Unlikely Air Combat Survival Stories

I rememeber reading of an FW190 pilot who fell either unconcious or without chute and crashed through the roof of a monastary and landed on a bed and survived. anyone else hear of this one?.

Greg

18 September 1940.
PC Clack of Southend Police writes in his report to the Chief Constable:-
“I went with the Police ambulance to the Pier Entrance to convey an injured German airman, Wade Muller to the New General Hospital where he was detained. Muller baled out from an enemy aircraft and his parachute failed to open and he landed in the sea.”

Paul Weidemuller was a crew member of a Ju 88, he confirmed the above detail.

You still up grandad??! It’s way past bedtime innit?!?!?!?:diablo:

18 September 1940.
PC Clack of Southend Police writes in his report to the Chief Constable:-
“I went with the Police ambulance to the Pier Entrance to convey an injured German airman, Wade Muller to the New General Hospital where he was detained. Muller baled out from an enemy aircraft and his parachute failed to open and he landed in the sea.”

Paul Weidemuller was a crew member of a Ju 88, he confirmed the above detail.

I think you mean Alan Magee:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Magee

There is a tale that was featured on th TV series ‘Mythbusters’ about an airman who baled out over France sans chute and was about to land in a railway station and apparently survived after a bomb went off and the shockwave slowed him down threw him clear. The tests on the show were unable to prove the story true.

Martin

I read about this too, possibly over on WIX or something. Methinks it was a B-17 gunner.

I did read somewhere else, possibly again over on WIX, that a bomber crew member, sans chute, landed on the roof of a train station and survived, although I could be totally wrong.

There is a tale that was featured on th TV series ‘Mythbusters’ about an airman who baled out over France sans chute and was about to land in a railway station and apparently survived after a bomb went off and the shockwave slowed him down threw him clear. The tests on the show were unable to prove the story true.

Martin

Get hold of a copy of the book ‘Into the Silk’. It is full of amazing, almost unbelievable escapes – with and without a chute.

Correct for B17 tailgunner survival

Unless my memory is hazy,which it frequently is.I can recall seeing a pic of a B17 tail with its gunner compartment split open like a tomato can.Apparently an 88 shell exploded just in front of it propelling the tailgunner into open space.I think he is the only person to have survived a direct hit by an 88 shell.He came too and opened his chute luckily.His luck was that he packed spare flak jackets on the doors to prevent shrapnel entering.In the book “Aces” a P51 pilot was shot down and was pinned in the cockpit due to centrifugal force.About 50 feet above the ground his fuel tank exploded propelling his seat out onto the ground with him in it.The armour plate taking the blast.He awoke to find his plane littered around him in little bits and pieces.Anyone confirm these?

search under Louis Strange. And he was flying a Martinsyde S I. He didn’t do too badly in W.W.II either.

Thanks James – saved me replying. 🙂

Thanks for the tip.

I’ve heard the same story.

Wasn’t it the Lewis gun mounted on the upper wing of an SE5a?

Is it a true account…I love to know the full details of this one if it is.

search under Louis Strange. And he was flying a Martinsyde S I. He didn’t do too badly in W.W.II either.

I did some research back in the early 90s for a 301st BG tail gunner who’d been shot down February 13, 1945. He sent me a copy of his story that he’d written for his family back in 1946-47 about his wartime experience. He ‘rode it in’ from 27,000 feet in the tail the day he went down. It affected him the rest of his life. Quoting Gael Elmer, 301st BG

“We were only a few minutes away from the target when another ship in our formation told us that there was a gas leak in our wing. I looked and could see a fine spray leaving the trailing edge of the wing out near the Tokyo tanks. But, as I watched, i was sure it was smoke and by looking back out of the slip stream I could see that it was smoke. A tremor went through me as I knew we were on fire even though I didn’t know how bad it was. Then I heard Larry (co-pilot) who was flying at the time, complain that the controls were sluggish and the left wing was heavy. The termor I felt before suddenly deepened as I felt the ship tremble as the heavy wing tried to go down. I glanced down at the ground and remembered that it was mostly white with snow and a long way down. I grabbed my chute and snapped it on to my harness along with my GI shoes.

As the sthil still seemed to be laboring along, I glanced out toward the burning wing. There were no flames, but the smoke was thicker now and the metal skin began to shrivel up on the wing ribs. I seemed to feel that it couldn’t last ong and moved as near to my escape hatch as I could and still keep my wires connected. Then it all became more of a reality as I heard Barnes say over the interphone, “get your chutes on. We’ll sweat her out a little while longer.” But instead of getting better the wing seemed to get heavier and the controls more sluggish. With each tremor of the big ship, the feeling of fear bore down upon me. Soon I heard Barnes call for a heading to Russia. Edelson came back with “Take a heading of 90 degrees”. I can remember faintly the ship starting to turn and nothing more.

I’m going down, I’ve got to get out! Bail out, bail out, I’m going down! This is what we were trained for–this is the moment. Get out! Get ou! I can’t. I’m trapped. I’m going down with it. I’m going to die. Now I’ll know what it’s like. I’ve often wondered. Dear God I’m coming. Good bye Doris.

Someone was firing shots. I could hear sharp reports, and there was an old lady standing there in plain view. She should get down. What strange looking people. I wonder what they are staring at me for. I wonder where I am. Who could they be? Why am I here?

Suddenly my senses returned and as though someone had lifted a curtain on my past life, I could remember everything. We had been flying and were on fire. We had decided to head for Russia and I had been trapped in the plane. I could remember going down. Most likely only seconds, but I could remember being unable to get out of the ship when I tried. My left hand had been caught beneath the cat walk. The ammunition box on my left had broken loose from the ship. Half was in front and half in back of me, making it impossible for me to move any part of my body except my right arm. I had struggled to get out until blackness and weakness came over me and as we seeminly plummeted downward, I knew i would surely die.

But here I was alive. I couldn’t be dead because I could see all these people and I was there–it was me.

With that knowledge of being alive, I slipped back into slumber.”

His best friend on the crew had ridden it down too in the nose, but died shortly afterwards as Elmer watched unable to do anything to help. Gael Elmer finished the war as a POW.

Ley Kenyon’s POW diary has numerous stories collected over the years in a Stalag.

The one that stands out most involved a bomber hit by flak, which explodes only to leave the tail unit. This proceeds to ‘sycamore’ down to Earth with the unconcious rear gunner inside.
First he knows is when he wakes up, wonders why they are on the ground, and gets the shock of his life on turning round to open his door that the rest of the aircraft is gone….:confused:

The three crewmen who survived being shot down on the Dambusters raid all had pretty miraculous escapes. The most amazing of the three must be Sgt. Fred Tees, the rear gunner on AJ-C flown by Ottley. Their Lanc was hit by light flak near Hamm on the way to the target, and the aircraft crashed with the bomb and alot of fuel still aboard. All the crew but Tees were killed, his turret being thrown clear of the inferno. In a twist of fate, Tees was usually the front gunner (there are books and articles etc that still quote Tees as being in the front turret for the mission) but for some reason the two decided to swap places just before the raid.

Sorry, didn’t have time to actually go through the Wiki page to correct my mistake! :rolleyes:

No criticism intended. I just wanted to highlight the appalling decision this young man had to make.

He didn’t fall out…he jumped out!

Sorry, didn’t have time to actually go through the Wiki page to correct my mistake! :rolleyes:

And the WW1 pilot who stood up to dislodge a jammed magazine on his upperwing mounted Vickers which caused the plane to turn upside down leaving him hanging on to the jammed magazine while frantically trying to get back into the cockpit and right the aircraft. Which he did.

I’ve heard the same story.

Wasn’t it the Lewis gun mounted on the upper wing of an SE5a?

Is it a true account…I love to know the full details of this one if it is.

I recall reading somewhere of a Ju-88 that actually settled, engines running, on top of a barrage balloon which immediately began to sink rapidly earthward. As it descended the Ju-88 slid off and was able to fly away.

And the WW1 pilot who stood up to dislodge a jammed magazine on his upperwing mounted Vickers which caused the plane to turn upside down leaving him hanging on to the jammed magazine while frantically trying to get back into the cockpit and right the aircraft. Which he did.

IIRC also there was a pre-WW1 imcident where a pilot survived an inverted crash of a Bristol Boxkite because he had fallen onto the lower surface of the upper wing, and was sort of held in place by the birdcage like bracing wires.

The Thirteenth Mission

Andrew Mynarski’s courage in tryng to save his friend Pat Brophy, The CWH lancaster commemorates that fateful event.
Amazingly, as the Lancaster hurtled toward the earth it hit a tree and the blow snapped Brophy’s turret open and he was thrown free, unharmed. The French resistance rescued Brophy and three of his companions; two of the surviving crew had been taken prisoner. He later learned that a French farmer had spoken of a parachutist who had landed alive but died of severe burns.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Params=A1ARTFET_E145

And the Lancaster gunner falling out of his aircraft, sans chute, and surviving.

He didn’t fall out…he jumped out!