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Re: Truly amazing B-17 story

Posted by Paul Patist on Wed Feb 04, 2004 04:59:50 PM

In reply top Truly amazing B-17 story posted by bdk on Wed Feb 04, 2004 04:30:45 PM

: Not sure of the source, I got it by e-mail.
:
: >12 August 2003
:
: >
:
: >Piggyback Hero
:
: >by Ralph Kinney Bennett



: >
:
: >Tomorrow morning they'll lay the remains of Glenn Rojohn
: to rest in the
:
: >Peace Lutheran Cemetery in the little town of Greenock, P
: a., just
:
: >southeast of Pittsburgh. He was 81, and had been in the a
: ir conditioning
:
: >and plumbing business in nearby McKeesport. If you had se
: en him on the
:
: >street he would probably have looked to you like so many
: other graying,
:
: >bespectacled old World War II veterans whose names appear
: so often now
:
: >on obituary pages.
:
: >
:
: >But like so many of them, though he seldom talked about i
: t, he could
:
: >have told you one hell of a story. He won the Distinguish
: ed Flying Cross
:
: >and the Purple Heart all in one fell swoop in the skies o
: ver Germany on
:
: >December 31, 1944.
:
: >
:
: >Fell swoop indeed.
:
: >
:
: >Capt. Glenn Rojohn, of the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Gro
: up, was flying
:
: >his B-17G Flying Fortress bomber on a raid over Hamburg.
: His formation
:
: >had braved heavy flak to drop their bombs, then turned 18
: 0 degrees to
:
: >head out over the North Sea.
:
: >
:
: >They had finally turned northwest, headed back to England
: , when they
:
: >were jumped by German fighters at 22,000 feet. The Messer
: schmitt Me-109s
:
: >pressed their attack so closely that Capt. Rojohn could s
: ee the faces of
:
: >the German pilots.
:
: >
:
: >He and other pilots fought to remain in formation so they
: could use each
:
: >other's guns to defend the group. Rojohn saw a B-17 ahead
: of him burst
:
: >into flames and slide sickeningly toward the earth. He gu
: nned his ship
:
: >forward to fill in the gap.
:
: >
:
: >He felt a huge impact. The big bomber shuddered, felt sud
: denly very
:
: >heavy and began losing altitude. Rojohn grasped almost im
: mediately that
:
: >he had collided with another plane. A B-17 below him, pil
: oted by Lt.
:
: >William G. McNab, had slammed the top of its fuselage int
: o the bottom of
:
: >Rojohn's. The top turret gun of McNab's plane was now loc
: ked in the
:
: >belly of Rojohn's plane and the ball turret in the belly
: of Rojohn's had
:
: >smashed through the top of McNab's. The two bombers were
: almost
:
: >perfectly aligned - the tail of the lower plane was sligh
: tly to the left
:
: >of Rojohn's tailpiece. They were stuck together, as a cre
: wman later
:
: >recalled, "like mating dragon flies."
:
: >
:
: >No one will ever know exactly how it happened. Perhaps bo
: th pilots had
:
: >moved instinctively to fill the same gap in formation. Pe
: rhaps McNab's
:
: >plane had hit an air pocket.
:
: >
:
: >Three of the engines on the bottom plane were still runni
: ng, as were all
:
: >four of Rojohn's. The fourth engine on the lower bomber w
: as on fire and
:
: >the flames were spreading to the rest of the aircraft. Th
: e two were
:
: >losing altitude quickly. Rojohn tried several times to gu
: n his engines
:
: >and break free of the other plane. The two were inextrica
: bly locked
:
: >together. Fearing a fire, Rojohn cuts his engines and ran
: g the bailout
:
: >bell. If his crew had any chance of parachuting, he had t
: o keep the
:
: >plane under control somehow.
:
: >
:
: >The ball turret, hanging below the belly of the B-17, was
: considered by
:
: >many to be a death trap - the worst station on the bomber
: . In this case,
:
: >both ball turrets figured in a swift and terrible drama o
: f life and
:
: >death.
:
: >
:
: >Staff Sgt. Edward L. Woodall, Jr., in the ball turret of
: the lower
:
: >bomber, had felt the impact of the collision above him an
: d saw shards of
:
: >metal drop past him. Worse, he realized both electrical a
: nd hydraulic
:
: >power was gone.
:
: >
:
: >Remembering escape drills, he grabbed the handcrank, rele
: ased the clutch
:
: >and cranked the turret and its guns until they were strai
: ght down, then
:
: >turned and climbed out the back of the turret up into the
: fuselage.
:
: >
:
: >Once inside the plane's belly Woodall saw a chilling sigh
: t, the ball
:
: >turret of the other bomber protruding through the top of
: the fuselage.
:
: >In that turret, hopelessly trapped, was Staff Sgt. Joseph
: Russo. Several
:
: >crewmembers on Rojohn's plane tried frantically to crank
: Russo's turret
:
: >around so he could escape. But, jammed into the fuselage
: of the lower
:
: >plane, the turret would not budge.
:
: >
:
: >Aware of his plight, but possibly unaware that his voice
: was going out
:
: >over the intercom of his plane, Sgt. Russo began reciting
: his Hail
:
: >Marys.
:
: >
:
: >Up in the cockpit, Capt. Rojohn and his copilot, 2nd Lt.
: William G.
:
: >Leek, Jr., had propped their feet against the instrument
: panel so they
:
: >could pull back on their controls with all their strength
: , trying to
:
: >prevent their plane from going into a spinning dive that
: would prevent
:
: >the crew from jumping out.
:
: >
:
: >Capt. Rojohn motioned left and the two managed to wheel t
: he grotesque,
:
: >collision-born hybrid of a plane back toward the German c
: oast. Leek felt
:
: >like he was intruding on Sgt. Russo as his prayers crackl
: ed over the
:
: >radio, so he pulled off his flying helmet with its earpho
: nes.
:
: >
:
: >Rojohn, immediately grasping that crew could not exit fro
: m the bottom of
:
: >his plane, ordered his top turret gunner and his radio op
: erator, Tech
:
: >Sgts. Orville Elkin and Edward G. Neuhaus, to make their
: way to the back
:
: >of the fuselage and out the waist door behind the left wi
: ng.
:
: >
:
: >Then he got his navigator, 2nd Lt. Robert Washington, and
: his
:
: >bombardier, Sgt. James Shirley to follow them. As Rojohn
: and Leek
:
: >somehow held the plane steady, these four men, as well as
: waist gunner
:
: >Sgt. Roy Little and tail gunner Staff Sgt. Francis Chase
: were able to
:
: >bail out.
:
: >
:
: >Now the plane locked below them was aflame. Fire poured o
: ver Rojohn's
:
: >left wing. He could feel the heat from the plane below an
: d hear the
:
: >sound of .50 caliber machine-gun ammunition "cooking off"
: in the flames.
:
: >
:
: >Capt. Rojohn ordered Lieut. Leek to bail out. Leek knew t
: hat without him
:
: >helping keep the controls back, the plane would drop in a
: flaming spiral
:
: >and the centrifugal force would prevent Rojohn from baili
: ng. He refused
:
: >the order.
:
: >
:
: >Meanwhile, German soldiers and civilians on the ground th
: at afternoon
:
: >looked up in wonder. Some of them thought they were seein
: g a new Allied
:
: >secret weapon - a strange eight-engined double bomber. Bu
: t antiaircraft
:
: >gunners on the North Sea coastal island of Wangerooge had
: seen the
:
: >collision. A German battery captain wrote in his logbook
: at 12:47 p.m.:
:
: >"Two fortresses collided in a formation in the NE. The pl
: anes flew
:
: >hooked together and flew 20 miles south. The two planes w
: ere unable to
:
: >fight anymore. The crash could be awaited so I stopped th
: e firing at
:
: >these two planes."
:
: >
:
: >Suspended in his parachute in the cold December sky, Bob
: Washington
:
: >watched with deadly fascination as the mated bombers, tra
: iling black
:
: >smoke, fell to earth about three miles away, their downwa
: rd trip ending
:
: >in an ugly boiling blossom of fire.
:
: >
:
: >In the cockpit Rojohn and Leek held grimly to the control
: s trying to
:
: >ride a falling rock. Leek tersely recalled, "The ground c
: ame up faster
:
: >and faster. Praying was allowed. We gave it one last effo
: rt and slammed
:
: >into the ground."
:
: >
:
: >The McNab plane on the bottom exploded, vaulting the othe
: r B-17 upward
:
: >and forward. It hit the ground and slid along until its l
: eft wing
:
: >slammed through a wooden building and the smoldering mass
: of aluminum
:
: >came to a stop.
:
: >
:
: >Rojohn and Leek were still seated in their cockpit. The n
: ose of the
:
: >plane was relatively intact, but everything from the B-17
: 's massive
:
: >wings back was destroyed. They looked at each other incre
: dulously.
:
: >Neither was badly injured.
:
: >
:
: >Movies have nothing on reality. Still perhaps in shock, L
: eek crawled out
:
: >through a huge hole behind the cockpit, felt for the fami
: liar pack in
:
: >his uniform pocket and pulled out a cigarette. He placed
: it in his mouth
:
: >and was about to light it. Then he noticed a young German
: soldier
:
: >pointing a rifle at him. The soldier looked scared and an
: noyed. He
:
: >grabbed the cigarette out of Leek's mouth and pointed dow
: n to the
:
: >gasoline pouring out over the wing from a ruptured fuel t
: ank.
:
: >
:
: >Two of the six men who parachuted from Rojohn's plane did
: not survive
:
: >the jump. But the other four and, amazingly, four men fro
: m the other
:
: >bomber, including ball turret gunner Woodall, survived. A
: ll were taken
:
: >prisoner. Several of them were interrogated at length by
: the Germans
:
: >until they were satisfied that what had crashed was not a
: new American
:
: >secret weapon.
:
: >
:
: >Rojohn, typically, didn't talk much about his Distinguish
: ed Flying
:
: >Cross. Of Leek, he said, "In all fairness to my copilot,
: he's the
:
: >reason I'm alive today."
:
: >
:
: >Like so many veterans, Rojohn got back to life unsentimen
: tally after the
:
: >war, marrying and raising a son and daughter. For many ye
: ars, though, he
:
: >tried to link back up with Leek, going through government
: records to try
:
: >to track him down. It took him 40 years, but in 1986, he
: found the
:
: >number of Leek's mother, in Washington State.
:
: >
:
: >Yes, her son Bill was visiting from California. Would Roj
: ohn like to
:
: >speak with him? Two old men on a phone line, trying to pi
: ck up some
:
: >familiar timbre of youth in each other's voice. One can i
: magine that
:
: >first conversation between the two men who had shared tha
: t wild ride in
:
: >the cockpit of a B-17.
:
: >
:
: >A year later, the two were reunited at a reunion of the 1
: 00th Bomb Group
:
: >in Long Beach, Calif. Bill Leek died the following year.
:
:
: >
:
: >Glenn Rojohn was the last survivor of the remarkable pigg
: yback flight.
:
: >He was like thousands upon thousands of men -- soda jerks
: and
:
: >lumberjacks, teachers and dentists, students and lawyers
: and service
:
: >station attendants and store clerks and farm boys -- who
: in the prime of
:
: >their lives went to war in World War II. They sometimes d
: id incredible
:
: >things, endured awful things, and for the most part most
: of them pretty
:
: >much kept it to themselves and just faded back into the f
: abric of
:
: >civilian life.
:
: >
:
: >Capt. Glenn Rojohn, AAF, died last Saturday after a long
: siege of
:
: >illness. But he apparently faced that final battle with t
: he same grim
:
: >aplomb he displayed that remarkable day over Germany so l
: ong ago.
:
: >
:
: >Let us be thankful for such men.


More on this subject on the 100th BG Website!
http://www.100thbg.com/mainpages/history/history2/collision.htm


Paul


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