Tip 634: For Memorial Day

For Memorial Day: Remembering

Monday is Memorial Day. 

Twice a year (for Memorial Day and Veterans Day), we pause to remember those who have sacrificed and those who have served. 

            Second Lieutenant Walter Truemper. 

            Staff Sergeant Archie Mathies. 

The navigator and the top turret gunner on the WWII B-17 Ten Horsepower. The B-17 had a crew of ten very young men.  

On February 20th, 1944, their mission was to bomb a Nazi airplane factory. 

Over the target, an anti-aircraft shell smashed through the right windshield and exploded in the cockpit, instantly killing the co-pilot and seriously injuring the pilot. 

Truemper and Mathies pulled the dead co-pilot and the injured pilot from their seats and regained control of the aircraft. 

With little or no piloting experience, they nursed the aircraft across the North Sea and back to their base. The base commander ordered them to point the aircraft sea-ward, set the automatic pilot, and bail out. 

Truemper and Mathies refused to leave their injured pilot. They told the others to jump.

On their first attempt at a landing, they came in too high. 

On their second attempt, they came in too high. 

On their third attempt, the aircraft crashed and killed all three on board. 

Truemper and Mathies were young men: twenty-five years old. This was their second mission. 

Monday is Memorial Day. We need to remember their sacrifice.