The Tail Gunner Said It: 'I Love Them People'

The Tail Gunner Said It: 'I Love Them People'

(EXCERPT) By SAVANNAH WARING WALKER

OILLÉ-SUR-VÈGRE, France, July 5 — Leathery farm people here who were
children in 1943 say they will never forget America's Independence Day
that year because it was the day that a Missourian named David
Butcher, tail gunner on a B-17 bomber, fell to earth in a field just
outside their village.

It was around noon, and most people were in church. Without knowing
what shook the rafters and rattled the diamond-paned glass, worshipers
heard the death throes of a Flying Fortress, 384th Bombardment Group,
Eighth Air Force, as it took German fire.

The plane was part of a squadron sent to destroy Nazi munitions plants
in and around Le Mans, the nearest big city, about two hours' drive
southwest of Paris. The villagers did not witness its spirals from
28,000 feet, its nose dive and rupture, the fireball of its crash.

They did not see Sergeant Butcher, unconscious, drop like a stone from
the severed tail, and so were spared from wondering why he was so
close to the ground before he finally opened his parachute.

Later, they told German search parties that they did not know of any
survivors. But the Germans knew that B-17's always carried 10 airmen,
and they found only nine bodies.

Fortunately for Sergeant Butcher, the first villagers he approached
after landing were members of the French Resistance. After eight
months' clandestine stay in a dozen Resistance houses, the sergeant,
then 25, hiked across the Pyrenees to Spain and safety. Bu...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/07/in...ab0e&ei=5 038

---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com