I got this from a magizine i bought at a flea market this weekend
called = YANK, the army weekly dated june 2nd 1944=european edition I believe it was published for the troops overseas. The pictures in it are awesome ! but below story below is taken word for word.
"When flak killed the pilot of a 15th AAF liberator over Wiener Neustadt, in austria the co-pilot ,2nd LT Ira f Shober ,Weston ,Wyo.,brought the cripped bomber to a safe landing at a Italian base by means of a stunt he learned in training back in Wyoming.
Without brakes or flaps to cut down his landing speed,Shober had his crewmen opened their parachutes out the waist windows to cut the liberators speed to a safe minimum. The surviveing fliers left their plane without injury.
the pilot was killed when flak entered his window and went though his body. Other bursts knocked out the hydraulic system which operates the brakes, flaps and landing gear. The bomber nearly went out of control and when the alarm was set off the bombardier and the nose turret gunner bailed out over Austria.
Co-piot Shober slowly pulled the plane out of its dive and instucted his men to sit tight and we'll make it home. The damaged plane left its formation and headed for a field near its home base.
For the next hour the Liberator circled the field while the engineer T/Sgt James r Ryther,Park Rapid , Minn,. tried to crank the landing gear down by hand. At one point ,Shober instucted the crew to get set to jump, but the wheels suddenly came down.
In preparation for the landing Shober recalled the trick he'd been taught at casper, Wyoming. He had the men strap their parachutes to their guns and put them out the waist windows .When the wheels hit the runway , the crew members pulled their rip cords and the chutes acted as brakes.
VonWojo
