Memorable events of World War II: Coming in on a wing and a prayer

One of the earliest battlegrounds of World War II, in which US Forces were involved, was the Battle for North Africa, which began in June of 1940. Early on this battle was mainly a continuing fight between the old European Colonial Powers, dating back to the 1800s, who had vast holdings in Africa, mainly the British, and Italy and Germany.

When Italy declared war on the British in 1940 the fight began in Egypt (the Western Deserts Campaign), which evolved to Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch), and finally to Tunisia. While the British forces had little trouble fighting the Italians, when Hitler ordered a small Afrika Korps, under General Erwin Rommel, to bolster the Italian forces, securing Northern Africa became a major headache for the British, commanded by General Montgomery. German General Edwin Rommel, who became known as "The Desert Fox", proved to be an outstanding leader, who kept large numbers of British tied up for months, and threatened even that the British would keep their toehold in Africa.

The tide of the battle began to change when US forces, mainly air support, came into the African Campaign in 1942. The US Air Force was effective in bombing Axis targets, but faced great obstacles because of the presence of the strong German Luftwaffe in North Africa. Out of this struggle came a great inspirational song of World War II, "Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer".

On a trip to New Mexico I had the privilege of visiting with Joe Dodson, a much decorated Air Force officer from World War II, with a Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Purple Heart, for wounds received in action. In 2005, Joe lived in a retirement center in Las Cruces, N.M., but in 1943 Joe was a 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." Pyle called this story" his favorite story from the Africa campaign of World War II".

In January 1943, Thunderbird, with Dodson, the bombardier, was a part of a wave of Flying Fortresses that made a devastating raid on the huge German bomber airdrome near Tripoli, in Northern Africa. The raid found nearly 100 German planes on the ground. Things went smoothly for the attacking B-17s -- at first. The planes bombed more than 20 of the enemy planes on the ground. As soon as they had made their turn for home it seemed the whole German Air Force descended upon them. Joe's plane was hit hard. Two engines, both on the right side, were knocked out. Engineers estimated that there was only one chance out of 30 that a 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 both the pilot and co-pilot to bring the plane into trim. Thunderbird's speed dropped to 120 miles per hour, barely above stalling speed.

She lost altitude so quickly she was soon down to 900 feet. The hydraulic system had been cut and was useless. The electrical system soon followed. As Thunderbird lost speed and altitude she dropped below and behind the body of the friendly formation, which zig-zagged back and forth for a time, trying to protect her.

The American 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 sift for itself. The reliable, B-17, Thunderbird, 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. " ... It felt like getting smacked with a club." It would be more than 60 days before Joe 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. Ours was the first Flying Fortress raid over Tripoli. We got six of them, but they came damned close to getting us."

60 miles from Tripoli, the Messerschmitts suddenly broke off the engagement. Presumably they were running low on fuel. Thunderbird continued on to its home base, more than 300 miles away. The biggest obstacle still remaining was the range of mountains which cut across the desert. The mountains were 1,800 feet high, and try as hard as he might, Pilot Cronkhite could not get Thunderbird to fly 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 was in familiar territory. They 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 ... 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? ... The men of Thunderbird's crew hand cranked the landing gear down 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 in the knees. They could hear hearts pounding ... 10 dead men were miraculously back from the grave."

Dodson's Thunderbird was badly damaged. Its crew was damaged as well. Yet after only a few days the sturdy B-17 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 was modest and quite matter-of-fact as he described that flight of Thunderbird all those years later. "We were just doing our job" he said.

We can all 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: Gazette archives. Interview with Joe Dodson