Doh! :: Archived

[HA_needacar]

Bet this guy felt like an ass

[Shadow_Bshwackr]

OH MAN, wouldn't want to be that person...lol

[RCAF_Wingnut]

That is almost as bad as the B-24 that bursts on fire at the left wing root and the wing folds up. My dad once worked with a former B-17 tail gunner that was shot down and survived. The entire tail section of the plane separated from the plane, like in the movie Memphis Belle. He had no choice in the matter and had to ride the section down. It landed on a large hay stack, and he walked away with a few bumps and bruises. He spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in Germany.

[Chuck_71st]

I cant even fathom what the tailgunner is thinking at this moment....I have a few guesses though

[HF_SlowHand]

If I was the top turrent gunner I know what I would be doing... bringing someone with me

AND LOOK UP FREE FALL: Falling tailgunner
In February of 1945, a B-17 over Wetzlar, Germany took a direct hit and exploded. The tailgunner rode the tailsection 17,000 feet to the ground and survived. Witnesses described the path of the tail section as making arcs back and forth. J.J. Serne of the Royal Canadian Air Force, who was a POW at the time, described the incident in his diary; his Halifax bomber had been shot down on February 14th. Can anyone provide additional details?

[piney]

while I deplore the accident, perhaps a word of explanation is in order. The B-17 that was struck by the falling bomb is almost certainly not in it's assigned position in the box formation. Usually the entire box toggled their bombs when the aircraft with the lead bombadier released his load. Alternately, that B-17 would have not been visible to the bombadier in the aircraft that released those bombs if he was looking through his Norden bombsight because it would be aimed at an area on the ground significantly farther ahead of his aircraft to accomodate the trajectory of the falling bombs. An unfortunate accident in the fog of war

Piney

[401RCAF_Hammer]

-S-

Does anyone know the details of the pic..? Did the crew of the stricken aircraft bail and servive...? If they did, I dont think they were given the warmest of welcomes from the people in the city below...

Hammer

[RCAF_Wingnut]

I think I read about that one, and I believe the pilot was able to limp it back home. he still had some control after loosing that elevator plane. He still had one that worked.

[Shadow_Banshee]

www.greenharbor.com/ff...ckage.html Jones was a tail gunner in a 385th Bomb Group B-17 bomber on a March 1945 bombing raid to Belgium. When it collided with another plane, Jones' bomber broke apart. Trapped in the tail section, Jones awaited his fate, falling 13,500 feet. Pulled unconscious from the wreckage, he woke up a few days later in a British field hospital. seems a few had the same deal