"HAP" A B17 Pilot's Stories

[Creamo]

Here's a story worth checking our for all the B17 guys, and Heavy Bomber Groups.

FLAK Story

   


BAck when we were in a old squad, Central had contacted Willard "HAP" Reese and was sent a scan of some flak that actually hit him on a B17 raid. One thing led to another and we were able to chat via e-mail which was pretty neat. The story made it to several good sim sites.

Please check out the article, and visit his website. 457 Bomber Group

The storys are awesome! Here's a snip-

My first visual of the attack was the plane to my left on whose wing we were flying, suddenly burst into flames -- both engines seemed to explode at the same time and the plane immediately dove out of formation. My heart was pounding and sweat broke out all over me. I never saw that plane again. By this time almost every gun in our plane was firing. The vibrations from the 50 caliber guns caused the plane to seem to shudder and gave me the impression that we had taken a hit. As I looked out the window on my left, an FW-190 passed within 50 feet of our plane -- so close I could clearly see the insignia on the plane and expression on the face of the pilot.
He had not quite passed the wing tip of our plane when he took one or more hits from our 50 caliber guns and his propeller came unscrewed and spun off, flying awkwardly out in front of the engine. The plane immediately rolled over and went into a steep dive. Before it had left my sight, I saw the canopy fly off and the pilot bail out.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see yet another plane at our level burst into flames and then another. All the guns in our ship continued firing and the top turret, manned by our flight engineer, was spitting spent 50 caliber shell casings all over the back half of the cockpit directly behind me. Mack in the tail and Hetrick in the waist were pouring round after round at the attacking planes. Jim, in the ball turret, later told me that his turret was like a spinning top.
The cacophony of sounds over the intercom was a jumble of voices saying "Here's one at two o'clock", "Now! High at 9 o'clock", "Where is he?", and on and on. While it seemed like hours, it was only about 10 minutes before we caught our first sight of our P51 fighter support. Never have the "little friends" been more welcome. I don't know how many fighters appeared but they quickly engaged the attacking planes and the swirling sight of fighter planes in combat suddenly took enter stage.

Whoah...




[This message has been edited by Creamo (edited 09-21-2000).]

[Ozark]

Thanks Creamo,

Great link....great story!

BTW: Thanks for Beach Head 2000 advice....what a blast.  

Ozark



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332nd Flying Mongrels

[Maverick]

Creamo,

Great stuff here. Thanks much for posting it!

Mav

[Creamo]

Thanks guys, and it was no problem directing you to "Hap." Cool guy eh?! Can you imagine this guy and what he went through?

Anyway, now stop clogging the BBS, we got to argue about foul language, and focus on how incredible the new BBS layout is topic!

(Personally, I just e-mailed Mr. Reese and said, "You the man, THANK YOU.")

[SOB]

You're right man...this new BBS layout is squealing sweet! <S>