As Everette Edwards’ B-17 reached the target zone it shuddered violently as flak tore gaping holes into the wings and engines.
Allied leaders had good intentions when they warned the factory workers and city residents of the impending attack. But for the aircrews, those good intentions certainly paved the way for a trip through hell.
“The displaced people may have gotten out of town (because of the warning) but the Germans brought in every gun they could and were shooting the hell out of us,” said Edwards. “They knocked out one of our engines and there were holes all over the plane.”
The worst hits came just as Edwards’ plane began to release its bombs. Smoke began pouring out of two engines and the B-17 started to lose speed and altitude.
The slow moving bomber made an easy target for any German fighters in the area. Fortunately for the crew, the Luftwaffe was nowhere in sight.
“We were about to get shot down when we dropped our bombs,” said Edwards. “Then we turned and headed for France. We were leaking fuel and had two engines out.
“Normally, the Luftwaffe would have shot us down. But there was so much stuff (in the air) that the Luftwaffe wasn’t up. We didn’t know that at the time and we were just trying to get out of enemy territory.”
The crew realized they were never going to make it back to England. Their best chance of survival was to reach France and look for a place to land the plane.
Even with just two engines working, the rugged B-17 was still a manageable aircraft and the pilot was optimistic he could make a good landing.
But as the plane neared France, a third engine began to sputter and stall.
As Edwards remembers it, he wasn’t scared one bit when flying through the dark clouds of flak above Pilsen. Everything was happening too quickly and there was too much adrenaline flowing.
There was, however, more than enough time for fear to grip the crew during the harrowing flight back from Czechoslovakia.
For what seemed like an eternity, the crew watched helplessly as the plane’s third engine suffered a slow death.
“To tell you the truth, you don’t have time to think a whole lot when they are shooting at you,” said Edwards. “But when you get out of the flak you just start watching that damn engine. You just start hoping that engine is going to make it.”
Once over France, the bomber had just one working engine and was leaking fuel. All thoughts of a soft landing were now just a dream. The plane was going to hit the ground and it was going to hit it hard.
“When we reached France we were flying on one engine on a four-engine plane,” said Edwards. “We were throwing things out of the plane – oxygen bottles and anything else we could find – so that we would be lighter and the plane would fly farther.”
Finally, the pilot notified the crew that the plane was going down.
“Somebody said we should bail out,” said Edwards. “Somebody else said, ‘Hell, we can’t bail out. We are only 500 feet above the ground.’”
Edwards braced himself against the bulkhead in the radio room and prepared for the crash landing. The thunderous sounds and vicious impact are easy for him to recall.
The plane forcefully struck the ground in a French farmer’s field. Miraculously, Edwards was tossed from the radio room onto the ground and then back into the plane and still managed to walk away from the wreckage.
“When we hit it tore the bottom of the plane off,” said Edwards. “That thin metal just ripped. I bounced onto the ground and back into the damn plane. The good Lord was looking after me. Then we came to a stop.”
Only one crewman suffered serious injuries while the rest sustained just minor cuts and bruises.
Edwards has no idea how they all survived and really doesn’t care to learn the reason.
“I don’t want to try and figure out why it happened,” said Edwards. “I don’t give a damn. I’m here.
“It’s survival of the fittest. If you’re hot, you’re hot; if you ain’t, you’re not.”
Happy ending
As the crew slowly came to their senses following the rough landing, Edwards and the radio operator, Sparky, were ordered to guard the plane.
The rest of the crew placed their injured mate on a farmer’s wagon and went in search of help.
As Edwards and Sparky sat with the plane they began to notice a few local residents headed their way. It wasn’t long before the wrecked B-17 attracted a crowd.
“All the people in the area started coming out and looking (at the plane),” said Edwards. We had what we called energy (tablets) with us. Actually, it was just cubes of sugar and they were lemon, lime and grape in flavoring.
“All the people were really nice and I thought, ‘Shoot, they haven’t had sugar in a long time.’ I told them to queue up and started handing them out. They thought that was great.”
Edwards also made sure that a group of pretty French girls didn’t go away empty handed.
“All these pretty little French girls came around so I gave them my parachute,” said Edwards. “I knew they could make something out of it.”
Edwards’ kind-hearted gestured paid off nicely. Many of the local residents who received sugar went home and then returned with gifts for the two stranded airmen.
“Not long after they started coming back with fresh eggs,” said Edwards. “Each of us got a helmet full of eggs and we hadn’t had any since we left the States.
“Some French guy gave me four cigars. It was the strongest damn thing I ever tried to smoke. I tried to smoke one of them and said the hell with this.”
Realizing he really didn’t a weapon to guard the badly wrecked plane from friendly French farmers, Edwards decided to trade his .45-caliber handgun for two bottles of cognac.
He then gave the eggs, cigars and booze to Sparky and told him to catch up with the rest of the crew.
“I told him not to let anybody else get at it,” said Edwards. “I stayed alone and guarded everything.”
Edwards doesn’t remember what happened after some U.S. military personnel relieved him of his guard duty and took him to find Sparky.
“We got drunk and raised hell,” said Edwards.
When the crew finally returned to their airbase they had to begin searching for all their personal belongings. Once they didn’t return from the mission it was assumed they had been shot down and either killed or captured.
“They keep all your pictures and stuff but they split up you cigarettes and blankets,” said Edwards. “So, you had to go and look up where all your damn ---- was.”
As war in Europe came to a close in early May, Edwards found himself nursing a broken arm following a nasty fall from a truck.
He was reassigned to orderly duty and spent his last few months in England tidying up officers’ quarters.
In early August he received orders to board a Liberty ship headed to Boston. He was traveling aboard that ship on Aug. 15 when the news broke that Japan had surrendered. The war was finally over.
As people all over the world celebrated the conclusion of one of mankind’s darkest chapters, Edwards was stuck in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
“I was a on a ship five days out of Boston,” said Edwards. “Everybody was getting drunk and (carousing) with every lady in town and here I am out on this damn boat. I guess you can’t have all the fun.”
When Edwards reached Boston he was instructed to send a telegram to his parents and not phone them.
“They had some parents so shocked that their son was home they would drop dead of a heart attack (when they answered the phone),” said Edwards. “So, I sent them a telegram.”
The next day, Edwards boarded a train and head to Ft. Bragg. He then phoned his parents to tell them he had arrived safely and would see them very soon.
But Edwards was startled by the voice he heard on the other end of the line.
“I called home and Sparky answers the phone,” said Edwards, laughing at the memory. “I said, ‘What the ---- are you doing in my house?’ He said, ‘Oh, me and the captain came to visit your parents.’
“See, he and the pilot were stationed (in North Carolina) and had nothing better to do. Momma and Daddy were just tickled to death when they called and asked if they could visit.”
Edwards arrived at home the next day and enjoyed an emotional reunion with his family. He was only in Apex a matter of hours when he received a phone call.
“It was Western Union,” said Edwards. “He said, ‘I’ve got a telegram for you.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know. I sent it.’ It was my telegram. I beat it home.”
After returning home from the war, Edwards worked for more than 50 years in his family’s plywood business. He and his late wife, Ann, proudly raised two daughters.
A well respected businessman in the Apex community, Edwards became involved in local politics in the early 1980s. He served on the town planning board for several years before winning a seat on town council.
Edwards was eventually elected as mayor of Apex and served from 1991-1995.
“As you can see,” said Edwards with a grin, ‘I’ve had an interesting life.”
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