The B-17 that flew without a Cockpit. Piloted by crew with Balls of Steel -30 below zero

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Miraculous and true WW2 story about this generation's guts, tenacity, will to survive impossible odds. Utterly humbling.

These B17s died-hard throughout the war. Built to take a beating, but without fighter escort they were ponderous sitting ducks for the Luftwaffe fighters and flak until too late in the war when the P-51s were unleashed. Sadly over 50,000 of B-17 crews never made it home.



(Excerpt)

Amid the chaos of World War II, a B-17 Flying Fortress suffered unimaginable damage, its entire cockpit torn clean off in mid-air. By all accounts, the bomber should have plummeted from the sky instantly. But incredibly, it stayed airborne… for more than ten minutes. What happened next defies belief. This is the astonishing true story of the B-17 that flew without a cockpit.

On a Mission

On July 14, 1944, 24-year-old First Lieutenant Ewald Swanson of the 483rd bomb group was the pilot of the B-17G Flying Fortress nicknamed ‘Mizpah.’ Their mission was to strike at the very heart of the German stronghold in Budapest, Hungary.

As the Flying Fortresses entered Hungary, they were bombarded by relentless curtains of thick flak. Mizpah’s tail was shredded, punching holes into the battle-worn wings. Nonetheless, the formation pressed forward towards their target.

Not Going Down Without a Fight

Seconds away from their target, bombardier 2nd lieutenant Kenneth Dodley successfully releases their bombs, and chaos erupts. A flak 88 round lands squarely on the Mizpah’s nose, which causes it to explode, vaporizing the bombardier and the navigator. The center of gravity also shifts to the tail, causing the airplane to pitch up into a vertical position. Astonishingly, First Lieutenant Ewald Swanson regains control of the battered aircraft and re-enters the formation.

Since there was no cockpit or control column left to maneuver the aircraft, under the screaming command of pilot Swanson, the crew began to fly the aircraft by pulling the exposed control cables by hand.

Despite a significant part of the Mizpah being lost, this Flying Fortress and its crew refused to go down.

However, over 200 Flak 88 guns still had their sights on the formation. Another explosion rattles the B-17, and their number two engine is destroyed. As the Fortress began to lose power and airspeed, Mizpah and her crew, through sheer will and determination, kept the aircraft airborne. The airplane had also fallen behind the formation. For a perilous 10 minutes, the crew battles the control cables to get as far away as possible...

This is only part of this insane story....the rest of the saga is at the link in case YT doesn't load.




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World War Wings and full story