Sunday, March 30, 2025

more than one B 17 tail gunner was stuck in the tail section after it was severed from the rest of the aircraft with no parachute, and survived the crash landing


Raley's account came almost three months to the day after he improbably survived that fall from the skies over Piraeus Harbor in Greece. His crew was part of the 353rd Bomb Squadron, 301st Bomb Group, Fifteenth Air Force

He recalled "a hell of a jolt" as the bomber's 12-foot tail section was sheared off from the rest of the aircraft. Crammed into tight quarters and his movement constricted by the pair of machine guns he manned and several hundred rounds of ammunition, Raley could not create enough space to put on his parachute.

But instead of descending at breakneck speed, the bomber's tail spiraled downward, somewhat slowing its velocity, and Raley estimated it took 10-15 minutes for the wreckage to complete its fall.

The tail section fortuitously first made contact with a cluster of trees on a mountainside before stopping abruptly. Raley painstakingly extricated himself from all of the ammo surrounding him, then -- with the escape hatch nearest him damaged and pinned shut -- exited through the bulkhead door. For the first time, Raley saw the full extent of what he had survived.


On Nov 1943, inside a B-17F named Rikki Tikki Tavi from the 96th BG, was Staff Sergeant Moran.

 As a tail gunner, Moran was in the thick of the fight against the swarm of enemy fighters  when the Rikki Tikki Tavi was cut into two pieces, by German Bf 109s and FW190s. 

Moran was still inside the tail.

Some of the research for the above film of his experience was found in the great book Tailspin by John Armbruster.

https://www.military.com/history/how-world-war-ii-tail-gunner-survived-midair-collision-without-parachute.html
https://www.thegleaner.com/story/opinion/2019/04/04/henderson-soldier-survived-3-7-mile-fall-during-wwii/3371078002/

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for finding this WWII history and for finding the video dramatization. I tell our day care children about the War lest it not be heard and appreciate more information to recount to them.

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