okay funny but true story lighten things up a bit.

[rod367th]

Famous Il-2 Pilots
Among the pilots who gained fame flying the Il-2, was Senior Lieutenant Anna Yegorova, a female pilot who flew 260 missions. She was decorated three times, the last "posthumously", as she was presumed dead after being shot down. In fact, she managed to survive imprisonment in a German concentration camp. Jr Lt Ivan Grigorevich Drachenko, another Il-2 pilot, was reputedly one of only four men who were both decorated as Heroes of the Soviet Union and also won all three of the Orders of Glory. Pilots Begeldinov, Mylnikov, Alekseenko, and Gardeev received two gold stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Hero of the Soviet Union T. Kuznetsov survived the crash of his Il-2 in 1942 when shot down returning from a reconnaissance mission. Kuznetsov was able to escape from the wreck and hid nearby. To his surprise, a German Bf 109 landed near the crash site and the pilot began to scrounge the wrecked Il-2 for souvenirs. Thinking quickly, Kuznetsov ran to the German fighter and used it to fly home, barely avoiding being shot down by Soviet fighters in the process.

Typical of Soviet WWII aircraft, many Il-2 were "gifts" presented to specific pilots and partially paid for by organizations like hometowns, factories, or comrades of another fallen pilot. The most famous of these was an aircraft purchased with the savings of a seven-year-old daughter of the fallen commander of the 237th ShAP. Learning of her father's death, the girl sent 100 rubles directly to Stalin asking him to use the money for an Il-2 to avenge her father. Remarkably, Stalin actually received the letter and 237th ShAP received a new Il-2m3 with the inscription "From Lenochka for father" on the side.






 How would you like to explain to Hitler, How you lost oyur 109?




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-2

[Kev367th]

Another one for ya -

On March 23, 1944, Nick Alkemade's plane (Lanc) was flying near Berlin, Germany, when it was attacked by a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 fighter plane, caught fire and began to spiral out of control. Because his parachute was in the cabin, Alkemade opted to jump from the aircraft, preferring his death to be quick.

Alkemade fell from 18,000 feet to the ground below. His fall was broken by pine trees and a soft snow cover on the ground. He was able to move his arms and legs and suffered only a sprained leg.

He was subsequently captured by the Gestapo and was a celebrated POW.

This guy had the luck of the Irish:
he also survived after the war -
1) A heavy steel door falling on him
2) Falling into a vat of acid - he quickly hopped out and jumped in a vat of alkali, thereby neutralising it.

From "Into The Silk" about the development of the parachute/ejection seat.

Wonder if he should have gone to Vegas .

[Airscrew]

William Stannard was a tail gunner in a British Ventura bomber on a mission to Holland in May of 1943. Struck by enemy gunfire, the plane broke into pieces. By some aerodynamic trick of fate, the severed tail section glided to earth and landed on the grounds of a large estate where Stannard was pulled alive from the wreckage.

In February of 1945, two B-17 bombers collided over Graz, Austria. The tail gunner of one of the B-17s, S/Sgt. Erwin Koszyczarek, fell 28,000 feet in the severed tail. He emerged unhurt and was taken prisoner.

On a mission to Bremen, German in November of 1943, tailgunner Eugene Moran's B-17 was hit by enemy fire. S/Sgt Moran couldn't bail out because his parachute was shot full of holes. He rode the tail to the ground where it crashed into some trees. He spent four mounths in a German hospital, but he survived.

[NCLawman]

This one time, at band camp ....