Wednesday, Aug. 06, 2008
A Flight Back in Time
By Martin Magers, Special to the Journal
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ReprintMy adventure with the B-17 Flying Fortress, nicknamed “Aluminum Overcast,” began on the evening of July 2, 2008. I live in the flight pattern for Lee’s Summit Municipal Airport, so I heard it arrive. I’d been eagerly awaiting the return of this remarkable piece of aviation history and decided to drive out to the airport for a sneak preview. By the time I got there she was already parked in all her majesty. I hadn’t seen her for a few years, but she looked just the same. In a word: beautiful.
This World War II bomber is owned and operated by the Experimental Aircraft Association Aviation Foundation. When it’s not flying around the country on demonstrations, it’s based at the EAA’s AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh, Wis.
July 3 was media and B-17 veterans flight day. I went out to watch. As the four big 1,200-horsepower nine-cylinder radial engines coughed, belched smoke and roared to life, the air was filled with a sound that words can’t describe. After the flights were over for the day, I was busy taking pictures and was honored to meet some aircrew veterans of the B-17. Three of these amazing gentlemen live in Lee’s Summit.
Bob Sommer, 82, told me he was a 19-year-old tail gunner who flew 33 combat missions before being shot down over Germany. He was severely wounded, survived the bailout, then almost didn’t survive a German medical facility and prisoner-of-war camp. He was later liberated by the British.
Sommer volunteered to fill a gunner slot and fly with a different crew for the fateful trip on which he was shot down. He was one mission behind his regular crew because he was made to stand down after getting “nicked up” on the previous trip. He wanted to make up the lost mission so he could finish and return home with his regular crew. Things didn’t go as planned.
He remembers the early morning briefing of April 10, 1945. This trip was designed to knock out an underground aircraft factory at Oranienburg, Germany. The plane was fitted with 1,000-pound bombs using time delay fuses.
After dropping the bomb load on the target, they were jumped by ME 262 fighters firing 30mm cannon. Sommer was hit when the shells penetrated the aircraft, exploded inside and crippled the plane. The bailout order was given. Although seriously wounded in the right arm and back, he was able to grab a chest parachute pack. He had the forethought to turn it 180 degrees before clipping it on so that he could pull the ripcord with his left hand.
He hit the ground, was taken into custody and sent to a prisoner-of-war facility that had medical assistance. The first doctor to see him took one look at his arm and said “Kaput.” He wanted to amputate it. A second doctor was nearby and also examined him. He stated in perfect English, “I am going to save your arm.”
Sommer was astounded to learn this doctor had come to the United States and went to medical school in New York. He then returned to Germany for a visit and was drafted into the Wehrmacht medical corps.
Later, Sommer was liberated by the British. He was returned to England, and after battling gangrene and undergoing extensive recuperation, he was sent back to the United States. By the way, he still has his arm.
Bill Nagel, 85, relayed the following story to me. He was a B-17 pilot with 52 combat missions to his credit. At 20 years old, he volunteered for flight training with the Army Air Corps. He was first sent to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis for basic field training. His next stop was at Sioux City, Iowa. There he was placed in a College Training Detachment (CTD) and housed in a college dorm. He took initial flight training in a Piper Cub at a local airport. After it was determined that he showed flying ability he was sent to Phoenix, Ariz., where he trained in Stearman biplanes. Then it was on to Bakersfield, Calif., for flight time in a slightly hotter trainer, the BT-13, infamously known as the “Vultee Vibrator.”
After that, he returned to Phoenix and was introduced to an advanced trainer, the AT-6 “Texan.” He was then sent back to where his flight training started, only this time it was not at a college dorm, but at a military airbase in Sioux City. This is where he took transition training to learn to fly the B-17. Then suddenly at 22 years old, he was headed to the war in Europe.
Out of many flying adventures, one of the most harrowing that Nagel told me about concerned a mission to Bremen, Germany, to hit a ball bearing factory. Flak knocked out two engines over the target. On the way back, a third engine quit somewhere over France, and he was losing altitude. Prior to leaving France and crossing the English Channel, he was down to 10,000 feet. By the time he reached the English coast he was 250 feet above ground and the fourth engine quit. The plane was shot up so badly that it had no electric or hydraulic power. He was forced to set it down in a farmer’s field, wheels up, among some grazing cattle.
I asked him if he had ever had a plane shot up so badly as to force a bailout. He replied that he hadn’t. However, he said that he had returned nine different planes so heavily damaged that no attempt was made to repair them. They were scrapped and used for parts.
Dick Greiner, 82, informed me that he was a ball turret gunner who flew 35 combat missions over Europe. He was once a “guest” of the Russians after a forced landing due to severe flak damage. The plane was hit hard and lost two engines. The force of the flak explosions threw the plane into a steep nosedive and the aircraft went from 29,000 feet down to 5,000 feet before the pilots were able to pull it out. That’s a drop of about 4.5 miles.
Eighteen-year-old Greiner was riding in the ball turret the whole way. He later learned that the pilot and co-pilot both had their feet on the instrument panel pulling back as hard as they could on the control yoke. In addition, the crew chief was standing between them with a hand on each yoke trying to help. The B-17 has no hydraulic assist for the flight controls, it’s all cables, pulleys, and muscle. Finally, they were able to pull out of the dive and land in Russian territory. The plane was in no shape to go any further.
After approximately three weeks, the crew managed to repair the plane with scavenged parts from wrecked B-17s in the general area and fly back to their home base. During this time, his parents received a telegram that he was missing in action.
Greiner showed me a scrapbook that contained his combat flight log, pictures of some of the missions he flew and the actual telegram received by his parents. I was astounded.