| Show ernie pyles pyle s slaw slant on the war crew returns from the dead in miracle fortresses crippled two tivo engines missing left alone to fight nazi air hordes by ernie pyle editor s note pyle retells some oj of his experiences while he was with the dough boys during the north africa campaign lie ile is now taking a long needed rest in new mexico A FORWARD AIRDROME IN FRENCH NORTH AFRICA you read the official a few days ago about a devastating raid by our flying fortresses on a huge german bomber airdrome near tripoli what you read at least in any detail is the story contained in these next two columns it was late afternoon at our desert airdrome the sun was lazy the air was warm and a faint haze of propeller dust hung over the field giving it softness it was time for the planes to start 41 coming back from 41 their mission and am one by one they did come big flying fortresses and fiery little nobody bod y paid a great ernie pyle deal of attention at for this returning is a daily routine thing finally they were all in all that is except one operations reported a fortress missing returning pilots said it had lagged behind and lost altitude just after leaving the target the last report said the fortress stay in the air more than five minutes hours had passed since khenso then so it was gone ten men were in that plane the days accomplishments had been great but the thought of 10 lost friends cast a pall over people we had already seen death that afternoon for one of the returning fortresses had released a red flare over the field and I 1 had stood with others beneath the great plane as they handed its dead pilot head downward through the escape hatch batch onto a stretcher the faces of his crew were grave and nobody talked very loud one man clutched a leather cap with blood on it the pilots hands were very white everybody knew the pilot he was so young a couple of hours ago the war came inside us then and we felt it deeply As we stood on the tower looking down over this powerful scene the day began folding itself up fighter planes which patrol the field all day were coming in all the soldiers in the tent camps had finished supper that noiseless peace that sometimes comes just before dusk hung over the airdrome men talked in low tones about the dead pilot and the lost fortress we thought we would wait a few minutes more to see if the germans were coming tonight MISSING FORTRESS RETURNS and then than an electric thing happened far off in t the he dusk a red flare shot into the sky it made an arc against the dark background of the mountains and fell to the earth it be anything else it had to be the 10 dead men were coming home wheres the flare gun gamme a green flare I 1 yelled an officer he ran to the edge of the tower shouted look out below and fired a green rocket into the air then we saw the plane just a tiny black speck it seemed almost on the ground it was so low and in the first glance we could sense that it ik was barely moving barely staying in the air crippled and alone two hours behind all the rest it was dragging itself home I 1 am a layman and no longer of the fraternity that flies but I 1 can feel and at that moment I 1 felt something close to human love for that faithful battered machine that far dark speck struggling toward us with such pathetic slowness all of us stood tense hardly remembering mem bering anyone else was there with our nervous systems we seemed to pull the plane toward us I 1 suspect a photograph would have shown us all leaning slightly to the left not one of us thought the plane would ever make the field but on it came so slowly was cruel to watch it reached the far end of the airdrome still holding its pathetic little altitude it skimmed over the tops of parked planes and kept on actually reaching out it seemed to asfor Us for the runway A few hundred yards more now could it would it was it truly possible they cleared bleared the last plane and they were over the runway they settled slowly the wheels touched softly and as the plane rolled on down the runway the thousands of men round around that vast field suddenly realized that they were weak and that they could hear their hearts pounding the last of the sunset died and the sky turned into blackness which would help the germans if they came on schedule with their bombs but nobody cared our 10 dead men were miraculously back from the grave BRINGING thunderbird HOME the 10 men who brought their flying fortress home from a raid on tripoli after they had been given up for lost undoubtedly will get decorations nothing quite like it has happened before in this war pere here is the full story the tripoli airdrome was heavily defended by both fighter planes and antiaircraft guns flying into that hailstorm as one pilot said was like a mouse attacking a dozen cats the thunderbird for that was the name of this fortress was first hit just as it dropped its bomb load one engine went out then a few moments later the other engine on the same side went when both engines go out on the same side it is usually fatal and therein lies the difference of this feat from other instances of bringing damaged bombers home the thunderbird was forced to drop below the other fortresses and the moment a fortress drops down or lags behind german fighters are on it like vultures the boys dont know how many germans were in the air but they think there must have been 30 our lightning fighters escorting the fortresses stuck by the thunderbird and fought as long as they could but finally they had to leave or they have had enough fuel to make it home the last fighter left the crippled fortress about 40 miles from tripoli fortunately the swarm of german fighters started home at the same time for their gas was low too the thunderbird flew on another 20 miles then a single german fighter appeared and dived at them its guns did great damage to the already crippled plane but simply knock it out of the air finally the fighter ran out of ammunition and left our boys were alone now with their grave troubles two engines were gone most of the guns were out of commission and they were still more than miles from home the radio was out they were losing altitude feet a minute and now they were down to 2000 the pilot called up his crew and held a consultation did they want to jump they all said they would ride the plane as long as it was in the air he decided to keep going the ship was completely out of trim cocked over at a terrible angle but they gradually got it trimmed so that it stopped losing altitude by now they were down to fet feet and a solid wall of mountains ahead barred the way homeward they flew along parallel to these mountains for along time but they were now miraculously gaining some altitude finally they got the thing to 1500 feet maybe its as the pilot said we come over the mountains we came through them the copilot co pilot said 1 I was blowing on the windshield trying to kushher push her along once I 1 almost wanted to reach a foot down and sort of walk us along over the pass and the navigator said if I 1 had been on the wingtip I 1 could have touched the ground with my hand when we went through the pass |
