Posted on 09/30/2020 4:54:13 AM PDT by w1n1
A War Story for the Ages - During World War 2, the 7th BG's 9th Bomb Squadron was dispatched to destroy a railroad bridge at Pyinmana, about halfway between Rangoon and Mandalay and near two active enemy fighter bases. The formation was led by Col. Conrad F. Necrason, 7th BG commander. The B-24 on his right wing was piloted by 1st Lt. Lloyd Jensen whose copilot was 2d Lt. Owen J. Baggett. On that mission, Baggett was to earn a distinction believed to be unique in Air Force history.
Before reaching Pyinmana, Burma, to destroy a bridge, the American B-24 bombers were intercepted by Japanese fighter pilots.
Baggett’s B-24 plane took heavy damage with fire taking place at the rear. When smoke and fumes consumed the whole aircraft, aircrew commander (Jensen) ordered the crew to bail out.
Bagget recalls barely jumping out and almost consumed by the smoke inside the aircraft. He remembers floating down with a good chute. He saw four more open canopies before the bomber exploded.
The Japanese planes immediately began strafing the surviving crewmen, apparently killing some of them and grazing Baggett’s arm. As the plane circle Bagget to come in to finish him off. Owen J Bagget did what you would only see from a James Bond movie.
Baggett pretended to be dead, hoping the Zero pilot would not fire again. Anyway, the pilot opened his canopy and approached within feet of Baggett’s chute, nose up and on the verge of a stall. Baggett, raised the .45 automatic concealed against his leg and fired four shots at the open cockpit. The Zero stalled and spun in.
It must take some sharp shooting and nerves of unbending steel to keep straight aim in the face of certain death, but seems he managed to shoot and kill the enemy fighter pilot with none other than a .45 caliber M1911 pistol. Whether a testament to sharp shooting under pressure or the efficacy of the gun, who knows. Read the rest of Owen J Baggett takes down zero plane with M1911.
Badassery
Another great story about the legendary 1911 45acp. Mr. Browning had no equal.
This of course is the perfect place to ask if the ever got over Macho Grande....🤣
Seriously cool story.
“...Seriously cool story. ...”
Indeed it is.
That’s why the Japanese version of High Flight never got written. “...reached out my hand and touched the face of....THWAP!!!”
That’s great! Love this.
A pair Cajun enlisted pilots flying an L-4 (a militarized Piper Cub) shot down a Fiesler Fi-156 Storch (a similar type of aircraft) with their .45s. It was one of the last aircraft downed in the ETO.
https://warontherocks.com/2017/12/when-the-piper-cub-roamed-the-battlefield/
Loved George C. Scott in his portrayal of Lt Gen Patton in “The Movie Patton” when he stands in the middle of the road and fires at a Focke Wulf Fighter Plane as it strafed the road with bullets on both sides of the road and him firing his pistol at the plane in sheer defiance and an inspirational leadership moment during the movie.
Pilots i
N the AF always dreaded getting hit with the “Golden BB”.
Warsaw Pact troops were taught to just fire anything they had up at any attacking aircraft.
Damn straight. Shoot the bastard in the eye!
No. I don’t think I’ll ever get over Macho Grande.
“Loved George C. Scott in his portrayal of Lt Gen Patton in “The Movie Patton” when he stands in the middle of the road and fires at a Focke Wulf Fighter Plane...” [Jumper, post 9]
The aircraft in that scene were either Heinkel He.111s or CASA 2.111s (very similar to the He.111, made in Spain after the war).
Focke-Wulf began in the 1920s and shut down in the 1980s. It built a number of different aircraft and designed many more. None of them appeared in the film about George S Patton Jr.
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