My grandfather was a pilot for the Army Air Corps during WWII and his favorite plane by far that he flew was the P-47 Thunderbolt. I wish that I had recorded his stories, every time that I produced a video camera while he was telling war stories, he would get quiet and tell me to put away the camera. He rarely talked about his time in war, after so many years, the memories of battle were seared into his mind.
While serving he had received quite a few medals, one of them being the Distinguished Flying Cross. In one of the stories he told me, he said he was sent on many missions in both the Pacific & European Theatre's. One one such mission, he was sent into southern Italy to blow up a German train carrying ammunition. His P-47 was loaded with 4 - 500 lb bombs. He saw his target and went high up into the sky and pulled back his stick to right his plane. He went into a bombing dive and said he was going well over 500mph straight down. He pulled the levers and dropped the bombs.. and then pulled up, as he looked down.. he saw the bombs slam into the ground right in front of the train engines. He saw a faint puff of dust and when he flew back around, the bombs hadn't gone off. He realize that he had forgotten to arm the bombs before dropping them!! LOL.
He was so ticked off and met a few enemy pilots in the air which led to a long dog fight. As he flew back through Italy, he said he was in a really bad mood and saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so he flew down low and just lit it up with his 8, 50 cal guns.. peppering the side of the tower in a hail of bullets. Satisfied, he flew back to his base and landed.
I wasn't too sure if that was a true story until a few years after he passed away, I was reading the history of the war and saw a passage about how historians were ticked because the Leaning Tower of Pisa had been shot up with heavy 50 cal bullets during the war and they didn't know who did it. I laughed out loud when I read that! Pop's was telling the truth!
Seriously or are you pulling my leg? If not, what a great great family story to tell.
Dead serious. He told us some really awesome stories. I looked up his military record, unfortunately the building that contained a ton of the records from that time burnt down. But I was able to find some really neat records, hand written notes that he had taken after watching one of his wingmen get shot down and unfortunately that guy is still MIA.
Its too bad today's soldiers story's will be much less culturally interesting.
Yes, those were the times. My brother is a Lt. Colonel in the Marines and is a pilot and has some awesome stories as well.. but WWII men had amazing stories.
A lot of men didn't make it back, you had to be amazing to survive.
Yes, many of our men are still MIA.
Fantastic story! Wish I could upvote you 1000 bucks for that one. And may God bless your Grandfather in the hereafter.
@thornybastard Thank You! =D I hope he is soaring somewhere.. enjoying the wind on his face. Many thanks!
I believe it. Incredible story. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Donkey!! =) I love war stories!
Thank you to you for post, but really very good
Or maybe he read about how the leaning tower was shot up and wanted to spice up one of his war stories?
I think it was the truth. I never new the man to lie, he was a very honest man. I just wish that I had documented all his stories. I particularly liked the one he told of the day he forgot to put down his landing gear and slid down the runway on his belly.. lol. He paid a high price for that mistake! =D