CRASH LANDING AT KIMBOLTON, ENGLAND - 1944 AFTER A BOMBING RAID OVER GERMANY - in his own words:
"Our target that day was Hanover, Germany. Right after bombs away we received three close hits that not only knocked out number 4 engine and caught number 3 engine on fire but also injured my co-pilot in the right leg and my bombardier also wounded in the upper leg. We went from 27,000 feet to approximately 5,000 feet in a spin. As we got it under control at 5,000 feet the fire went out on number 3 and we were able to feather it. By throwing out most of our equipment we were able to maintain altitude across the North Sea. The crew took care of the wounded and the co-pilot stayed in his seat to help me control the aircraft.
When the crew inspected the aircraft prior to trying to land my ball turret gunner told me that the left main gear was partially hanging down and was held on by hydraulic lines only. I couldn't get any indication of gear condition so the engineer tried to crank it down. It still didn't come down and I elected to land it in that condition as I couldn't have gone around after an approach and sure as hell didn't want to bail out when I might be able to save it. I made a good landing as far as it goes until I lost control speed.
At that time we started swerving off of the runway to the right. I was headed toward another B-17 which was parked and could do nothing about it. My navigator saw what was about to happen and threw himself over the bombadier to protect him. The wing tip of the other plane came in through the nose of the aircraft and hit my navigator in the face, caving his face in from the eyebrow to his chin. Out of the nine crew members that were aboard, six walked away. They had to sedate me after this one. Col. Preston called me in - had a long talk with me and stopped me from grounding myself. But you know, during this talk there was no mention of a DFC but he did suggest a 48-hour pass! We were back on duty and flew another mission six days later on August 13, 1944."
Crew members were
Pilot - 1/Lt Byrd W. Ryland
Co-Pilot - 1/Lt James C. Denny
Navigator - 2/Lt Harry A. Braswell
Bombadier - 2/Lt Harold Frankle
Engineer - Sgt Joe V. Jewell
Radio Operator - Cpl Bernard L. Dolan
Ball Turret Gunner - Cpl. Herbert O. Lawton
Waist Gunner - Cpl Charles D. Bush
Tail Gunner - Cpl Harold V. Lehman
Byrd "Bert" Ryland was my uncle.
TO BE CONTINUED
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