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.
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