On 11 April 1944 Lt. Edward Michael was a B17 pilot on a bombing mission over Germany.
His aircraft came under intense fire from enemy fighters. A cannon shell exploded in the cockpit, wounding him in the thigh, wrecking the instruments and blowing out the side window. Hydraulic fluid filmed over the windshield making visibility impossible, and smoke filled the cockpit.
The whole bomb bay was in flames with the entire load still present. Knowing that the plane would explode at any moment, he gave the order to the crew to bail out.
When the bombardier looked for his parachute, he found that it had been riddled with 20mm fragments and was useless. Michael realized that if the plane was abandoned, the bombardier would perish and decided that the only chance would be a crash landing.
Profusely bleeding from his wounds, he dove his B17 to almost tree top level in order to evade enemy fighters who had riddle the craft from nose to tail with cannon fire. After losing the fighters, he flew the plane until he became exhausted from the loss of blood, which had formed on the floor in pools, and lost consciousness.
The copilot succeeded in reaching England and sighted an RAF field near the coast. Michael regained consciousness and insisted upon taking over the controls to land the plane. The undercarriage was useless; the bomb bay doors were jammed open; the hydraulic system and altimeter were shot out. In addition, there was no airspeed indicator, the ball turret was jammed with the guns pointing downward, and the flaps would not respond.
Despite these apparently insurmountable obstacles, he landed the plane without mishap.
Michael survived his wounds and received the Medal of Honor for his actions.
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