Piggyback Hero

Capt. Glenn Rojohn, of the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group was flying his
B-17G Flying Fortress bomber on a raid over Hamburg . His formation had
braved heavy flak to drop their bombs, then turned 180 degrees to head out
over the North Sea . They had finally turned northwest, headed back to
England , when they were jumped by German fighters at 22,000 feet. The
Messerschmitt Me-109s passed their attack so closely that Capt. Rojohn could
see the faces of the German pilots. He and other pilots fought to remain in
formation so they could use each other's guns to defend the group. Rojohn
saw a B-17 ahead of him burst into flames and slide sickeningly toward the
earth. He gunned his ship forward to fill in the gap. He felt a huge
impact. The big bomber shuddered, felt suddenly very heavy and began losing
altitude. Rojohn grasped almost immediately that he had collided with
another plane. A B-17 below him, piloted by Lt. William G. McNab, had
slammed the top of its fuselage into the bottom of Rojohn's. The top turret
gun of McNab's plane was now locked in the belly of Rojohn's plane and the
ball turret in the belly of Rojohn's had smashed through the top of McNab's.
The two bombers were almost perfectly aligned -- the tail of the lower plane
was slightly to the left of Rojohn's tailpiece. They were stuck together, as
a crewman later recalled, "like mating dragon flies."

Three of the engines on the bottom plane were still running, as were all
four of Rojohn's. The fourth engine on the lower bomber was on fire and the
flames were spreading to the rest of the aircraft. The two were losing
altitude quickly. Rojohn tried several times to gun his engines and break
free of the other plane. The two were inextricably locked together. Fearing
a fire, Rojohn cut his engines and rang the bailout bell. For his crew to
have any chance of parachuting, he had to keep the plane under control
somehow.

The ball turret, hanging below the belly of the B-17, was considered by
many to be a death trap -- the worst station on the bomber. In this case,
both ball turrets figured in a swift and terrible drama of life and death.
Staff Sgt. Edward L. Woodall, Jr., in the ball turret of the lower bomber
had felt the impact of the collision above him and saw shards of metal drop
past him. Worse, he realized both electrical and hydraulic power was gone.

Remembering escape drills, he grabbed the hand crank, released the clutch
and cranked the turret and its guns until they were straight down, then
turned and climbed out the back of the turret up into the fuselage. Once
inside the plane's belly Woodall saw a chilling sight, the ball turret of
the other bomber protruding through the top of the fuselage. In that turret,
hopelessly trapped, was Staff Sgt. Joseph Russo. Several crew members of
Rojohn's plane tried frantically to crank Russo's turret around so he could
escape, but, jammed into the fuselage of the lower plane, it would not
budge. Perhaps unaware that his voice was going out over the intercom of his
plane, Sgt. Russo began reciting his Hail Mary's.

Up in the cockpit, Capt. Rojohn and his co-pilot 2nd Lt. William G. Leek,
Jr., had propped their feet against the instrument panel so they could pull
back on their controls with all their strength, trying to prevent their
plane from going into a spinning dive that would prevent the crew from
jumping out. Capt. Rojohn motioned left and the two managed to wheel the
huge, collision-born hybrid of a plane back toward the German coast. Leek
felt like he was intruding on Sgt. Russo as his prayers crackled over the
radio, so he pulled off his flying helmet with its earphones.

Rojohn, immediately grasping that crew could not exit from the bottom of
his plane, ordered his top turret gunner and his radio operator, Tech Sgt.
Orville Elkin and Edward G. Neuhaus to make their way to the back of the
fuselage and out the waist door on the left behind the wing. Then he got his
navigator, 2nd Lt. Robert Washington, and his bombardier, Sgt. James Shirley
to follow them. As Rojohn and Leek somehow held the plane steady, these four
men, as well as waist gunner, Sgt. Roy Little, and tail gunner, Staff Sgt.
Francis Chase, were able to bail out.

Now the plane locked below them was aflame. Fire poured over Rojohn's left
wing. He could feel the heat from the plane below and hear the sound of 50
machinegun ammunition "cooking off" in the flames. Capt Rojohn ordered
Lieut. Leek to bail out. Leek knew that without him helping keep the
controls back, the plane would drop in a flaming spiral and the centrifugal
force would prevent Rojohn from bailing. He refused the order.

Meanwhile, German soldiers and civilians on the ground that afternoon
looked up in wonder. Some of them thought they were seeing a new Allied
secret weapon -- a strange eight-engine double bomber. But anti-aircraft
gunners on the North Sea coastal island of Wangerooge had seen the
collision. A German battery captain wrote in his logbook at 12:47 p.m.:

"Two fortresses collided in a formation in the NE. The planes flew hooked
together and flew 20 miles south. The two planes were unable to fight
anymore. The crash could be awaited so I stopped the firing at these two
planes."

Suspended in his parachute in the cold December sky, Bob Washington watched
with deadly fascination as the mated bombers, trailing black smoke, fell to
earth about three miles away, their downward trip ending in an ugly boiling
blossom of fire.

In the cockpit Rojohn and Leek held grimly to the controls trying to ride a
falling rock. Leek tersely recalled, "The ground came up faster and faster.
Praying was allowed. We gave it one last effort and slammed into the
ground." The McNab plane on the bottom exploded, vaulting the other B-17
upward and forward. It slammed back to the ground, sliding along until its
left wing slammed through a wooden building and the smoldering mess of came
to a stop. Rojohn and Leek were still seated in their cockpit. The nose of
the plane was relatively intact, but everything from the B-17 massive wings
back was destroyed. They looked at each other incredulously. Neither was
badly injured.

Movies have nothing on reality. Still perhaps in shock, Leek crawled out
through a huge hole behind the cockpit, felt for the familiar pack in his
uniform pocket pulled out a cigarette. He placed it in his mouth and was
about to light it. Then he noticed a young German soldier pointing a rifle
at him. The soldier looked scared and annoyed. He grabbed the cigarette out
of Leak's mouth and pointed down to the gasoline pouring out over the wing
from a ruptured fuel tank.

Two of the six men who parachuted from Rojohn's plane did not survive the
jump. But the other four and, amazingly, four men from the other bomber,
including ball turret gunner Woodall, survived. All were taken prisoner.
Several of them were interrogated at length by the Germans until they were
satisfied that what had crashed was not a new American secret weapon.

Rojohn, typically, didn't talk much about his Distinguished Flying Cross.
Of Leek, he said, 'in all fairness to my co-pilot, he's the reason I'm alive
today."

Like so many veterans, Rojohn got unsentimentally back to life after the
war, marrying and raising a son and daughter. For many years, though, he
tried to link back up with Leek, going through government records to try to
track him down. It took him 40 years, but in 1986, he found the number of
Leeks' mother, in Washington State . Yes, her son Bill was visiting from
California . Would Rojohn like to speak with him? Some things are better
left unsaid. One can imagine that first conversation between the two men who
had shared that wild ride in the cockpit of a B-17. A year later, the two
were re-united at a reunion of the 100th Bomb Group in Long Beach , Calif.
Bill Leek died the following year.

Glenn Rojohn was the last survivor of the remarkable piggyback flight. He
was like thousands upon thousands of men, soda jerks and lumberjacks,
teachers and dentists, students and layers and service station attendants
and store clerks and farm boys who in the prime of their lives went to war.

He died last Saturday after a long siege of sickness. But he apparently
faced that final battle with the same grim aplomb he displayed that
remarkable day over Germany so long ago. Let us be thankful for such men.

Author: Ralph Kenney Bennett


--
Chappie

wrote in message
...
Capt. Glenn Rojohn, of the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group was flying his
B-17G Flying Fortress bomber on a raid over Hamburg .
snip
for such men.

Author: Ralph Kenney Bennett



Amazing story. God bless the heros.


Luke

wrote in message
...
Capt. Glenn Rojohn, of the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group was flying his
B-17G Flying Fortress bomber on a raid over Hamburg .
snip
for such men.

Author: Ralph Kenney Bennett



Amazing story. God bless the heros.


Luke

wrote in message
...
Capt. Glenn Rojohn, of the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group was flying his
B-17G Flying Fortress bomber on a raid over Hamburg . His formation had
braved heavy flak to drop their bombs, then turned 180 degrees to head out
over the North Sea .

May God watch over your soul Glenn Rojohn.
Thankyou for your courage and your tenacity in those times gone by.
The world is a better place for your heroism and your sacrifice.

Jeff Cochrane
VK4BOF
Atherton, QLD, Australia

wrote in message
...
Capt. Glenn Rojohn, of the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group was flying his
B-17G Flying Fortress bomber on a raid over Hamburg . His formation had
braved heavy flak to drop their bombs, then turned 180 degrees to head out
over the North Sea .

May God watch over your soul Glenn Rojohn.
Thankyou for your courage and your tenacity in those times gone by.
The world is a better place for your heroism and your sacrifice.

Jeff Cochrane
VK4BOF
Atherton, QLD, Australia

Chappie,
A great story...
Thanks for sharing it.
Al Camp


wrote in message
...
Capt. Glenn Rojohn, of the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group was flying his B-17G Flying
Fortress bomber on a raid over Hamburg . His formation had braved heavy flak to drop
their bombs, then turned 180 degrees to head out over the North Sea . They had finally
turned northwest, headed back to
snip

Chappie,
A great story...
Thanks for sharing it.
Al Camp


wrote in message
...
Capt. Glenn Rojohn, of the 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group was flying his B-17G Flying
Fortress bomber on a raid over Hamburg . His formation had braved heavy flak to drop
their bombs, then turned 180 degrees to head out over the North Sea . They had finally
turned northwest, headed back to
snip