The B-17 (Spider) was flying #3 position in the formation looking for Japanese. On their way back to base, #1 engine went out. They were not able to keep up with the formation, night had settled in & they were flying blind.
They new they were somewhere over the New Hebrides Islands. They only had about 2 hours of gas left & asked for bearing signals. They turned on the radio compass, but the generator went out.
It was becoming imperative that they land, they only had 20 minutes of gas left.
The crew was told to prepare for a water landing. They hit with a rending crash. They rushed to the fuselage & attempted to loosen the 2 four men life rafts.
There were 9 men in 1 raft & they spent 7 days in hell, 2 of them lost the battle.
On the 7th day a navy scout plane spotted them & flew away & then came back to let them know help was coming. Our destroyer picked them up & they were later transferred to a carrier. |
