B-17 Saved By...

This story is confirmed in Elmer Bendiner's book, The Fall of Fortresses.

Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II. He tells this story of a World War II bombing run over Kassel, Germany , and the unexpected result of a direct hit on their gas tanks. "Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit. Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple.

"On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck. The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but 11 had been found in the gas tanks.

Eleven unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. A near-miracle, I thought. Even after 35 years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.

"He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer.

"Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive charge. They were as clean as a whistle and just as harmless. Empty? Not all of them!

One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech. The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling. Translated, the note read:

"This is all we can do for you now..."

http://www.sdheroes.com/?p=11097

 

Seems dubious to me. 11 shells with just enough energy to make their way into the gas tanks, but not enough to make it out the other side? And why would anyone put a note into a shell, in the extremely rare chance that the shell makes it into the aircraft, doesn't shoot that plane down, and then they examine the contents of said shells? Where would you hide a message in a 20mm shell anyways? Not saying it's impossible, but it just sounds unlikely.

 

Both the Bf 109 and Fw 190 carried 20 mm

 

Yes, it does raise a few questions, especially the idea of 20mm flak. The story is straight out of Bendiner's book, The Fall of the Fortresses...

 

That part I don't have too much trouble with as long as the tank was fairly large. Fluids can take a lot of energy out of a projectile moving through them and penetrating to the tank would also have used up a fair amount. If it was all from a single burst it would make sense. 11 seems a bit on the high side though.

 

I have seen this story before and it is impossible if the Tondelayo was flying at normal heavy bomber altitudes. Even if the bomber was at low altitude, I doubt that a gunner could put 11 rounds in one tank and nothing else! I share everyone else's skepticism.

 

I'm in the doubtful camp. All eleven of these rounds would have been in the same belt or magazine. Loading the mags would have been done long after the manufacturing process and by different people.

 

Wasn't intended as a reply to your comment. The idea of 20mm flak over Kassel at bombing altitude is a non-starter. The only way 11 hits by 20 mm would occur would be from a fighter attack. And, as others have commented, 11 shells entering but not exiting the tanks is beyond belief. These types of articles always need vetting. Sometimes its the teller exaggerating, other times its the writer trying to add a bit of drama.

 

Wouldn't a shell getting through a tank make a spark and set the whole thing ablaze?e. Multiply this by eleven and your chances are really small. Also how come all eleven shells were in one tank and none apparently elsewhere? I believe this story could have been true, but it was possibly exaggerated.

 

With self sealilng tanks I don't thin that likely but each hit would tend to increase both the heat and likelyhood of something happening. If the hits were all from the same burst I would think the chance of a fire would go up pretty quickly. I've also seen this story where the round with the message was part of an artillery barrage which is somewhat more believable to me.

As I state before I don't think it's beyond the realm of reason but the more I think about it the closer it gets to that realm.

 

Taking the number of hits out of the equation.
1. Aluminum does not spark when contacted by another metal.
2. Liquid would disapate the energy of the round rapidly enough to trap the bullet
3. B17's had self sealing fuel tanks
4. Pleanty of room in 20MM round for a note

My guess is that it is plausible for several rounds to score hits. It is also very probable that ammunion from the same "lot" to be used in the same belt or magazine.

It also wouldn't be a stretch to assume that several planes from the same group, or guns from the same section, would have ammunion from the same factory at the same time frame.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_cm_Flak_30/38/Flakvierling

I'd give the story a "pass" and even if there was only a single 20mm round without an explosive charge it's still a good story.

 

So, how much liquid would it take to stop a 20 mm? The thickness of a B-17 wing tank is restricted by the wing thickness, i.e. a few inches. A 9mm fired into water in a Mythbusters test was considered fatal at 7 Ft. A 50 cal slug disintegrated on contact with the water. Its a narrow window in between to fit the story.

 

My guess is that it would depend on the axis of attack for the 20MM. Even if it were ground fire, depending on where the round was in it's tragectory, I don't think it's too outside the realm of maybe.

 

It should dump velocity faster. That would argue for multiple hits by the empty projectiles even if a mixed belt were used. On the other hand 11 hits is pushing it. If they were adjacent that would be a line almost a foot long or given non orthoganal hits possibly well over a foot. That's quite a bit of damage just from the initial penetrations.

 

True but that assumes that ONLY sabotaged rounds made it into that magazine.

I think if that were happening some pilot might have 'an issue' with his armorers

Also I agree that is is probable that a mag would contain ammo from the same lot but I think it is less probable that it would contain only sabotaged rounds from that lot, unless the whole lot was sabotaged.