You gotta read this story!

[Banana11000]

So just fiddling around on the web tonight, I came across this article of a fellow in the 8th Air Force named Stephen C. Ananian and his recount of his first mission over Europe in 1944 escorting B-17's. Absolutely blew me away! If you've got 15-20 minutes to spare, definitely read this!!

Here's the link:

http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/ramrod-home.php

There's four pages so yeah.

Have a great night. Hope you enjoy the read!

Cheers,

Colin

[Aurora Mark]

Fantastic read! Thank you for sharing this one!

Mark.

[Banana11000]

No worries mark!

:)

[k5ikl]

Thanks for sharing the story Colin. Very interesting read. Sad thing

is that there is so many of those stories out there that we may never

hear about because those guys are now gone and more leaving us every

day. To them.

Jerry

[Slartibartfast]

We tend to focus on the combat pilots but it was and is a team effort. What pilot wants to fly a Walrus during war? My hat is off to all those air and ground crew who are not at the pointy end of the stick yet carry out their duties with professionalism.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Slartibartfast

[Thommo]

Great story....and I've got a spare Matchbox Walrus in my collection.

Here is a little snippet from my Dad's war diary (WW2) - he was in the 2/5th Australian Artillery, but later subconded to the Navy to aim naval guns in the Pacific War:

Sat 21 Oct 1944. Aboard the HMS Shropshire, directing naval gun fire somewhere near Palo in the Leyte Gulf:

"Dawn phase at 5.40. From the plot the virbration of gunfire took me out on deck. 2 planes were circling between us and the 'Australian'. Passing down our starboard side, the first clung too low to be shot at without endangering the Aus. She circled left around to the far side of the Aus rising higher when one of our guns opened up. Smoking, she banked left and struck the Aus fairly on the fore mast and the bridge became an inferno of blazing petrol, while the greater part of plane fragments blazed yellow in the water beside to port. Meanwhile No2 passing us on starbd was hit again and again by our aft bofors, clipped the water, rose again and crashed in the hills ashore. As the sky lightened the Aus fire was brought under control and we saw what damage was done. The radar tower was bent forward against the main director, both enveloped in flames for 15 minutes and the top of the tower had crashed down on the compass platform. The Capt, Navigator and a Lieut were dead, some dozen officers and ratings seriously wounded and radar and directors crews unrecognizably incinerated. 50 was the total of casualties including miscellaneous burns".

RIP Old Fella

[CorsairMan]

I wish there were more stories like this - HOW they did things... how it was organized and such. Mission results are interesting to a point. But I'd like to know how it was all done.

[Don]

Good stuff ! I love reading this kind of history. Thanks for sharing.

Happy modeling!

Don.

[rob.w]

What a great and inspirational story. This could have been easily turned into a movie. It is easy to understand why this generation has been given the label, 'the greatest generation'.