Getting shot down
Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2007 1:35 pm
The following is an account of being shot down over Germany by Major General P.D.Straw U.S.A.F ( deceased) The story was related to a class of history students at R.G.Cole H.S. on 1-26-94. In his words.
" I was in the 331st Bomb Squadron with the Eighth Air Force in England. I arrived there in January of 1944 and in my first briefing this intellegence major with a crippled right arm spoke to us. I will never forget his statement. "When you get shot down", and suddenly one of the new pilots interupted, Sir don't you mean if you get shot down. No, he replied , when you get shot down, because you will get shot down. I know, I have been shot down twice and always got back but this last time you see what happened to my arm. I won't be flying anymore. Boy was he right. One month after my 20th birthday , on my fifth mission the group navigator accidently put us over Cologn, one of the most heavily defended cities in German. A flak burst destroyed the inward starboard engine and all of the other engines died from fuel starvation as the shards of steel made a sievie of the fuel tanks. The airplane commander sounded the abandon aircraft alarm and taking up his chute went to the rear to jump. I held the aircraft for the crew to jump. One crewman was dead and the flight engineers right leg was shredded. He jumped and luckely landed next to a Catholc convent and the nuns rescued him and kept him from the German officers. His leg had to be amputated, and he spent the rest of the war at the convent.
The navigators arm was ripped apart and in his crazed thrashing around he had accidently opened his parachute. I tucked it under his good arm and shoved him out. It opened and he floated down safely.
I retrieved my chute from under the seat and noticed the canvas cover looked as if rats had knawed holes in it. I was the last one to jump. I then noticed I was coming down really fast. I looked up and my chute was full of holes burned by the hot steel. I luckely landed in a big snow bank and only sprained my ankle. As I landed outside of town, I thought of trying to hide and escape capture , however the German guards with their dogs easily found me and took me in. The other crew memers were there, except those that were wounded. After about 3 hours of interrogation they loaded us in a truck and started off on an all night journey, to where we did not know, but we all knew there would be no avenue of escape.
Our part in the air war was over.
" I was in the 331st Bomb Squadron with the Eighth Air Force in England. I arrived there in January of 1944 and in my first briefing this intellegence major with a crippled right arm spoke to us. I will never forget his statement. "When you get shot down", and suddenly one of the new pilots interupted, Sir don't you mean if you get shot down. No, he replied , when you get shot down, because you will get shot down. I know, I have been shot down twice and always got back but this last time you see what happened to my arm. I won't be flying anymore. Boy was he right. One month after my 20th birthday , on my fifth mission the group navigator accidently put us over Cologn, one of the most heavily defended cities in German. A flak burst destroyed the inward starboard engine and all of the other engines died from fuel starvation as the shards of steel made a sievie of the fuel tanks. The airplane commander sounded the abandon aircraft alarm and taking up his chute went to the rear to jump. I held the aircraft for the crew to jump. One crewman was dead and the flight engineers right leg was shredded. He jumped and luckely landed next to a Catholc convent and the nuns rescued him and kept him from the German officers. His leg had to be amputated, and he spent the rest of the war at the convent.
The navigators arm was ripped apart and in his crazed thrashing around he had accidently opened his parachute. I tucked it under his good arm and shoved him out. It opened and he floated down safely.
I retrieved my chute from under the seat and noticed the canvas cover looked as if rats had knawed holes in it. I was the last one to jump. I then noticed I was coming down really fast. I looked up and my chute was full of holes burned by the hot steel. I luckely landed in a big snow bank and only sprained my ankle. As I landed outside of town, I thought of trying to hide and escape capture , however the German guards with their dogs easily found me and took me in. The other crew memers were there, except those that were wounded. After about 3 hours of interrogation they loaded us in a truck and started off on an all night journey, to where we did not know, but we all knew there would be no avenue of escape.
Our part in the air war was over.