Because I am such a crappy fighter pilot and I fly bombers most of the time, I thought that this story was really interesting.
While researching my Swedish branch of my family tree, I came upon this posting. (I have removed all of the boring genealogy text)
From Pamela Wagoner <wagonerp@ohsu.edu>
On October 7, 1944 my father, Robert Wagoner, a lieutenant in the Air Corps
was flying a mission over Germany when his plane suffered serious damage while at 26,900 feet. The crew determined that they could not return to England, so decided to set a course north, hoping to find Sweden. He estimates that the plane dropped 500-1000 feet a minute after they were hit, so that would make flying time about 53 minutes at the best.
They flew over a large island where they were again racked by enemy fire, so they continued flying north. They found what they hoped was Sweden, and found to their dismay that it was densely wooded. They flew up the coast, hoping to find an open area. When they got down to 3000 feet they decided to take a 90 degree turn inland. When they got down to about 1500 feet they came upon a big lake with a city. At the edge of the city was something that looked like a football field, and as they found out later, used to be a glider field. That day a soccer match was going on and the stands were filled with people. Their plane circled the field and came in for a landing, sliding through the mud to stop about 100 feet in front of the stands.
My father was treated very well and worked as an adjutant for the Prince, typing missives and delivering them throughout Sweden, being he was the only inmate that knew how to type. The inmates, if you could call them that, were able to cannibalize downed planes and rebuilt a B24 which secretly flew out of Stockholm on Dec. 12, 1944.
(She later found that the town was Jönköping, which is situated at the southern tip of Lake Vättern)
For some reason my Dad relates that the crew didn't even quite know where Sweden was other than it was north. Probably due to the stress of being in battle, no one could even remember what shape Sweden was or where it was in relationship to Norway or Finland. I think, in my Dad's mind, they just "lucked" out by finding the field, maybe the pilot knew better, but as I've heard the story I don't think so.
They thought they were going to be killed and Dad relates that he was so relieved to see grease on the gun barrel tip of the policeman who jabbed him with a rifle.
(In response to what type of plane it was.)
Yep, it was a B17. That plane must have been a real workhorse. He said they had one engine working well and the other was spitting out oil. That engine would catch on fire and then as the oil was burnt off, it would extinguish itself and fly on again, going through an endless cycle of fire and then oil. I don't even know how many engines there are on a B17.
He was bombadier on that mission and he talks about the bombing scope they used on that mission alot. Techno jargon, but WWII type jargon. He was under orders to blow the scope before they crash landed, so he punched the button to detonate the explosive to destroy it. He forgot to tell other crew members in the back that he was doing that, and when they heard the loud bang, they thought they'd been hit again and were going to bail out.
(Someone else stated that his relatives were from that town and that they might have been at that football match.)
Hopefully your relatives weren't among the crowd that raced home to get buckets and containers in which to catch the gasoline that dripped from the downed plane. My Dad says he kept shouting at the crowd, telling them the plane could explode at any time, but they were so excited about the gasoline that they ignored him or maybe didn't understand English. Luckily, for all, the plane did not explode or start to burn.
Dad says that the plane came down with it's landing gear extended, which he says now was stupid, but the landing gear dug into the soft, mushy loam and the plane pushed a small hill of mud in front of it as it careened towards the grandstand. He says that there were a 1000 people in the grandstand and they just sat there watching this plane skid towards them across the field, stopping about 100 feet from the grandstand. He says that they were very lucky that the machine guns didn't short out from the crash damage and fire into the crowd.
(Someone later stated that there is a book that tells this story called "Nödlandning" written in Swedish.)
Mickey
[This message has been edited by Mickey1992 (edited 02-24-2000).]
