A Higher Call

by Adam Makos

The breakfast was designed to avoid serving foods with fiber. Anything that could produce gas in a man could give him the bends at altitude.

Gunners feared assignment to the ball turret, although time would prove it was actually the safest gun position.

At that time in the war, 54 percent of the 8th Air Force’s bombs were landing within five city blocks of their targets. The other 46 percent fell where they were not supposed to.

Of the two breeds of Four Motors, B-24s were easier to shoot down than B-17s. B-24s were faster due to their thin, high-mounted wing, but also more fragile. Their wings would fold if hit at the spot where they conjoined, and Liberators had fuel lines leading into the bomb bay that could be easily ignited. When they caught fire, they would quickly burn the plane from the center out.

A B-17 pilot, Joseph Deichl, remembered, “When we did see the German fighters queuing up and start making their passes at us, we always thought they must have been on drugs or something because they were absolutely fearless, coming through the formation.” 2

Franz looked back at the young men in his care. They were barely able to fly by instruments and only capable of simple aerobatics. Fuel shortages from Allied bombings had cut short their training. Since the spring, Germany’s aviation fuel production was down from 175,000 tons per month to just 5,000 tons, and combat units, not training units, took every drop. At this point in the war, the average British pilot began combat after 450 flight hours of training. An American went into combat with 600 hours. Franz’s rookies came to him with fewer than 150 hours of flying time. *

Franz removed his cap and showed Hohagen the dent in his forehead. Hohagen removed his cap and showed Franz the massive scar in his. They compared their doctor’s certificates and instantly bonded.

Franz had downed as many as four bombers in White 3 during the weeks prior, a B-17 or two and several B-26s. He no longer watched them crash to claim them as victories. In fact, Franz had not claimed a victory since the prior August. To him, his score no longer mattered. He wanted only to do his job.

Like the others, Luetzow knew he had made a moral mistake by serving his country. He would answer to God for that. Luetzow had reported to JV-44 out of duty to his comrades.