Issue 40.13
Once when we were on a bomb run, with our bomb bay doors open, we were number three position of the high element of the lead squadron. Luin Lewis, our top turret gunner screamed out for the pilot to hurry and move because we were directly below an out of place B-17 in the high squadron. That could have been disastrous for us and we wouldn’t have been the first bomber to get bombed by our own in a sloppy formation. The other plane’s ball turret gunner must have seen the deadly problem and got his pilot to move into his proper position. Of course I was in our plane’s lower ball turret and could not see what was going on above us. We were organized with four twelve plane Squadrons to a Group and four Groups to a Wing. It was Eighth Air Force policy to stand down (not fly) one squadron in four and one group in four. When ever our group stood down from flying a mission, we would practice formation flying. We flew a complicated defensive formation called a defensive box. It is a bit too complicated to adequately describe on paper, but in a Group, one Squadron of twelve was lead, one was high which was higher and a little back and one was low which was also a little back and lower. Each Squadron consisted of four elements (Bombers always flew in elements of three) so there would be the lead element, the high element, the low element and the low, low element. We all hated to be assigned to the low, low, low position because that element of three would be hit by enemy fighters most often.
Once a bomber in our Group, but not of my Squadron, was shot up badly enough so that they could not get all the way across the channel, so they ditched their B-17; a B-17 is better to ditch than a B-24 but the nine men still, have less than fifteen minutes to get the two inflatable dinghies out, inflated and get into them. They all hope that other flyers see this happening and report it to Air Sea Rescue people. These guys were shot up pretty badly and one of the dinghies was rendered useless. Three crew men were killed out right so that left six guys which is too much for one dingy. Only three were able enough to climb into the inflatables and the rest clung to the outside. The three inside helped those out as much as they could but each one of those succumbed to the cold and slid away. When the rescue boat finally got to them only two were still alive. At our briefings, they told us that if a flyer got in the water in the winter time, he had only twenty minutes to live. Another crew was on their last mission and then they could go home but they got shot down. The navigator parachuted safely but when he got to the ground, he saw his pilot with two broken legs laying in a depression in a field. He tried to make his pilot comfortable and promised to go for help. He walked to the edge of the field when he saw a group of German civilians walk to his friend. He watched these men stab his friend with pitch forks many times. Then they stripped all of his clothes off, took his watch and anything else he had. He was left with only his underwear. I did not understand how he did it but one pilot flew on three successive 25 mission tours and lived through it.
Sam Wyrouck can be located at 801-707-2666.