Max Dopson - Tail Gunner - World War II

November 30, 1944 dawned clear and sunny over Debach Air Force Base near Ipswich in Suffolk County, England.  Twenty-two year old Max Dopson of Stanton, Nebraska, a tail gunner on a B-17, was preparing to fly with a crew of nine, to bomb their target, a synthetic oil dump, at Merseberg, Germany.  Their pilot was E. B. "Gene" Miller, affectionately referred to by the crew as the "old man".  It was the crew's 14th mission, and Miller's 15th.

When they reached their target over Merseberg, and dropped their bombs, the plane was hit hard by anti-aircraft fire.  The number 4 engine was out, and they were losing altitude.  There were P-51's waiting to escort them back to England.  Unfortunately, they would be of no help in the trouble that was about to engulf the B-17 crew.

According to co-pilot Lyle O'Blenness, the number 3 engine was "running away" and could not be controlled.  The wing was vibrating, and the prop was bending on its shaft.  Pilot Gene Miller called the navigator, Oslin, and bombardier Swanson on the intercom.  He told them to get out of the nose, to prevent injury to them.  Another crew member, Bill Hessen re­called that after spinning violently, and shaking the entire aircraft, the prop on number 3 engine tore loose and sliced halfway through the nose. As a result, the co-pilot lost all his controls.  He could spin his wheel and move rudder pedals with no resistance.  O'Blenness alerted the crew that they may have to bail out.

The radio man ran back and jettisoned the rear door.  They then had a big hole in the back of the plane, and a bigger hole in the nose.  All the navigator's charts and papers were blown out.  With no controls and complete cloud cover below, the crew began throwing out everything that was movable, to slow down the loss of altitude.  Out went machine guns, ammunition, and flak suits.  In order to get out of Germany as fast as possible, the navigator gave the best heading he could remember, and they flew toward England. While all this was happening, they were still over enemy territory and were shot at, all across Germany.  Numbers 1 and 2 engines were at MAX power.

Number 2 engine was the next to die.  It seemed to bombardier Swanson, that they flew for quite a while on number 1 engine alone.

As soon as they were over friendly territory, the pilot gave the order to bail out.  They were at less than 12,000 feet, over Belgium.  The pilot and co-pilot would try to return the plane back to the base in England. They didn't want to ditch the plane in the English Channel, because there was a large hole where the nose had been.  It would take in water immediately and sink quickly.  The water in the Channel would be too cold for the men to survive in, as well.

None of the crew had ever parachuted before.  They had only emergency chutes with 27 foot dials on a chest pack, unlike parachutists, who had a 35 foot dial.  The navigator, the bombardier, Max, and another crew member jumped, one by one.  Max said that he did everything wrong.  Instead of counting to 10 before pulling the D-ring, he said he thought "10" and pulled.  In his words, the plane went by "wham", as his chute began to stream out.  For a horrible second, he thought that the chute might catch on the tail.  Luckily, it cleared the plane.

As he floated down, it was so quiet, he said that he thought he could have heard a bird chirp miles away.  He felt as if he was falling slowly, until he went through the clouds so quickly, that he knew he was falling very fast.  Once he was below the cloud cover, he could see the ground was farmland.  A man who had been riding a bicycle on a road, had stopped to watch Max's descent.  A few other people were standing in various places looking up at him.  He steered his chute away from a stock tank, not wanting to straddle it.  He had been told that if he ever had to bail out, he should get rid of he side arm, a .45 pistol.  He forgot those instruc­tions, and upon landing, he still had it.  He had been told not to worry about losing his D-ring; that it would be in his hand when he reached earth, and it was.  He treasured it right up to his death in October, 2001.

As he got closer to the ground, he wondered if the people there would be friendly or not.

Max worried about not knowing the Belgian language.  He landed hard on his feet, forgetting that he had been told to roll over and over.  As a result, he chip-fractured both ankles.  He lay there, still wondering how he would communicate, when a man approached him, asking, in English "Are you all right, Yank?"  He was taken to a nearby town, Lichtenveldt, Belgium. It was so recently liberated, that there were still swastikas painted on the fences.  The other crew members, who had bailed out with him, had all landed safely, within a few miles.  He was reunited with them, and they were taken to the home of a woman who had been assigned to allow them an overnight stay.  She had one bottle of liquor which she broke out for them to share.  Max gave his parachute to the townspeople in return Cor their hospitality.  Dresses, shirts, and even wedding gowns were probably made from the precious silk, which would have been unobtainable during the war.  The men learned that their pilot and co-pilot had stayed with the plane until further flight was impossible.  They decided after identifying the English Channel, that they would head back inland for five minutes, turn again and head toward the Channel, and bail out.  Doing so, both men reached the ground unhurt, and the plane probably went down in the water.

In January, 1945, the Army Air Force described the ill-fated flight ending with this statement:  The skillful flying technique, courage, and devotion to duty displayed by Lieutenant Miller on this occasion reflect the highest credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United" States.

The next day, the crew was flown back to Debach Air Force Base in England, by the Royal Air Force in a B-47.  Upon arrival at the base, the crew learned that they were scheduled to return again to bomb Merseberg five days later.  This would be without Max.  He was hospitalized for six weeks. The treatment for his painful chip-fractured ankles was cold water bandages. He was told that his injury was equivalent to jumping out of a second story window and landing on his feet.

After six weeks, Captain Miller- came to see him.  He asked Max how he was feeling.  He replied "I'm still pretty sore".  Miller said "We're going on "a mission tomorrow morning, and we hope you can go with us".  Max knew that if he went with his former crew, they would need 10 more missions to reach their quota of 35, and at that point, they would get to go home. If he didn't go with them, he'd later have to do more missions with another crew before he'd be eligible to return home.  Max told Captain Miller, "I'll be there".

Next morning, Max was released from the hospital, and immediately went on a mission with his crew.  Over the Rhine River, the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire.  It caused a small crack in the plane. They began to lose altitude.  Max said he ^started thinking a lot about "having to bail out again, possibly re-injuring his sore ankles.  Luckily and skill­fully, in Max's words, "the old man held it together".  They returned safely to their base in England.

They flew the rest of their missions successfully and no harm came to air­craft or crew.  On the later missions, they saw German jet planes, which were new.  The Allies had none at the time.

Max was grateful to stay with his original crew, and to be able to go home when their missions were completed.  He said "Home was the incentive"

Dictated to Sharon Winther by Max Dopson on September 30, 2001, plus excerpts from letters written by the pilot and other crew members.