Planes I Flew In

was afraid to open my eyes. They were "watery", which I mistook for blood. What a wonderful feeling it was to learn that I was OK. This was the first time I ever doubted that I'd get back home again. Rough mission and all -- it turned out that the only plane lost today was the one that exploded. (one too many). Someone once said, "There are no atheists in a fox hole". I can say the same thing for a bomber flying through flak.

As for, "Ula Lume", it flew a total of 17 combat missions -- from August 1 to October 5, 1944 when the records report it as, "shot down". My records show that I flew on the October 5 mission -- but not in this plane. ("lucked out", again)

A footnote is in order: Those of us who saw that plane break up and did not see any chutes, automatically assumed that no one survived. We were wrong. Somehow, one person did -- the bombardier, Lt. Frank Whittington. His story of what took place was featured in one of our Group's early newsletters. He wore his chute on every mission, cumbersome as it was, and it saved his life. He was blown into space and somehow managed to pull the ripcord -- landing on the roof of a large building. After being taken prisoner he learned that he was the only survivor of his crew. He spent the rest of the war as a POW.

This mission generated many eyewitness accounts of what took place that day. Dick Wood printed some of them in the book he and Bob Bee co-authored, "War Stories of the 0 & W". Well worth reading.

B 17: #891 “Old Man’s Folly”

October 2, 1944

Our target for today was a tank factory at Kassel, Germany. I'm getting used to our new crew. We meld together well.

Encountered a lot of flak on the bomb run but we all made it back OK. Results unknown, as we bombed by P.F.F. (radar) again.

"Old Man's Folly" flew a total of 37 combat missions -- the dates listed in the recap of, "Aircraft of the 486th", records its first mission as 1 0-15-44 and the last one on 5-20-45, when it was involved in a "taxi accident" and salvaged. But the mission flimsy for 10-2-44 (almost two weeks earlier) shows Fishel's crew as flying #891. Seems to be a discrepancy in the dates.

B 17: #007 “Sleepy Time Gal”

October 3, 1944

We were briefed to bomb a plant in Nürnberg, Germany, but again, because of bad weather over the target area we hit our "secondary" target, an airfield at Giebelstadt, instead. We flew in the high squadron today -- and most of the flak was low so our plane didn't get too much. Lucky again. No losses today -- which translates to, "a good mission”.

"Sleepy Time Gal" flew a total of 29 combat missions -- from August 1 to November 10, 1944. The records weren't clear as to what happened to it.

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