Interesting
tidbit from WW2
What
a terrific - true 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."
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