Dateline 31 December 1944: The Eighth Army Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group were part of a “maximum effort” bombing mission over Hamburg. First Lieutenant Glenn H. Rojohn was the pilot and Second Lieutenant William G. Leek, Jr. was the co-pilot of their Boeing B-17G According to Rojohn, “maximum effort” meant that everyone flies, thus hundreds of B-17s took off from England.

The risk cannot be overstated due to the heavy anti-aircraft defense effort on the part of the Germans, which played out with heavy losses of the bombers and crews. Leek stated that they flew through flak clouds and airplane parts for “what seemed like an hour.” Still they managed to drop their ordnance and turn around to head back home.

As they moved out over the North Sea, German Messerschmidt Me-109 fighters jumped them at 22,000 feet. Lots of German fighters, wave after wave of them, and B-17s started dropping out of the sky again. Rojohn said that they were flying so close he could see the faces of the German pilots as they flew by them.

In the process of trying to maintain formation for defense, Rojohn felt a huge impact and quickly understood that a collision had taken place. In fact, a B-17G below him had slammed into the belly of his fuselage, and the two planes were jammed together and could not separate. The belly gunner of Rojohn’s plane was jammed through the top of the lower plane’s fuselage and the top turret of the bomber underneath protruded through the bottom of the other one.

The two airplanes were essentially flying stuck together; seven of the eight engines were still running, but they were losing altitude. Rojohn performed several maneuvers, trying to break the two airplanes apart, but they were not successful. He instead concentrated on heading back toward land and keeping the two aircraft under control long enough for the two crews to bail out.

Rojohn and his co-pilot struggled to keep the plane under control and airborne, until only the two remained aboard, then Rojohn order the co-pilot out, but he refused. Together they struggled with the controls until the double wreck hit the ground. As incredible as the whole situation was to begin with, what happened next was unbelievable.

The bomber on the bottom exploded when it hit the ground, and Rojohn’s plane was thrown clear, forward of the point of impact. Neither Rojohn nor his co-pilot was injured seriously, and in fact several other men who weren’t able to bail out survived as well.

They were all captured immediately by the Germans and were in some extra danger due to the Germans’ fear that the double airplane was some sort of new secret weapon. When captured, they were taken to a building and a German captain entered and said something to his troops, whereupon one of the Americans fainted. As it turned out, that GI was the only one who was fluent in German and he understood the German captain when he said, “If they move, shoot them!”

After the war ended and Rojohn was released to return home, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart, but he maintained that he owed his life to his co-pilot, who had refused to leave him alone in the cockpit. Leek knew that alone, Rojohn would never have survived. Neither of them reportedly considered themselves heroes, but their fellow airmen respectfully disagreed, knowing that had the two of them not maintained control of the jammed aircraft, none of the crew would have survived.

Leek and Rojohn met again at a 100^th Bomb Group reunion in 1987, and Leek passed away the next year. Rojohn himself died in 2003.

We have many reasons to call people like these our “greatest generation.” Rojohn and Leek were two of them.