Issue 37.13
Flying on a bombing mission to the dreaded city of “Big B” Berlin was gut wrenching to anticipate. Four of us gunners were sitting in the radio room waiting for the signal to start engines and then another signal flair from the control tower to taxie into position. There can’t be very much time lapse until the take off flare because the amount of gasoline aboard would not allow wasted time. All three of these signal flares were lofted and the first B-17which was revving up the engines enough that that plane was hoping forward but inches when the signal to take off was shot into the sky. The first pilot released his brakes and the plane shot forward. As soon as the first plane shot forward, the next bomber moved into place. He revved up his engines and in an interval of 30 seconds, he released his brakes and shot forward. All 36 bombers followed the same procedure so in 18 minutes all 36 bombers were in the air flying to the rendezvous point. It was pre dawn darkness and we had to climb through five thousand feet of solid clouds. We four still had our places in the radio room. Each either had his chute snapped on or in his hand. While sitting there on the floor, all of a sudden the floor and the ceiling changed places and the four of us were sitting in mid air. We had crossed the slipstream and very close to another bomber. We all said “Whew, that was close”.
The very next minute, we saw a blinding flash close by through the clouds and heard a mighty explosion. This had to be two bombers colliding very close to us. These collisions happened all too often. I was the armorer in the crew so it was my responsibility to arm the bombs. Each
500 pound bomb had one fuse in the nose and one fuse in between the tail fins. Each fuse had a small metal propeller and a safety pin to prevent the propeller from spinning. I armed the bombs by pulling the pins from each fuse. I had to walk out onto the catwalk down the center of the bomb bay in order to reach the safety pins and pull them out. If the pins were not removed, then the bombs were not armed and so would not detonate. Pulling the pins on the inboard row of bombs was easy but reaching to the outboard racks of bombs was much more difficult. The bomb bay doors could stand 150 pounds of weight on them but over that would spring the doors open. I weighted only 117 pounds and with my heavy warm clothes, my harness and boots, I figured I could walk on the doors a K. I did not have my chute on because that may have put me over 150 pounds. The reason for the propellers on the fuses was when a bomb was dropped through the air the propeller would turn, fall off and arm the bomb. Not on this trip but another time a bomber in our group released the bombs and as they were leaving the bomb bay there was a terrific explosion. The only thing we could figure out was that some how a propeller turned off and armed the bomb too soon. Usually one bomber in a squadron of twelve carried delayed action bombs. These were timed to detonate at different hours after impact so as to deter the Germans from cleaning up. How would you like to have the job of unscrewing the delayed fuse to disarm it? Later these fuses were designed to explode if they were backed off.
Sam Wyrouck may be contacted at 801-707-2666.