I bet you are right ^^^^^^
My two grandfather's never wanted to talk about their WW II experiences... .
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B-17 Bomber on display
- Thread starter Barkleymut
- Start date
I bet you are right ^^^^^^
My two grandfather's never wanted to talk about their WW II experiences... .
About 28 years ago I taught a local WWII vet who was a B24 pilot during WWII, how to fly and land RC airplanes. Along with teaching him to fly and land RC airplanes, I also went to his house several times and helped him build his RC airplanes. He told me some stories about some of the missions when his plane was shot up. And he showed me his purple heart metal, and a picture of several of them flying in formation over Germany while going through flack. He pointed to one of the planes in the picture and said that the pilot of that bomber was his best friend, and shortly after the picture was taken another bomber from there formation that was in-front of it got hit and fell back into the formation and took out his friends plane, and no one in the aircraft got out.
He told me that one time his aircraft was so shot up that when he landed someone came over to him and asked him to sign a piece of paper. He said he is not signing anything that he did not know what it was about. The person tole him that it was the paper to scrap the aircraft. He told me how many holes it had in it, but I can't remember the exact number. It was something around 250 holes. And he also told me about how many of the crew were shot-up.
He told me that for one mission they told them that the Germans had anti-aircraft guns that only had an ability to reach a certain height (that I can't remember) and that they would be going in at a certain height (that I can't remember) that was significantly higher than the range of the anti-aircraft guns. But they did not tell them that the German anti-aircraft guns were put on top of a mountain, and that added enough reach for them to be able to reach up to the aircraft.
He told me that Ford had a plant in Germany, and that plant was easy to see, but they had strict orders that because Ford was using its plants in the United States to produce aircraft for the United States, that they were not allowed to bomb the Ford plant in Germany, even though that plant in Germany was producing for the Germans. And that one day an Allied fighter with bombs was flown by someone who had not been told to never bomb the Ford plant and it approached the Ford plant and all heck of number of anti-aircraft guns opened up on it, but it got out of there without being hit, or bombing the Ford plant.
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There was another WWII veteran who had been a belly gunner in bombers during WWII, who I helped learn to fly RC airplanes. One day he told me about a friend of his during the war who was in training to become a pilot. He said that his friend was in training and was landing in simulated IFR conditions, and was off to one side of the runway and took out an entire row of aircraft on the ground, and was killed in that accident.
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My dad told me that the first time he was in training to be a Bombardier and the pilot transferred control of the aircraft to him that they were off to one side of where they needed to be, so he moved the control all the way to one side to make a correction, and put way too much correction in and put the entire B24 in a 90 degree bank and slip and they fell out of the sky, and the pilot took back control, and leveled the plane back out, and scolded him, and told him to never do that again.
One time my dad told me that there bomber had an automatic system that when the bombay doors are open if the land is within a minimum distance the bombs will drop automatically. And that while the bombay doors were open in training, another bomber that was lower and flying faster was coming up from behind, and that if it flew below there aircraft the system would drop the bombs automatically and the bombs would hit the other aircraft. He could see that it was about to happen and he could not get the pilot of his bomber to make changes fast enough, so he pulled the main breaker for the entire aircraft and shut off everything until the other aircraft was no longer in danger.
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He also told me that there was a contest where everyone would put money in a pot, and the winner was the crew who had the shortest time from the time the tower gave them to OK to land, to the time there wheels touched the ground. He said that contest was done many times, and that several crew died because there pilot hit the ground too hard trying to land too quickly.
He told me that one time his aircraft was so shot up that when he landed someone came over to him and asked him to sign a piece of paper. He said he is not signing anything that he did not know what it was about. The person tole him that it was the paper to scrap the aircraft. He told me how many holes it had in it, but I can't remember the exact number. It was something around 250 holes. And he also told me about how many of the crew were shot-up.
He told me that for one mission they told them that the Germans had anti-aircraft guns that only had an ability to reach a certain height (that I can't remember) and that they would be going in at a certain height (that I can't remember) that was significantly higher than the range of the anti-aircraft guns. But they did not tell them that the German anti-aircraft guns were put on top of a mountain, and that added enough reach for them to be able to reach up to the aircraft.
He told me that Ford had a plant in Germany, and that plant was easy to see, but they had strict orders that because Ford was using its plants in the United States to produce aircraft for the United States, that they were not allowed to bomb the Ford plant in Germany, even though that plant in Germany was producing for the Germans. And that one day an Allied fighter with bombs was flown by someone who had not been told to never bomb the Ford plant and it approached the Ford plant and all heck of number of anti-aircraft guns opened up on it, but it got out of there without being hit, or bombing the Ford plant.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There was another WWII veteran who had been a belly gunner in bombers during WWII, who I helped learn to fly RC airplanes. One day he told me about a friend of his during the war who was in training to become a pilot. He said that his friend was in training and was landing in simulated IFR conditions, and was off to one side of the runway and took out an entire row of aircraft on the ground, and was killed in that accident.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My dad told me that the first time he was in training to be a Bombardier and the pilot transferred control of the aircraft to him that they were off to one side of where they needed to be, so he moved the control all the way to one side to make a correction, and put way too much correction in and put the entire B24 in a 90 degree bank and slip and they fell out of the sky, and the pilot took back control, and leveled the plane back out, and scolded him, and told him to never do that again.
One time my dad told me that there bomber had an automatic system that when the bombay doors are open if the land is within a minimum distance the bombs will drop automatically. And that while the bombay doors were open in training, another bomber that was lower and flying faster was coming up from behind, and that if it flew below there aircraft the system would drop the bombs automatically and the bombs would hit the other aircraft. He could see that it was about to happen and he could not get the pilot of his bomber to make changes fast enough, so he pulled the main breaker for the entire aircraft and shut off everything until the other aircraft was no longer in danger.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He also told me that there was a contest where everyone would put money in a pot, and the winner was the crew who had the shortest time from the time the tower gave them to OK to land, to the time there wheels touched the ground. He said that contest was done many times, and that several crew died because there pilot hit the ground too hard trying to land too quickly.
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