Charlie & Allen
I removed your email addresses and forward the rest to my two lists. If Jim
McCollum wants,
send me his email address and I will add it to my Bcc list? Don't forget to
thank Jim for his
eye witness add on.
Poparoo
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thu, Mar 16, 2017 5:39 pm
Subject: Fw: PLEASE REVIEW & LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, DEAREST JIM
Hi, Poparoo!
Below is an email from Jim McCollum. He is our friend who was an airline pilot.
You visited him with us in Solana Beach (San Diego area) and rode on his boat.
Jim served in Vietnam. He was a Medic helicopter pilot.
I shared your story with Jim along with RR's response.
Below is Jim's response. I hope that you find it helpful, Poparoo!
Much love,
Charlie (and Allen, too)
----- Forwarded Message -----
Subject: Fw: PLEASE REVIEW & LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, DEAREST JIM
Thanks soooooooooooo MUCH, Dearest Jim! I am going to pass this on to Poparro!
He will really appreciate it, too!
Much love,
Charlie
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "jim"
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2017 2:28 PM
Subject: Re: PLEASE REVIEW & LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, DEAREST JIM
My Dearest Charlesetta: There are so many things that happen in war that
people never learn about until they hear directly from a Veteran who was there.
I am not going to say that Veterans haven't exaggerated something or even
lied, however, that being said, I do know that the Nazis used Jewish slave
labor in their weapons programs. I do know that there were attempts at
sabotage, as subtle as just slowing down work completion, to out and out
destruction of product. I know that around 12 Jewish people were hung in front
of the entire workforce at Pennimunde, where the V-1 and V-2 rockets were
built. They were working when parts were purposely assembled in such a way as
to make a rocket not work. There were more Boeing B-17 bombers built, than any
other kind of airplane in history. Those bombers flew thousands of missions
and took battle damage from fighter aircraft and anti-aircraft guns that is the
worst in history. I saw pictures of B-17s that came back with part of a wing
missing. I saw one B-17 photo that showed a B-17 that flew back to England
with the entire tail section blown off. My Godfather was a crew member on a
B-17 that was shot down over Germany. He had to bail out and was captured,
spending the remainder of the war as a POW. He told me stories of the battle
damaged that his aircraft had received on missions previous to the one he was
shot down on. I do know how the 20mm anti-aircraft ammunition works, because I
was shot at with all of the anti-aircraft guns that were in the inventory in
WWII and others that were more modern, when I was flying missions in Vietnam in
1968 and 1969. For instance...the 7.62mm, and .51 caliber bullets do not
explode when they hit the aircraft, but just tear holes in the aircraft and
crew when they hit. The 37mm anti-aircraft shell is set to explode when it
reaches a certain altitude or in the vicinity of the aircraft. The 20mm
anti-aircraft bullet is designed, just as described in Mr. Blumenthal's story,
an explosive charge is place in the pointed tip of the bullet, designed to
explode on contact with the aircraft. I also know that if ordinance, such as
20mm bullets were found in an aircraft during repairs after a combat mission,
that specialists from EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) would be called to
remove and disarm the bullets, in the assumption that they were loaded with
explosive material that failed to explode as designed, as was the case with at
least 10% of all explosive ordinance used by U.S. forces in Vietnam. I hope
that this information was helpful.
Love Jim
-----Original Message-----
To: Jim McCollum
Sent: Thu, Mar 16, 2017 1:36 pm
Subject: PLEASE REVIEW & LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, DEAREST JIM
Hi, Dearest Jim!
Yesterday, Poparoo sent the story below to his email list of old codgers, some
of whom are flagrant Anti-Semites. Today, Poparoo is getting all kinds of grief
about the story.
Please review the story and let me know what you think. If you can, please give
me some info that I can pass on to Poparoo so that he can get those old codgers
off his back.
Immediately following, please find the story that Poparoo sent. After that
story, I have placed a comment from one of the old codgers and then Pop's
response.
Thanks so much, Dearest Jim.
Much love,
Charlie
*********************
Subject: WW2 "Miracle"
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2017 19:06:44 -0500
This story is in Elmer Bendiner's book, "The Fall of
Fortresses"[Description:
http://truthorfictioncom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Bendiner-Bomber-Crew.jpg]
Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II. He tells this
story of a World War II bombing run over Kassel, Germany, and the
unexpected result of a direct hit on their gas tanks.
"Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft
guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas
tanks were hit."
"Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell
piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot,
Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple." On the morning
following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that
shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck.
The crew chief told Bohn that not just one but 11 shells had been
found in the gas tanks. 11 unexploded shells where only one was
sufficient to blast us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been
parted for us. A near-miracle, I thought. Even after 35 years, so
awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest
of the story from Bohn.
He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be
defused. The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up.
They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the
answer. "Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells,
they found no explosive charge. They were as clean as a whistle and
just as harmless."
Empty? Not all of them! One contained a carefully rolled piece of
paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech The Intelligence people scoured
our base for a man who could read Czech. Eventually they found one to
decipher the note. Translated, the note read:
"This is all we can do for you now… using Jewish slave labor is never
a good idea."
-----Original Message-----
From: ristad <ristad@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: FreeARA <sparkscoffee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tue, Mar 14, 2017 2:49 pm
Subject: [sparkscoffee] Re: Fwd: Fwd: Fw: WW2 "Miracle" -- A GOOD READ !!!!!
It's a "sea story" if there ever was one.
1. Fuel tank hit 11 times but didn't ignite.
2. Fuel tank hit 11 times but fuel did not run out.
3. Fuel tank opened up, shells removed and inspected for hidden note that
miraculously did not burn up when shell was fired.
4. No photos or documentation of this miracle.
5. No surprise this story was written by a Jew.
You actually believe this story?
RR
I never said you are always wrong and I never said I am always right and you
could be right or wrong on this
one. Eleven hits on a single tank on a moving plane is hard to believe but all
fighting military planes have more
then one fuel tank even more then two and that could be the answer?
I have an empty, complete 20 MM shell with a screwed on hollow tip which does
have a slip of paper inside with
numbers on it and about the size of a large marble and should produce a small
explosion on contact. I remember
the armed guard would grease up each shell, load them into the magazine and
after the last shell was inserted they
would compress the spring even more with a removable long handle crank. Some of
the crew including me was
allowed to fire one 22 MM gun and I remember emptying about a half a magazine.
Now RR answer the question, how do you know this is a Jewish story?
Your humble, common sense WW11 MM Vet.