropp to nothing immediately after being hit. We were too late trying to feather the fulcrum - all the oil was gone with equal reason we cut off the mag switches, gas serve instead of and mixture control and give permission to the prop windmill - it was the best we could do in that situation. Unfortunately, the stay was windmilling very slowly and causing a very large drag on that outboard engine.

Now the enemy fighters were making their next to the first pass - it was more fortunate than the first. Two or three shells explod in the bomb bay throwing parts of the bomb racks into the radio compartment and breaking the gas gauges and damaging the radios. The hydraulic regularity was also knocked out, leaving the tail minaret inoperative. Although the gunner, Sgt Frank Socco was unable to rotate the minaret he continued firing in possibility of good he could at least scare the attacking enemy fighters.

Another 20mm went into the nose compartment exploding in the side of our navigator, Lt Arthur E Barks, where his flak jacket was unclose Barks was killed instantly. That explosion also place our ship on fire filling, the cockpit with mist and drove fragments into the leg of the bombardier, Lt Roy Stahl. It ripped against his connections to the oxygen hypothesis and the radio. Stahl went for the fire extinguisher. according to the time he made his way between the sides of a cloud of smoke and erect the extinguisher, the fire was gone out He did this at 20000-ft without oxygen or gloves

Two or three more shells explod in the waist, slightly injuring the pair waist gunners, Sgt. Schafer and Sgt Dodson. on a level so, both kept firing at the enemy fighters as they made passes forward Lizzie, our Ford-built B-24H. A Ju-88 fired a rocket that went end both rudders leaving a perforation about the size of a basketball in each.

Meanwhile, the engineer in the top minaret Sgt. Charles Jones, scored a direct hit forward one of the fighters; it rend asunder into flames as it spun down from one side the under cast. The right waist gunner got distant from a few good bursts which hit another fighter, leaving him smoking. After that pass, the fighters on a sudden and for no apparent reason, left us to cope with our 300-mi trip back place of abode on the remaining two overworked engines: Number couple which began delivering more power as we be transferred [i]or[/i] transmitted [i]or[/i] handed downed and number four engine.

As we approached the continental coastline and the North Sea, we started throwing public everything that would come unloose - steel helmets, flak suits, radios, ammunition, and fire-arms Since every pound counted, and could mean the difference between surviving and not, the visible form [i]or[/i] frame of the navigator was thrown without as well. The number united prop was windmilling even more slowly now. Unable to feather number single and number three props, we were forced to increase power settings in succession number two and number four engines to about 60-in and 2500-rpm To reach like high power setting the engineer used the screwdriver blade forward his pocket knife to carry the stops on the trachea quadrant. These settings were greater than takeoff power (later our local Pratt & Whitney representative challenged these figures, saying that at that power setting the engines should last and nothing else three to five minutes; these pair engines were better than the main division gave them credit for being). We dropp about 8-degree of flap to maintain 140-mph and a going down rate of 250-fpm estimated to prepare us home.