第28章
《空军战士——驾驶B-24轰炸机的男孩们》章节:第28章,宠文网网友提供全文无弹窗免费在线阅读。!
Johnson checked the tail gunnerand the ball turret gunner, then pressed his mike. "Pilot from left waist— everyone okay back here." But he added, "Number three engine throwingoil and smoke, number four dead, holes in flaps and wings. Over."
Johnson later found out that the first burst had exploded directly infront of the plane and the force of it took the top off the nose turret.The second burst came through and cut the nose wheel and tire in two, cutthe interphone lines to the nose and also the oxygen lines. The third burstripped up the underside of the right wing and exploded in number four engine.The gunner in the top turret, Sgt. Nick Corbo, had just breathed easy andsaid to himself, "We’ve made this one," when the bursts came. One pieceof shrapnel exploded through the flight deck. Johnson and the other crewmembers began throwing everything that was loose out of the plane. Ammunition,guns, flak suits, anything and everything that was loose except themselves.Merritt fought the wheel as the plane heaved and slowed to the brink ofstalling. Then it began dropping. Gasoline streamed from the riddled wingtanks, filling the plane with the reek of the fuel. Only one engine wasstill working, and that one hardly was. The plane had dropped from 25,000feet to 12,000 and was still going down. Merritt managed to get up somespeed and cross into Yugoslavia. Down to 2,000 feet and almost out of fuel,he called out over the intercom, "Bail out and good luck!"
Johnson recalled that the right waist gunner was the first out, followedby the tail gunner and the ball turret gunner. "I was alone in back. I facedthe front of the ship and put my head between my knees and out I went. Theslipstream caught me and I went end for end. By the time I had slowed downa bit I had pulled my rip cord. One long pull. I was jerked straight upand down as the silk billowed open and I breathed a prayer of thanks."
Johnson and the others, including Merritt and the co-pilot, landed moreor less intact. They were picked up by partisans who managed to get themback to Italy, but not until November 26.
Lt. Glenn Rendahl, a co-pilot from Hollywood, California, with the 514thSquadron, said that on his first mission, the flak "exceeded whatever weexpected." On McGovern’s second mission one bomber of the group was lost.Again there were clouds, but the lead bomber had the Mickey radar and usedit to find the railroad and dropped his bombs. The twenty-seven planes followingdid also. But because of the clouds, no observation of results could bemade.
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On his first mission, navigator Pepin of the 741st saw a lot of flak,saw some B-24's get hit, but his plane managed to drop its bombs successfully.He felt a sense of joy as the plane headed home. The bomb bay doors wereclosing and the aircraft’s speed was increasing. "The going-home sightof the Alps in the early afternoon was far more beautiful than the morningone." The radiomen tuned to the Armed Services Radio station in Foggia andover the intercom the crew listened to the latest hit records. Both dangerand the crew’s stamina diminished on the home-bound run and "our elationand silliness increased." Everyone was "tired, hungry and thirsty," as theirbreakfast and coffee had been hours ago. Finally Pepin could see Cerignolaand his plane circled the field. Then, and on later missions, "My favoritesight and sound was hearing the tires touch the steel mat on landing andseeing the props come to a halt." After nine hours of "grueling, horrendous,nerve-wracking flying, the mission was over."
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For Sgt. Robert Hammer, now a radio operator with the 742nd Squadron,his first mission was in late September: target, the airfield outside Munich.Two of the men in his crew, a bombardier and a flight engineer, were ontheir last missions before going home. A fighter escort joined them "andwe were bouncing gaily along in the blue" when dead ahead a thick, coal-blackcloud appeared. "Take a good look at it, fellows," the veteran bombardiercalled over the intercom, "because it ’s flak and you’ll be seeing plentyof it from now on." Hammer was appalled to see the squadron of B-24's aheadfly directly into the stuff. Fools, he thought. Why don ’t they just flyaround it?