A site dedicated to my favorite WWII aircraft

  An anonymous B-17 Ghost Story
  Probably just an apocryphal "net story"... but it's interesting.

I heard a story from my grandfather, after had I told him about a story I read that was posted here. This will be my last chance since UNOmaha is pulling all INTERNET accounts for the summer for account maintenance.

My grandfather was raised in Howard, South Dakota, a small town about 70 miles from Sioux Falls. During his childhood he and his friends had to keep themselves entertained in order to keep out of trouble, which wasn't that easy.

When he was about eight, he and his friends developed an infatuation with the airplane. They would pass the time reading through airplane books, comic books, and playing with toy airplanes. Their imaginations ran wild. Only a few of this group of ten boys had even ever seen a real airplane, so when the local banker bought one to fly as a hobby they were at the airport every time it left the ground. One afternoon the banker (can't remember his name) noticed the boys as he was coming in for a landing. After getting it tied down he called the boys over to let them look at it up close. This was a dream come true, but of course it wasn't enough.

One of the boys, my grandpas best friend (Myron) asked if he could fly with him the next day. The banker laughed and said that he would take the boys up two at a time starting the next day. Since they were going to take them up two at a time, Myron and my grandpa were to go up first. They hardly slept that night thinking about the next day. When it finally came around my grandpa jumped out of bed running only to find out that his mother would not let him go up in one of them "infernal aircrafts."

He was crushed but decided to go watch anyway. Another boy jumped in with Myron and the banker, and off they went. But what happened next made him glad he didn't go up. The banker came in over a shelter belt that divided the courthouse from the high school, as the plane turned belly up, the two boys plummeted into the trees below. Word quickly spread and soon the entire town was on the scene. Both boys were presumed dead, but it took the police dept. a couple hours to find Myron impaled 75 foot up, the trunk of a tree straight through his small frame.

Again my grandpa was crushed, the banker was run out of town, and strange things began to happen in the shelter belt. Reports of glowing trees began to come from many high school students that had to walk through the thick tree belt on the way to school, a few even reported seeing a small boy run into the thick underbrush, without any noise. The strangest was yet to come.

During WWII my Grandpa (Fred) joined the air force and became a belly gunner on a B-17 bomber. During his tenure on one crew, he claimed 6 major casualties (brought down six large aircraft) "singlehandedly". It was his 4th and 5th that came with some assistance. A shell had struck the turret, limiting the motion of the gun. As he tried to swing around he met resistance and the turret recoiled knocking him unconscious. As he woke up the gun was firing and before his eyes the turret made a full revolution and struck an enemy plane bringing it down. He went to grab the gun but was pushed back. He heard the voice of a child say "no way, it's still my turn!!" He was dumfounded, he just sat there until the plane landed.

As he was getting out, he noticed Myron's favorite "Flying Aces" comic book laying on the floor of the turret. Later that afternoon, Fred received a bravery medal for saving his crew from the two enemy gunships that were much more powerful than their B-17.

He never told anyone about the story until much later.

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