Crash Landing

Focke-Wulfs can't scare him, and no amount of plane damage can down Lt. William K. Thomas '38, who has made four crash landings in England, in planes that have been so wrecked by enemy fire that they were usable only as salvage. Recently, on a bombing mission over Berlin, he was attacked by a swarm of enemy fighter planes. He continued toward Berlin, while the ship's gunners blasted away, shooting down four German planes. Enemy cannon shell fire broke the rudder cables, smashed the landing gear, wrecked the interphone system, and cut off the oxygen supply. A fifth shell ploughed through the belly of the Fortress. The plane side slipped. Three crew members bailed out.

Knowing he could not reach Berlin, Thomas jettisoned his bombs over enemy territory and turned the crippled plane back toward England.

Faint from lack of oxygen, he succeeded in reaching an emergency airfield, and made the best crash landing ever witnessed by observers at the field.