Ground Impact
And what a ride it was. "The only control we actually had was to keep [the planes] level," said Rojohn. "We were falling like a rock." The ground seemed to be reaching up to meet them.
Washington recalled that, from his vantage point while parachuting, "I watched the two planes fly on into the ground, probably two or three miles away, and saw no more chutes. Shirley was coming down behind me. When the planes hit, I saw them burst into flames and the black smoke erupting."
At one point, Leek said, he tried to beat his way out through the window with a Very pistol: "Just panic, I guess. The ground came up faster and faster. Praying was allowed. We gave it one last effort and slammed into the ground." As they crashed in Germany at Tettens, near Wilhelmshaven, shortly before 1 p.m., Rojohn's plane slid off the bottom plane, which immediately exploded. Alternately lifting up and slamming back into the ground, the remaining B-17 careened ahead, finally coming to rest only after the left wing sliced through a wooden headquarters building, as Rojohn recalled, "blowing that building to smithereens." Russo is believed to have been killed when the planes landed.
Crawling Through The Wreckage
"When my adrenalin began to lower, I looked around," Leek said. "Glenn was OK and I was OK, and a convenient hole was available for a fast exit. It was a break just behind the cockpit. I crawled out onto the left wing to wait for Glenn. I pulled out a cigarette and was about to light it when a young German soldier with a rifle came slowly up to the wing, making me keep my hands up. He grabbed the cigarette out of my mouth and pointed down. The wing was covered with gasoline."
Rojohn and Leek sustained only slight injuries from the crash, which shocked even the two pilots when they took a look at the wreckage of their B-17. "All that was left of the Flying Fortress was the nose, the cockpit, and the seats we were sitting on," Rojohn later recalled.
Following their capture, Rojohn said, he and Leek were forced to undress "so they could search us for weapons, which we had thrown out on the way down. They put us into a truck and drove through the countryside to pick up the survivors. The Germans then put us all into an old schoolhouse where we were finally able to talk with each other."
A Devastating New Weapon?
Even though their lives were now in the hands of the Germans, the Americans were able to find a little humor in the situation. "Our captors didn't know what to do with us because we were in a part of Germany where they didn't take many captives," Rojohn said. "They put us in a dark, damp building way out in nowhere. All of a sudden the door opened up and everybody popped to attention. A German captain came in and barked something to his men. I didn't understand what he had said, but Berkowitz [2nd Lt. Jack Berkowitz, MacNab's navigator] heard the same words and fainted dead away. The next day they brought us back to the schoolhouse. Berkowitz, the only one of us who could understand German, told us the German captain had said, 'If they make a move, shoot 'em.' That was too much for him and he fainted."
Watching the planes fall piggyback to earth, German soldiers on the island of Wangerooge could not believe what they were seeing -- "crazy Americans flying with eight motors." In fact, the Germans were so concerned that the Americans had developed a devastating new weapon that Berkowitz was shipped to an interrogation center in Frankfurt, Germany, and put into solitary confinement. After questioning him for two weeks, his interrogators gave up on the idea of a new American aircraft threat, and Berkowitz was transferred to a prison camp near the North Sea.
Seventeen-year-old Rudolf Skawran, who was shooting at the American bomber formations from Wangerooge, said his fellow soldiers were ordered by flak commander Captain Dinkelacker to leave the connected planes alone. Dinkelacker wrote in his log book at 12:47 p.m. that day, "Two Fortresses collided in a formation in the NE. The planes flew hooked together and flew twenty miles south. The two planes were unable to fight anymore. The crash could be awaited so I stopped the firing at these two planes." There was no way for Rojohn, Leek or the crew members to know that the Germans on the ground had ceased firing at them.
Civilians on Wangerooge stood and watched with amazement as the two planes flew over them. The youngest spectators ran to Rojohn's plane and removed what they could get away with quickly -- a machine gun and ammunition, some rations and chewing gum.
Captured Survivors
Little and Chase did not survive their jumps from the plane. Technical Sergeant Herman G. Horenkamp, Rojohn's friend and the tail gunner for all of his 21 previous missions, had not reported for the mission that day because he had frostbite from the mission the previous day. Chase, who Rojohn and Leek had never seen before and never did meet face to face, was Horenkamp's replacement that fateful day.
All of the survivors from the B-17 piloted by Rojohn were captured by the Germans almost immediately, as were four other men who bailed out of MacNab's plane -- 2nd Lt. Raymond E. Comer, Jr., Tech. Sgt. Joseph A. Chadwick, Berkowitz and Woodall.
Woodall told Rojohn years later that he was grateful to him and Leek because they carried him for several miles when broken bones sustained in his parachute landing kept him from walking after his capture. Rojohn has no recollection of that.
Rojohn receives the Air Medal from Colonel Thomas S. Jeffrey, commander of the "Bloody Hundredth." (Courtesy of Glenn H. Rojohn)
Reunion And Gratitude
After the war, like thousands of other soldiers, Glenn Rojohn came back home to marry and raise a family. He eventually went to work with his brother Leonard in their father's air conditioning and plumbing business in McKeesport, Pa. Rojohn, who received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart, said he owes his life to Leek: "In all fairness to my co-pilot, he's the reason I'm alive today. He refused my order to bail out and said 'I'm staying with you.' One of us could have gotten out of that plane. He's the reason I'm here today."
Rojohn searched for 40 years through Social Security and veterans records to find his co-pilot, Leek, but was unsuccessful until 1986, when he was given a telephone number in the state of Washington. Rojohn called the number and reached Leek's mother, who asked him if he wanted to talk to Bill, who was visiting from California at the time. The two pilots were reunited for one week in 1987 at a 100th Bomb Group reunion in Long Beach, Calif. Leek died the following year.
But Robert Washington, the navigator that day over the North Sea, still remembers the pilots' remarkably cool handling of the bizarre situation. "Glenn said that he doesn't consider himself a hero; but I do!" said Washington. "I will never forget his calm, matter-of-fact response as I paused at the flight deck on my way out through the bomb bay and waist door. He may have said, 'Get on out, Wash,' or merely motioned with his head, but I knew he and Bill Leek had made their decision and several of us who jumped over land probably owe our lives to their courage."
Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:
www.thehistorynet.com/wwii/blb17collision/index.html
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on August 28:
0865 Rhazes [Abu Bakr Mohammed ibn Zakar˜ja al-Razi], Persian physician
1749 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Frankfurt, social philosopher (Faust)
1774 Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton 1st American Catholic saint
1828 Leo Tolstoi Russian writer (War & Peace, Anna Karenina)
1828 William Alexander Hammond Brig General (Union Army), died in 1900
1831 Lucy Ware Webb Hayes 1st lady
1878 George Hoyt Whipple US, astrophysicist (Nobel-1934)
1889 Charles Boyer France, actor (Algiers, Fanny, Barefoot in the Park)
1905 Sam Levene actor (Demon, Gung Ho)
1908 Roger Tory Peterson NY, ornithologist/writer (How to Know Birds)
1916 C Wright Mills sociologist, writer (The Power Elite)
1921 Nancy Kulp Penn, actress (Miss Hathaway Beverly Hillbillies)
1924 Peggy Ryan Long Beach Calif, actress (Jenny-Hawaii Five-0)
1930 Ben Gazzara NYC, actor (Run for Your Life, QB VII)
1943 David Soul Chicago, actor (Starsky & Hutch, Here Comes the Bride)
1943 Lou Pinella Yankee manager (1969 AL rookie of the year)
1946 Bob Beamon US, long jumper (Olympic-gold-1968)
1950 Ron Guidry Yankee pitcher (Cy Young 1978)
1951 Wayne Osmond Ogden Utah, singer (Osmond Brothers, Donnie & Marie)
1957 Daniel Stern Stamford Ct, actor (City Slickers, Wonder Years)
1958 Scott Hamilton Toledo, figure skating champion (Olympic-gold-1984)
1960 Leroy Chiao Milwaukee Wisc, astronaut
1968 Scarlet Annette Morgan Pfafftown NC, Miss NC-America-1991
1969 Jason Priestley Vancouver BC, actor (Brandon-Beverly Hills 90210)
1971 Janet Evans US swimmer (Olympics-1992)
Deaths which occurred on August 28:
0030 John the Baptist is Beheaded by order of King Herod
0388 Magnus Maximus, Spanish West Roman Emperor (383-88), executed
1481 Afonso V King of Portugal, dies
1654 Axel Gustafson Oxenstierna Swedish earl/chancellor/regent, dies at 71
1798 James Wilson Scot/US judge/signer (Decl of Ind), dies at 55
1818 Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable trader, founder of Chicago, dies
1919 Louis Botha South African Boer leader, dies
1955 Emmett Till kidnapped & lynched at 14, in Money Mississippi
1961 Thomas Connolly 1st baseball umpire elected to hall of fame, dies
1964 Gracie Allen Mrs George Burns/comedian (Burns & Allen), dies at 62
1967 Charles Darrow, US inventor of Monopoly, dies
1967 Paul Muni (Muni Weisenfreund) actor, dies at 71
1968 Nick Castle choreographer (Dinah Shore, Judy Garland), dies at 58
1971 Margaret Bourke-White, US photographer, dies at 67
1971 Nathan Leopold, US kidnapper/murderer of Bobby Franks (1924)
1978 Bruce Catton, US historian/writer (Civil War), dies at 78
1985 Ruth Gordon actress, dies at 88 suffering a stroke in her sleep
1987 John Huston US/Irish actor/director (Maltese Falcon), dies at 81
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1962 SIMPSON ROBERT LEWIS PANAMA
1965 SCHIERMAN WESLEY D. ST. JOHN WA.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 BABULA ROBERT L. INDIANA PA.
1966 BODENSCHATZ JOHN E. LOS ANGELES CA.
1966 BORTON ROBERT C. JR. BENTON HARBOR MI.
[FAMILY REJECTS ID REMAINS IDENTIFIED 29 MAR 95]
1966 CARTER DENNIS R. LOMITA CA.
1967 DEGNAN JERRY L.
1967 WALLACE CHARLES FRANKLIN ELLISVILLE MS.
1968 MILLER ROBERT CHARLES HAYWARD CA.
1968 PHILLIPS ELBERT AUSTIN HUNTSVILLE AL.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
1521 Turkish sultan Suleiman I's troops occupy Belgrade
1565 Oldest city in the US, St Augustine Fla, established
1609 Delaware Bay explored by Henry Hudson for the Netherlands
1655 New Amsterdam & Peter Stuyvesant bars Jews from military service
1776 Battle of Long Island
1789 Sir William Herschel discovers Saturn's moon Enceladus
1850 The opera "Lohengrin" is produced (Weimar)
1861 Battle of Fort Hatteras NC
1862 Battle of Thoroughfare Gap VA
1862 Belle Boyd (Confederate spy) released from Old Capital Prison in Washington, DC
1864 Democratic National Convention nominated General George B. McClellan
1867 US occupies Midway Islands in the Pacific
1878 Zulu King, King Cetshwayo, captured by the British
1884 1st known photograph of a tornado is made near Howard SD
1884 Mickey Welsh strikes-out 1st 9 men he faces
1907 United Parcel Service begins service, in Seattle
1914 3rd day of battle at Tannenberg: violent German/Russian battle
1916 Italy declares war against Germany during WW I
1917 10 suffragists arrested as they picket the White House
1922 WEAF in NYC airs 1st radio coml (Queensboro Realty-$100 for 10 mins)
1938 Northwestern U awards honorary degree to dummy Charlie McCarthy
1942 Gunther Hagg (Sweden) sets world record for 3,000m (8:01.2)
1949 Riot prevents Paul Robeson from singing near Peekskill NY
1955 1st NFL preseason sudden death football, Rams beats Giants 23-17
1957 Sen Thurmond begins 24-hr filibuster against civil rights bill
1960 White Sox Ted Kluzewski's 3-run HR is disallowed as ump called time
1962 Dr Geza DeKaplany tortures wife with acid
1963 Evergreen Point Floating Bridge connecting Seattle & Bellevue opens
1963 Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream speech" at Lincoln Memorial
1964 Race riot in Philadelphia
1968 Police & anti-war demonstrators clash at Chicago's Dem Natl Conven
1970 Phillies Larry Bowa steals home for 2nd time in 1970
1973 6.8 quake centered in Oaxaca State in Mexico kills 527
1974 Soyuz 15 returns to Earth
1977 NY Yankee Ron Guidry faces just 28 men & beats Texas Rangers 1-0
1978 Donald Vesco rode 21'-long Kawasaki motorcycle at 318.598 mph
1981 John Hinckley Jr pleads innocent in attempt to kill Pres Reagan
1981 Sebastian Coe of UK sets 1-mi record of 3:47.33 (since broken)
1981 National Centers for Disease Control announces high incidence of Pneumocystis & Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men
1983 Israeli PM Menachem Begin announces resignation
1983 Joseph Kreckman sets record of 2,215 clay pigeons shot in an hour
1986 US Navy officer Jerry A Whitworth sentenced to 365 years for spying
1988 70 killed in crash of 3 Italian AF fighters at air show in Germany
1990 Iraq declares Kuwait its 19th province
1992 Rep. Nicholas Mavroules, D-Mass., pleaded innocent to federal charges of racketeering, tax evasion and accepting bribes.
1994 1st Japanese gay pride parade
2002 Four men, three of them working at the airport, were indicted in Detroit as suspected terrorists. Another man, suspected of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon, was indicted in Seattle, Wash.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
England, Channel Is, Northern Ireland, Wales : Bank Holiday
( Monday )
Hong Kong : Festival of Hungry Ghosts
Jordon : Arab Renaissance Day
Mauritius : Ganesh Chatturthi
Hong Kong : Liberation Day (1945) ( Monday )
National Religious Software Week Ends
Romance Awareness Month
Religious Observances
Luth, RC : Memorial of St Augustine of Hippo, bishop/doctor
RC Hermes, Roman martyr
RC Julianus, martyr
Religious History
0430 Death of St. Augustine of Hippo, 76, the great early Latin Church Father and one of the outstanding theological figures of the ages. It was St. Augustine who wrote: 'Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee.'
1413 St. Andrew's University, in Scotland, was chartered by a papal decree from Gregory XII.
1645 In Poland, King Vladislav IV convened the Conference of Thorn. Through it he sought to bring reunion among the 26 Catholic, 28 Lutheran and 24 Calvinist theologians in attendance. Discussions continued through November, but no satisfying theological fusion was achieved.
1840 Birth of Ira D. Sankey, Dwight Moody's song evangelist. During their revival crusades (from 1870), Sankey penned many hymn tunes; among the most enduring today are HIDING IN THEE ("O Safe to the Rock That is Higher Than I") and SANKEY ("Faith is the Victory").
1953 Campus Crusade for Christ was incorporated in Los Angeles by founder Bill Bright. Today, CCC is an evangelical organization training Christian leaders in over 90 countries around the world.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"To be clever enough to get all the money, one must be stupid enough to want it."
Translating Southern United States Slang to English...
MUNTS - noun. A calendar division.
Usage: "My brother from Jawjuh bard my pickup truck, and I aint herd from him in munts."
Top 10 Difference Between Cats & Dogs...
1. Dogs will give you unconditional love forever. Cats will make you pay for every mistake you've ever made since the day you were born.
Politically Correct Terms for Females...
She is not easy,
she is horizontally accessible.
Feel Smarter -- Instantly!...
Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
-- Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, D.C.
Omaha class light cruiser
Displacement: 7,050 t.
Length: 555’6”
Beam: 55’4”
Draft: 20’
Speed: 35 k.
Complement: 790
Armament: 12 6”; 7 3”; 6 21” torpedo tubes
USS MEMPHIS (CL-13) was laid down by William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa., 14 October 1920; launched 17 April 1924; sponsored by Miss Elizabeth R. Paine, daughter of Mayor Rowlett Paine of Memphis; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard 4 February 1925, Capt. Henry E. Lackey in command.
Late in February, MEMPHIS got underway for a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean. On 13 April the cruiser participated in the dedication of an American memorial gateway to Commodore Oliver H. Perry at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Six years after the indomitable Perry had defeated the British on Lake Erie 10 September 1813, he died on board frigate JOHN ADAMS at Port-of-Spain and was interred there until his remains were removed to Newport, R.I., 7 years later. In June, MEMPHIS joined ships of a scouting fleet off Honolulu, Hawaii, for a cruise to the South Pacific through September, with visits to Australia and New Zealand. From October to April 1926, she again operated in the West Indies before returning to her home port, New York.
MEMPHIS next sailed for Europe, arriving off St. Nazaire, France, 26 June. Relieving PITTSBURGH (CA-4) as flagship of Commander, U.S. Naval Forces in Europe 4 July, she operated in European waters into 1927. During a stay at Santander, Spain, 31 July to 31 August 1926, the ship was visited by King Alfonso XIII.
On 3 June 1927, MEMPHIS embarked Capt. Charles A Lindbergh and his plane at Southampton, England; following his nonstop flight from New York to Paris. The next day, the cruiser departed Cherbourg, France, arriving Washington, D.C., 11 June to debark her famous passenger at the Washington Navy Yard. For the rest of the year she performed surveillance duty along the Atlantic coast.
During January 1928, MEMPHIS acted as part of an escort group for President Calvin Coolidge on a cruise to the West Indies. After 4 months of Caribbean operations, she served in the eastern Pacific.
On 5 June, the cruiser arrived at Balboa, Canal Zone for duty off Central America to May 1933. MEMPHIS operated in a peacekeeping capacity at Corinto, Nicaragua, during the inauguration of President Juan B. Sacasa in 1932. In the next 5 years she alternated duty along the west coast with patrols to the troubled area of the West Indies.
After a good will cruise to Australia in January 1938, MEMPHIS reached Honolulu 1 April to rejoin the fleet for operations until she participated in the presidential review off San Francisco 12 July 1939. In August she sailed to Alaska, operating there until early l941.
As the time of U.S. involvement in World War II approached, MEMPHIS sailed to the east coast. She departed Newport 24 April 1941 to take part in the neutrality patrol of the ocean triangle, Trinidad-Cape San Roque-Cape Verde Islands, arriving Recife, Brazil, 10 May. She continued operations in the South Atlantic for most of World War II. In March 1942, the ship escorted two Army transports in convoy to Ascension Island, where the Army's 38th Engineer General Service Regiment debarked to construct an airport as staging point for planes flying from the United States to Africa. By May she was on patrol near the entrance to Fort de-France, Martinique.
In January 1943, the cruiser flew President Franklin Roosevelt's flag off Bathurst, Gambia, during the Casablanca Conference, 14 to 24 January. The President and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill outlined plans at that time for the invasion of Sicily and Italy. From February to September, MEMPHIS was once more on patrol duty against blockade runners, mostly off Bahia and Recife, Brazil.
President Amenzoga of Uruguay and President Getulio Vargas of Brazil toured the ship in January 1944 while their countries continued to give valuable aid in blockading the "Atlantic Narrows." The following year, MEMPHIS sailed for Europe, arriving Naples, Italy, 16 January 1945. On the 27th, as flagship for Adm. Harold R. Stark, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces in Europe, she got underway for Valletta, Malta, scene of preliminary Allied conferences prior to the Yalta Conference in February. Before the end of January, the cruiser had two important visitors: Fleet Adm. Ernest J. King and General of the Army George C. Marshall.
The 18th of February found MEMPHIS at Algiers for President Roosevelt's last Allied conference before his return to the United States. The next 8 months she continued to receive distinguished leaders. She participated in the first anniversary ceremonies of the Allied landings at St. Raphael and St. Tropez, southern France, on the 15th of August and the Navy day festivities at Naples, Italy, the 27th of October. Late in November, MEMPHIS departed Tangier for Philadelphia, Pa., where she decommissioned 17 December 1945.
She was struck from the Navy list 8 January 1946 and sold to Patapsco Scrap Co., Bethlehem, Pa., 18 December for scrapping, following delivery 10 January 1947.
