Surviving a Crash Landing
Heroes Remember
Transcript
We did a lot of flying out of there. We had, we had one narrow
escape when we got into a little trouble when we lost two engines
of our four, this is all B-17's. But we were able to keep on
going but we were losing height and we had to come back about 300
miles and to get back we threw everything that we had in the
plane overboard that weighed anything; guns, parachutes, you
name it, anything that would, that weighed anything went out.
And when we got back we had to land with our wheels up and we,
we went, they had to use full throttle on the two to come down
so we were going a pretty good speed and we went, we skidded
along the runway and we went through a big, you know how you,
they built the big fences with rocks and what not, went through
one of those, smashed the plane up pretty good but, and we lost
one of the guys up front. He was killed in the landing and, but
the rest of us got out alright.
Well, with two engines you can't, well our wheels wouldn't go
down to start with and with two engines you have to use full
throttle to come in, you can't throttle back. It wasn't, wasn't
too funny, but anyway we survived.
Description
Mr. Wonnacott tells the story of crash-landing in the Azores.
Eri (Bill) Wonnacott
Eri Wonnacott was born in Edmonton, Alberta on September 16, 1919. He was the oldest of 3 siblings; one sister and two brothers. His family lived through some very rough times during the Depression. He joined the RCAF air crew and became a navigator. He also spent some time as a training officer. After leaving the service, Mr. Wonnacott worked for Lever Brothers and later become a CEO of one of their companies.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Duration:
- 02:05
- Person Interviewed:
- Eri (Bill) Wonnacott
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- Europe
- Branch:
- Air Force
- Units/Ship:
- Bomber Command
- Occupation:
- Navigator
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