Coming in on a wing and a prayer

During a recent trip to New Mexico I had the privilege of visiting with Joe Dodson. Joe is a much decorated Air Force officer from WW II, with a Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with two oak leaf clusters, and the Order of the Purple Heart, for wounds received in action. Now, in 2005, Joe lives in a retirement center in Las Cruces, but in 1943 he was the member of the crew of a B-17, nicknamed "Thunderbird", which was involved in one of the most miraculous escapes in World War II. Ernie Pyle, the great American war correspondent, wrote of Dodson's escape in a column he entitled, "Ten Men Come Back From the Grave On Flying Fortress". He called this story "his favorite story from the Africa campaign of World War II".

In early January 1943, Thunderbird, with Dodson, the bombardier, stationed in North Africa, was a part of a wave of Flying Fortresses that made a devastating raid on the huge German bomber airdrome near Tripoli. The raid found nearly 100 German planes on the ground. Things went smoothly for the attacking B-17s---at first. The planes made their bombing run as planned, and more than 20 of the enemy planes on the ground were destroyed. Ground fire from the anti-aircraft guns was less than expected, and accompanying P-38 fighter planes seemed to be keeping defending Nazi fighter planes at bay. However, the B-17s had scarcely made their turn for home when it seemed as if the entire German Air Force was swooping down upon them.

There were repeated attacks of German Messerschmitts ME-109. They came in waves, most of them attacking from the front. They quickly knocked out the No. 3 engine on Dodson's plane, Thunderbird. A little later they knocked out the No. 4 engine, on the same side of the plane. It was something of a miracle that the plane could stay aloft. Engineers estimated that there was only one chance out of 30 that the plane could still fly with two of its four engines knocked out on the same side of the plane. It took all the strength of the pilot and co-pilot to bring the plane into trim. As it was, Thunderbird's speed dropped to 120 miles per hour, barely above stalling speed, and she lost altitude so quickly she was soon down to 900 feet. The hydraulic system had been cut, and the electrical system soon followed.

As Thunderbird lost speed and altitude she dropped below and behind the body of the formation, which zig-zagged back and forth for a time, trying to protect her. The P-38s stayed to protect until their fuel ran low. Eventually all of the American planes were forced to proceed toward their home base, leaving Dodson's "Thunderbird" to shift for itself.

The B-17, despite its crippled condition, would not give up. Though the German fighters came at the crippled plane in wave after wave, the Thunderbird gave as good as she got. After Bombardier Joe Dodson successfully released the Thunderbird's bombs he took up his position as Gunner Joe Dodson, in the front nose turret of the plane, where he manned a machine gun. Thunderbird gunners were credited with shooting down six of the Nazi planes, at the time a record for one plane shooting down enemy planes. One of the kills was credited to Lt. Dodson.

The attack by the German fighter planes lasted but a matter of minutes, though it seemed to the B-17 crew like it was hours. Dodson was hit by enemy fire during the fight. He told about the incident later, "I was stooped over and thought I'd hit part of the plane's equipment….Being shot in the back felt like getting smacked with a club". It would be more than two months before he was cleared to fly again.

Afterwards, Lt. Cronkhite, the pilot of Thunderbird talked about the incident, "I think the Messerschmitt pilots who attacked us were a little green. After all, that was the first Flying Fortress raid over Tripoli." He continued, "We got six of them, but they came damned close to getting us".

Sixty miles from Tripoli the Messerschmitts suddenly broke off the engagement. Presumably they were running low on fuel.

Thunderbird continued to its home base, more than 300 miles away. The big obstacle still remaining was the range of mountains, cutting across the desert. The mountains were 1,800 feet high, and try as hard as he might, Pilot Cronkhite could not get Thunderbird above 1,500 feet of altitude.

Cronkhite: "We couldn't go over the mountains. We couldn't go around them, so I got an idea we'd better try to go through them. We found a pass. It wasn't much of a pass, and as we went through it I could practically reach out and touch the big boulders".

Once over the last of four passes the crew of Thunderbird knew the country and began to recognize familiar landmarks. With only 35 gallons of gas left in one engine, and 40 in the other, they came to the edge of their airdrome and fired their recognition flare, indicating that there were wounded aboard. This flare was answered almost immediately.

Ernie Pyle was among the group waiting at the air base. The main body of planes had been back for more than two and a half hours. Dodson's plane was assumed lost. Pyle described the scene. "All of us stood tense, hardly remembering anyone else was there…Not one of us thought the plane would ever make the field, but on it came, so slowly it was cruel to watch…It reached the far end of the airdrome, still holding its pathetic little altitude…A few hundred yards more now. Could it? Would it? Was it truly possible?…They cleared the last plane …The men of Thunderbird's crew hand cranked down the landing gear and the plane made a surprisingly smooth landing. But the plane had no brakes, and ahead of them was a camp full of tents...The pilot did three ground loops to slow the plane and finally stopped her at the very end of the runway…the men around that vast field suddenly realized they were weak and that they could hear their hearts pounding…Our 10 dead men were miraculously back from the grave."

Dodson's B-17 was badly damaged and its crew was damaged as well. Yet after only a few days the sturdy plane was ready for action once more, with two new engines -- and over the protests of Cronkhite's men -- a new crew.

Lt. Cronkhite described the moment that they were finally on the ground, and safe, "We just sat there for a while and looked at nothing. Any pilot will tell you the thing's impossible. Our weary, wounded Fortress had incredibly flown for four hours and a half on a single pair of engines -- 400 miles, with her two starboard engines shot out by enemy fire -- and now we were safely back … We just sat there looking at nothing. In that moment we each felt something close to human love for Thunderbird, this faithful, battered machine that had the power to bring us home with half her engines gone!"

Joe Dodson is modest and quite matter-of-fact today as he describes that flight of Thunderbird. "We were just doing our job" he says. We can be very grateful for that devotion to duty in "just doing their job" by the men and women who fought for our freedom during World War II

Source: Ernie Pyle column for Scripps-Howard, 1/22/43

The Houston Post Call, 1/19/43 (Very likely the inspiration for the popular WW II song, "Comin' In On A Wing and A Prayer" was this flight of the Thunderbird)