A WW2 Story.......

[Pappy]

A GEEZER’S B-17 FLIGHT INTO HISTORY ​
[FONT=Helvetica, Geneva, Arial, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif]by Frank Kaiser[/FONT]
Exactly 60 years ago tonight - New Years Eve, 1944 - Lt. John McLaughlin was piloting a bomber called Andy's Dandy's in a group of 18 four-engine B-17s on a run over Germany. Target: Hamburg. Suddenly the sky went black with German fighters. McLaughlin estimated some 100 Messerschmitt 109s coming fast at 12 o'clock high. There were also at least three German jet fighters, among the first ever flown. All seemed to be firing directly at him. As he glanced over his left wing he saw a huge ball of fire, then nothing where buddies of his were flying just a moment before. Two other B-17s, both seriously shot up, actually piggy-backed to earth where they crash landed, one on top the other, the crews immediately taken prisoner. McLaughlin is second from left in back row>>>> Other B-17s weren't as lucky. As now 86-year-old McLaughlin remembers, pieces of planes were falling on him. An 88-mm shell shot through his plane's floor taking his navigator's head with it, exploding 30 feet above. It was to be Andy’s Dandy’s only fatality. Closer to Hamburg, the German fighters were replaced by heavy flak, anti-aircraft explosions "so thick you could walk across the sky on them," McLaughlin later related. Then, returning home after a successful bomb run, "bogies" attacked again. The big plane shook violently as every gun on the ship let loose - front, sides, bottom, top and tail, 13 .50-caliber machine guns in all. It wasn't called a Flying Fortress for nothing. Andy’s Dandy’s now suffered over 100 holes "that you could put your fist through," and the Germans showed no sign of relenting. Then out of the blue, three American P-51s pressed in from the west, driving off the Nazi fighters. "If I had three million dollars," McLaughlin says, smiling, "I'd have given those pilots a million each." Only six of the 18 B-17s returned to base that night. I met John recently when Carolyn and I joined him to fly with the crew of the B-17G Flying Fortress Fuddy Duddy out of Lakeland's Sun 'n Fun Airport. One of about a dozen of these big warbirds still flying, most who flew them consider the B-17 the best airplane ever built. John McLaughlin (left) certainly agrees. He flew 35 missions over Germany with the "Bloody 100" Bomber Group. That's 10 more than the famous Memphis Bell, 10 more than most everyone. John got five Purple Hearts for various wounds, and the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary heroism after losing two engines, throwing everything possible overboard, and landing safely in Luxemburg under extremely dangerous conditions. ​