The author and his eight crewmembers bailed out of their crippled B-24 on their 24th mission over enemy territory. Shot at and then captured by the Germans, they were taken to a stalag in Nuremberg, and then on a forced march to another in Moosburg. They were strafed by Allied planes, nearly lynched by an angry mob, starved, and shot at again by retreating SS just before their liberation by General Patton. Incredibly, all nine crewmembers survived, and eight of them contributed to this remarkable account that took 20 years to write.
During World War II ten young volunteers from all over the United States came together to form the "Rosacker" crew in the 93rd Bomb Group of the 8th U.S. Air Force, flying B-24 Liberators based in England. They flew 24 missions together during the closing months of the war.
Their last mission was on January 28, 1945. The target was in Germany's Ruhr Valley, also known as "Flak Alley".
"About halfway through the bomb run, with heavy flak in the area, we lost the #1 engine. After repeated attempts neither Glenn nor Otis could get the propeller into the feathered position, which is required to minimize wind resistance on the airplane. We could not keep up with the formation, so we dropped out of position, still trying to feather the propeller."
Another B-24 next to them was blown up by a direct hit from the anti-aircraft batteries. A second engine quit, and a third was losing power (they only had four engines). The choice was to ditch in the North Sea and die of exposure, or try to make it to an airfield in Antwerp, Belgium, which was occupied by Canadian troops. But the plane was going down fast. At 1,000 feet they bailed out:
"I jumped and counted to ten in about two seconds. I know my 'chute must have come close to catching on a tail fin. Well, the whole rip cord, handle, and cable pulls completely loose from the 'chute pack. I pulled so hard my whole arm flew above my head. I knew the 'chute was broken. I was trying to figure out how to pull the 'chute out of the backpack by hand when all of a sudden it opened, with the 'chute and me in a horizontal position."
But that wasn't all. Remember the airplane, with its dead engines creating drag on one side, causing it to turn?
"I could hear the plane still flying nearby; Joe had put it on autopilot. It sounded as if it was coming back at me."
Then they heard the bullets. Below them was a German army camp in occupied Holland. The enemy bullets and their own plane somehow missed them, but the men were captured, and the narrow escapes continued, one after another. Their captors took them "out back," where the Americans thought they would be shot, but were not; the German civilians wanted to lynch the airmen as they were led on a forced march through Bavaria from one POW camp to another. The prisoners were shot at by their guards, and again by the SS on liberation day.
Miraculously, all ten fliers survived the war. Fifty years later nine of the ten airmen finished this book, working together to refresh and correct each other's memories.
"This is not the usual hard-core war story. We have included family ties, the crew's training and formation, our experiences and feelings, going through severe hardships, the humor that was still there, and the getting on with our lives."
A lot of this seems pretty "hard-core" to us, but also often very funny, deeply intelligent, and extraordinarily human. These men were heroes. Thank you all, gentlemen, for your flying, and for getting your story down on paper.
