In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
WW 2 Story
pwillie
Member Posts: 20,253 ✭✭✭
Wonderful WWII story:
This story is confirmed in Elmer Bendiner's book, The Fall of Fortresses.
*Sometimes, it's not really just luck.*
Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II. He tells this story of a World War II bombing run over Kassel, Germany , and the unexpected result of a direct hit on their gas tanks. "Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit.
Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple. "On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck.
The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but 11 had been found in the gas tanks. 11 unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. A near-miracle, I thought.
Even after 35 years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.
"He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer. "Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were as clean as a whistle and just as harmless.
Empty? Not all of them! One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech. The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling. Translated, the note read:
*"This is all we can do for you now... Using Jewish slave labor is never a good idea."
This story is confirmed in Elmer Bendiner's book, The Fall of Fortresses.
*Sometimes, it's not really just luck.*
Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II. He tells this story of a World War II bombing run over Kassel, Germany , and the unexpected result of a direct hit on their gas tanks. "Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit.
Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple. "On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck.
The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but 11 had been found in the gas tanks. 11 unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. A near-miracle, I thought.
Even after 35 years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.
"He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer. "Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were as clean as a whistle and just as harmless.
Empty? Not all of them! One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech. The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling. Translated, the note read:
*"This is all we can do for you now... Using Jewish slave labor is never a good idea."
Comments
Thanks for sharing.
The standard German flak gun was the 105MM
20MM was used for low level close in AA.
If this story is true it would mean the plane was hit by canon fire from a German fighter but for 11 20MM to all hit in one place is let's just say unusual.
I am not saying this could not have happened but the way the Krauts ran things it would be rare and the consequences were very bad.
The French built many of the German U-Boat torpedoes and there was one incident where a Frog sabotaged some fish and the example set put an end to it. The French were not slave labor but were employed to do the work and were glad to have an income
Wulfmann
"Fools learn from their own mistakes. I learn from the mistakes of others"
Otto von Bismarck
The standard German flak gun was the 105MM
20mm shells could have come from a BF109's MG151/20 cannon.
My aunt couldn't turn on the television set. Yet the Germans had her building airplanes. Go figure....
But the truth of the matter was that things were more or less set up so that there wasn't a lot you could do to sabotage anything. When you have a factory set up, you are a warm body doing one simple task over and over.
If it was only so easy to * these plants...
20MM could not be used for flak on B17s flying at 25-30,000 feet.
The standard German flak gun was the 105MM
20MM was used for low level close in AA.
If this story is true it would mean the plane was hit by canon fire from a German fighter but for 11 20MM to all hit in one place is let's just say unusual.
I am not saying this could not have happened but the way the Krauts ran things it would be rare and the consequences were very bad.
The French built many of the German U-Boat torpedoes and there was one incident where a Frog sabotaged some fish and the example set put an end to it. The French were not slave labor but were employed to do the work and were glad to have an income
Wulfmann
I met two old pilots (B-24,and B-17s) at the 8th Air Force Museum in Savannah,and they said the German 88's were the worse Flak guns to face..Commanded by Luftwaffe ground troops...I shot down two 109's from a similated waist gun...Great visit!
2nd from left, 75mm for the Sherman tank/B-25 (loading is time delay fused, normally used on the B-25 for anti-ship purposes)
#3 75mm German "low velocity" Panzer
#4 WW-1 75mm German AA
#5 WW-1 88mm German Navy & WW-2 U-boat deck gun
#6 WW-2 88mm German AA (Flak), Anti-Tank and Tiger 1
#7 88mm Tiger 2 and Elephant tank destroyer
#8 88mm German late war AA (once we started flying higher)
#9 90mm US
Last 3 are all US 105 rounds (howitzer, recoil-less rifle, tank)