The miracle of the Tondelayo
In 1943 the crew of a B-17 bomber were saved thanks to an act of sabotage from a Czech prisoner of war
The Second World War was fought heavily in the skies over Europe as both sides carried out strategic bombing raids against the other. The US A+ir Force flew hundreds of missions from the UK, with B-17 heavy bombers joining RAF counterparts, dropping thousands of tonnes of explosives deep in the heart of the German war machine.
The life of a bomber crew was fraught with danger. Slow-moving and often without the protection of fighters, bombers were often picked off by Luftwaffe aircraft or blown up from artillery fire below. In 1943 stats showed that the casualty rate of B17 crews over Germany was around 30% and to complete their duty, crews would need to complete 25 missions- a task which many considered was a lot down to luck.
July 30 1943 saw bombers primarily from the 379th Bomb Group take off on a mission to Kassel. Their target was Nazi aero engine production factories, intending to strike a blow into Hitler’s war machine.
Squadrons of B17 bombers were at the mercy of Luftwaffe fighter planes that could fly well over twice the speed. The B17 was given the not-so-affectionate nickname of ‘The Flying Coffin’, and the statistics show that this was for good reason. Of the 12,732 B17s built, a total of 4,750 were shot down which equates to 37%.
During the Kassel mission, one USAF bomber in particular was getting blown around by fighter attacks and artillery barrages. The Tondelayo was rumbling towards its target and the odds looked stacked against the crew. Both of the waist gunners on the bomber had been killed, but the aircraft completed its mission and returned to England.
Elmer “Benny” Bendiner, the bombardier on The Tondelayo, documented his time in the USAF in a post-script of the war. He went on to have a long journalistic career which saw him write several books.
On the Kassel mission, he wrote “The ‘Tondelayo’ was being knocked about the sky … climbing, diving and making corkscrew patterns in a crazy choreography designed to unsettle the fighters, who were pressing in from all sides.”
It was only when they returned home from the Kassel mission and gave the aircraft a check that they found out just how close to death they had come. Elven 20 mm unexploded shells were found within the fuel tank of the bomber, an attack which would lead to certain death of the whole crew in almost every other circumstance. On this occasion, however, someone was looking over them.
At a closer look, the crew found there were no explosives within the shells; they were all empty- except one. Bediner recalled finding a note in the casing of one of the shells, which read ‘This is all we can do for you now,’ written in Czech. A prisoner of war had sabotaged the German shells, and on this occasion, the crew were saved by an act of defiance against the Nazi regime.
The Tondelayo was very lucky on this day, but unfortunately, its luck wouldn’t last. It was shot down later this year, and the plane found its watery grave at the bottom of the English Channel.
This lucky escape of The Tondelayo is one of the most dramatic tales to come out of the war. It was also one of the many examples of how people showed defiance against the Nazi regime that imprisoned so many across Europe before its demise in 1945.
