A gunner's tale: the sole survivor of his crew, Robert Sweatt's courage and determination were testaments to his crew and all others who flew in the face of danger

Airman, Feb, 2004 by Chuck Widener

When the shooting started, he was only expected to survive about 17 seconds.

At least that's what airmen believed was the average life expectancy of an aerial gunner in combat. More than 12,000 B-24 Liberators and B-17 Flying Fortresses were lost during World War II--a war that claimed the lives of more than 71,000 enlisted aircrew members.

He escaped near-certain death, but some 60 years later Robert Sweatt still harbors many haunting memories and feelings of his crew members--all dead from a single attack over France.

In all, the former sergeant and aerial gunner aboard the B-24 during World War II survived 16 missions over Europe before stepping into "Trouble," the name of his bomber on Jan. 7, 1944.

"It was one crisis after another," he said. "You just never knew what was going to happen on the next mission."

The last mission

Sergeant Sweatt recalled the details of that January mission along with his three-month evasion of the Gestapo with vivid clarity. The 81-year-old rancher and retired schoolteacher remembers every detail of that tragic day as if he's lived it more than once.

Drafted into the Army in 1942, he was on his way to becoming a cook in the infantry. But the opportunity to fly, collect flight pay and "enjoy" faster promotion rates were all big factors that appealed to him during a time when the nation was coming out of the Great Depression.

One year later, the gunner found himself flying in B-24 formations surrounded by heavy flak during bombing missions over Germany. From being fired on by enemy fighters to crash landing on the English coast, he and his crew had experienced it all in 16 missions. They survived the loss of three aircraft during bombing missions in Germany, Africa and Portugal. But the 17th mission proved to be the last the gunner and his 10 fellow crew members would fly.

His Liberator was the lead aircraft for the group of B-24s flying the mission against a German chemical plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Originally, the crew wasn't scheduled to fly.

"We were supposed to be on 'R and R' [rest and relaxation] in Scotland," he said.

But the crew was called in by command pilot Maj. Kenneth Caldwell, who wanted to lead the group on the mission.

Instead of enjoying some much needed time off, the "Trouble" crew found themselves trailing hundreds of B-17 Flying Fortresses to the target.

"The sky looked like it was filled with blackbirds," Sergeant Sweatt said.

During the approach to the target and for the next 15 minutes, anti-aircraft shells from the German 88 mm cannons were bursting all around the formation.

"The sky was black," he said.

Off course

As "Trouble" dropped its bombs and broke from the target, Major Caldwell asked for a heading back to England. Capt. David Wilhite, the other pilot, quickly informed the major that the crew had orders to follow the formation of B-17s back to base for cover, but Major Caldwell demanded his group of 23 B-24s return to base on its own--a decision he would not live long enough to regret making.

As the pilots waited for new directions, Sergeant Sweatt pulled out a candy bar. To his disappointment, it was frozen solid from the 40 below temperatures.

Suddenly the crew heard the navigator yell, "Make a 90 degree turn! We're 100 miles off course." The group of bombers had drifted into France and were heading into German occupied Paris. Immediately following the navigator's order, one of the gunners cried out, "Enemy fighters, 12 o'clock!"

Sergeant Sweatt watched in horror as the hall turret gunner was shot up in front of him by German ace Egon Mayer. He learned the identity of their attacker on a trip to Germany many years after the war. The German pilot was flying a Focke-Wulf Fw-190 and was credited with creating the deadly head-on attacks against the bombers.

The pilots were shot and killed instantly and had slumped over the controls, sending the plane into a spin. Bullets from the enemy fighter also penetrated the B-24's oxygen tanks and shot off the right wing tip.

Making his way to the waist window, Sergeant Sweatt reached for a parachute with his left arm. To his surprise, his arm had been hit by bullets and was useless. As the B-24 bomber began spinning out of control, the gunner lunged for a parachute a second time with his right arm. Successful, he slung it across his back as he was thrown against the frame of the aircraft.

"I felt like I was 500 pounds," he said. "I was trapped."

Escaping death

As he and other members of the crew who survived the initial attack helplessly struggled to exit the falling plane, an explosion ripped the B-24 in two--knocking him unconscious and launching him into the sky.

"It just got deathly quiet," he said.

He awoke while falling from about 15,000 feet in the sky. His face was riddled with more than 100 pieces of flak and metal shavings; he couldn't see.

"I couldn't tell If I was going up or down," he said. "I reached up to feel my face and realized the explosion yanked my oxygen mask across my face."

After yanking the mask off his face, he saw pieces of the bomber falling with him.