From Landings;
Think I will have to watch this one.
WW II bomber pilot from Dallas will share 'War Stories' on TV
Man recounts pulling bomb-filled plane out of spin
DAN DE CARBONEL
Statesman Journal
February 8, 2006
The plane was called "Hot Shot Charle," a B-24 making its 16th bombing run over Europe during World War II.
It started out like any other mission, but for several terrifying minutes, pilot Paul Armentrout feared it would be his last.
Armentrout, now a Dallas retiree, was over the North Sea when German flak hit the B-24, and the plane spiraled downward out of control.
"That's it," Armentrout thought at the time. "I was afraid it was going to rip the wings off of the aircraft."
That is the beginning of a story that Armentrout and two fellow crewmen that day will tell in an upcoming episode of "War Stories with Oliver North," a Fox News Channel program. The show is set to air a week from Sunday.
North became aware of Armentrout, 85, after reading the pilot's self-published memoir, "B-24 Bomber Pilot, Remembering My War," which is in its second edition.
The book traces Armentrout's life in aviation. He caught the flying bug in Iowa in 1933. His dad spent $4 -- equivalent to more than $50 in today's money -- so 13-year-old Paul could take a 10-minute ride with a barnstormer in a Ford Tri-Motor.
"I decided I wanted to fly right then," Armentrout said.
He enlisted in the Army Air Force in early 1943 and did well in accelerated pilot training. Too large for fighter planes, Armentrout trained as a bomber pilot and was assigned to the 446th Bomb Group near Bungay, England. The bomb group was part of the 8th Air Force, known as the home of the "Memphis Belle."
That famous bomber, a B-17, flew 25 missions during the war and later became the subject of movies, including a 1990 film of the same name. In contrast, the B-24 is a bigger bomber with a longer range, and Armentrout's crew flew 30 missions, although not all in the same plane.
His crew dropped payloads of more than 12,000 pounds each during missions to Bingen and Rheinbach and Clerf and Worms. On three successive bombing missions to Magdeburg, Armentrout's plane flew lead. Later missions included Hanover and Berlin. His final mission was on April 15, 1945, to Royan.
But North, the retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and current TV host, wanted to hear about the 16th mission, the last flight of "Hot Shot Charle," to the the town of Ruhland.
While forming up off the coast of France at 22,000 feet, the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire.
"We were hit with flak in the number 4 engine," Armentrout wrote in his book. "This caused the engine to run away and that immediately flipped us upside down on our back. The nose went down and we started spinning straight down from that altitude. We had a full bomb load and all the gasoline we needed to fly the mission and get back. We spun down to about 14,000 feet before getting the spin stopped and being able to start pulling the airplane out of it."
On the way down, the plane's No. 1 and No. 2 engines went out and the number three engine iced up and quit, Armentrout said. The crew found themselves pinned to the plane's floor. Armentrout now guesses that the crew of a dozen was feeling seven to eight times the force of gravity.
"Because we were in such a very tight spin, centrifugal forces kept them pinned to the floor," he wrote. "They were not even able to move enough to get to their parachutes, so they all felt this was going to be it for them."
Armentrout and his co-pilot, Lt. Ed Redden, were finally able to pull the plane out of the dive at about 6,000 feet and restart two engines. The plane limped home after dropping its bombs in the North Sea and landed roughly at an emergency strip in Scotland. "Hot Shot Charle" would not fly again. It was taken apart for scrap.
As grateful as Armentrout and the rest of the crew were to make it home safely, the mission was bittersweet.
"We never got credit for that mission," Armentrout said. "Because we didn't get over land or drop our bombs on the target, we didn't get credit. That's why in the book I refer to two missions as No. 16."
The "Spinout of Hot Shot Charle," has been recounted in several books about World War II aviation. But Armentrout was excited to hear from the producers of "War Stories" for the chance to pass the story on to a new generation, and especially when producers arranged a reunion of the surviving members of his crew.
Armentrout and his wife Marjorie were flown to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, in late November, where they were joined by Howie Wilson, a waist gunner on the mission and radio operator Ted Tate. Betty Redden, the widow of Ed Redden, also attended. The three men were interviewed by North as they sat in front of one of the few B-24 bombers still in existence.
After the war Armentrout served in the Air Force Reserve until 1970. He also had a career with Sears, retiring in 1981. In recent years he has worked as a docent at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville.
He said he doesn't try and think too hard about how he managed to pull a B-24 out of a spin. Nobody had heard of anyone pulling a B-24 out of a spin before. It just wasn't done.
"Flying over Europe," Armentrout said, "You always knew you might not come back."
"A lot of it was luck," he said. "I'm glad I had the experience. But I wouldn't want to do it again."
ddecarbo@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6714
Hot Shot Charle
A B-24 aircrew named its plane "Hot Shot Charle" after a cartoon character from the comic strip "Terry and the Pirates." The character's name was "Charlie," but it was already misspelled when Armentrout inherited the aircraft. Armentrout never changed the name.
TV broadcast
The episode of "War Stories with Oliver North" featuring Paul Armentrout is scheduled to air at 5 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. Feb. 19 on Fox News Channel.
BOOK AVAILABILITY
Paul Armentrout's book, "B-24 Bomber Pilot, Remembering My War" ($19.95), is available at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville. For ordering information, call (888) 9SPRUCE. The book was co-written by Armentrout's daughter, Sherrie Kuhl.
Copyright 2006 Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon
Regards
Robbie
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