B17 Down (ePub)

B-17 Down is the true story of (my dad) Captain Charles R. Phillips's incredible jump through his B-17 bomb bay doors from two hundred feet (indicated) onto a Berlin field. As pilot, he was the last to jump, but he and his entire crew survived their bailout and thirteen months as German POWs. Ahead of the Russian advance, the prisoners were forced to march for six days in bitter cold then spent two days on unheated cattle cars traveling from Poland into Germany. Patton's army arrived just in time to free the starving men. At five feet eleven, Charles weighed less than ninety pounds.

Portrayed as historical fiction, much of the account is taken from a diary he wrote on the back of cigarette wrappers, flight log, letters, and from the memoirs of one of his crew. Charles's and his wife's war stories, historical research, and the author's imagination fill the gaps.

B-17 Down begins when Charles met his wife, Doris, at his father's stock brokerage office. Their unconventional courtship led to an unconventional wedding in November 1942. Before his deployment to Bassingbourn, England, in September 1943, Doris followed him from air base to air base while he trained. In April 1944, just two months after the birth of their daughter (me), Doris received the fateful "missing in action" telegram. For six weeks, she had no idea whether Charles lived or died, but she didn't sit at home. Instead, she aided the war effort as POW chairwoman for Waterbury, Connecticut.

When his B-17 went into a deadly spin, Charles said his life flashed before his eyes. The heavy bomber miraculously straightened after he prayed. He traced his salvation and strong faith in Jesus back to that moment, but his deprivations took a severe toll on his body. Rheumatoid arthritis froze his joints and shrank him to under five feet tall. All four of his children came to know the Lord in large measure because of his consistent walk with the Lord (three were born after he came home). He retired from the Air Force Reserve as lieutenant colonel and remained close friends with several of his crew throughout his life.