Personal Stories Of WWII… Four With One Shot

Issue 36.12

One morning the ground pounders let us B-17crew men sleep till 3AM because we were briefed for a mission to Munich. 3AM was better than for a long mission when we would be awakened at 2AM. On our way to the target my instructions as the lower ball turret gunner on Lt. Parnell’s crew was to keep my turret moving. The reason for this order was to keep our B-17 and our formation looking alert. It was a known fact that German fighter pilots were more apt to attack a sloppy or inattentive bomber formation.

On our way to the target and before we started on the bomb run, we would encounter sporadic ground fire that we called FLAK. If on the bomb runs we could survive concentrations of thousands of 88’s and larger of ground fire, what could a few little six-gun batteries do to us. As I swung my twin fifty caliber guns in my turret back to six o’clock, I could clearly see the group following us in the bomber train. That group was about 8,000 feet behind us. I could see that they were now encountering that six gun battery that had first fired on us.

As I watched, the lead plane of the lead squadron in that group took a hit and pulled out of place and collided with his wing man or the bomber in number two position. I watched the two bombers twisting together until they collide with a third bomber and then the whole big mess engulfed a fourth bomber. I watched all four bombers tangled together exploding with their engines and propellers turning as they went down over Germany. We were flying at 30,000 feet altitude so if anyone did get out which I doubt, they wouldn’t have opened a chute at that altitude. That one lucky shot took out four bombers and thirty-six men.

We always joked about flying a formation so close that a wing man could poke his wing tip into the leader’s waist window. There were two reasons to fly a tight formation. First, a tight formation provided extra protection from enemy fighters. Second, a tight formation creates a concentrated bombing pattern. As we can see, there are also negative reasons for a tight formation. Bomber collisions were not a rare occurrence. An inattentive pilot or co-pilot could cause a collision. The movies show them having a cup of coffee in flight but in reality it would be impossible to drink coffee at 30,000 feet with an oxygen mask on.

Sam Wyrouck can be contacted at 801-707-2666.