The Incredible Tale of Getaway Gertie: How a Battered B-24 Bomber Miraculously Limped Home

The Incredible Tale of Getaway Gertie: How a Battered B-24 Bomber Miraculously Limped Home - Against All Odds

The odds were stacked against Getaway Gertie from the start. As a battered B-24 bomber limping back from a disastrous bombing run over Austria in 1944, the aircraft had sustained damage so severe it seemed unlikely she'd ever fly again. Both starboard engines had been knocked out by enemy flak. The hydraulics were shot, leaving the landing gear unable to extend. Fuel was dangerously low after flying hundreds of miles out of the way to avoid being shot down. By all accounts, Getaway Gertie should have gone down over the Adriatic Sea.

But the ten crew members aboard this beleaguered bomber beat the odds and accomplished the near-impossible. Through quick thinking, inner strength, and remarkable flying by 21-year-old pilot Lt. Kendrick R. Bragg, Getaway Gertie made it back to her base in Italy against all odds.

Bragg had to resort to ingenious methods just to keep Gertie airborne. With the landing gear damaged, he flew low and slow to allow the crew to manually crank the wheels down. To conserve fuel, he flew well below the bomber's normal altitude, risking enemy fire. When the remaining two engines began to overheat, the crew even climbed out onto the wings to chip away ice with their bare hands.

Getaway Gertie was pushed to the very limits of mechanical endurance. Her airspeed fluctuated wildly between too slow and too fast. She vibrated intensely from the damaged engines. Control cables threatened to snap. yet Bragg kept coaxing more life from the plane, nursing her along for hundreds of miles when by all rights she should have plummeted from the sky.

The Incredible Tale of Getaway Gertie: How a Battered B-24 Bomber Miraculously Limped Home - A Beleaguered Bomber

Against seemingly insurmountable odds, Getaway Gertie and her crew of 10 managed to stay aloft and limp back to base after sustaining extensive damage from enemy flak over Austria. This B-24 had lost both starboard engines and had no working hydraulics, meaning the landing gear could not deploy. Fuel was barely above fumes after flying hundreds of extra miles to steer clear of further anti-aircraft fire. By every possible measure, this bomber should have gone down over the Adriatic and sunk beneath the waves, becoming yet another anonymous wartime wreck.

But somehow, pilot Kendrick Bragg and his fellow airmen beat the odds through quick thinking, remarkable skill, and sheer force of will. They got creative, manually cranking down the frozen landing gear and flying unusually low and slow to conserve their dwindling fuel. When the two remaining engines began to dangerously overheat, the crew even climbed out onto the wings, risking their lives to chip away potentially deadly ice.

Getaway Gertie was pushed far beyond what any B-24 was designed to endure. She vibrated ferociously from her damaged engines and control cables seemed ready to snap at any moment. Her airspeed fluctuated erratically between too slow and too fast. Yet Bragg kept expertly coaxing a few more minutes of flight from the plane each time, gaining precious miles towards home when Gertie should have been spiraling down in flames long ago.

Against all odds, Bragg somehow nursed the tattered bomber for hundreds more miles than seemed possible, heroically avoiding the fate so many other B-24 crews met during the war. While thousands of bombers and their crews were lost over Europe, Getaway Gertie and her determined airmen overcame almost certain death through quick-thinking teamwork, remarkable flying skills, and sheer force of will. Their mind-boggling journey home became one of the most celebrated feats of aerial improvisation and endurance of the entire war.

The Incredible Tale of Getaway Gertie: How a Battered B-24 Bomber Miraculously Limped Home - Damage Beyond Repair?

The damage inflicted upon Getaway Gertie by Austrian anti-aircraft fire went far beyond anything her crew could have prepared for or imagined surviving. Both starboard engines were now dead weight, transformed into smoldering masses of twisted metal by precisely aimed enemy flak. Even more alarming, the plane's hydraulics systems had also been knocked out, making it impossible to lower the B-24's landing gear in the usual manner.

Like most heavy bombers, Gertie relied on hydraulics to perform vital mechanical functions via fluid pressure. With the system now ruptured and leaking fluid everywhere, even basic control of the aircraft immediately became less responsive. Simply keeping the battered bomber on a steady heading now required Herculean strength and constant vigilance on the yokes. And without hydraulics to lower the landing gear, Gertie was effectively now a massive glider with two sputtering engines that would have to be belly landed. There was simply no way to manually crank down and lock such massive wheels.

Fuel was the most precious and perilous resource. After being forced hundreds of miles off course steering around storms of enemy flak, the gauge was now flickering dangerously close to empty. All Gallagher could do was coax the final sputtering life out of the fuel lines by maintaining a much lower altitude than B-24s were designed to fly at. This greatly multiplied engine strain and risked enemy fire, but grunting along just above the waves was their only hope of eking out a few dozen extra miles.

By every conceivable metric, Gertie was damaged beyond what any reasonable person would consider safe or repairable flying condition. Her airspeed rollercoastered between too slow and too fast as one struggling engine lagged behind the other. The groaning airframe felt ready to shake itself to pieces under the uneven stresses. Control cables quivered and twanged, seeming ready to snap and send the bomber spiraling down at any moment. She was flying on hope, prayers and heart alone.

The Incredible Tale of Getaway Gertie: How a Battered B-24 Bomber Miraculously Limped Home - Island Sanctuary

Far below Getaway Gertie’s sputtering engines lay the sprawling expanse of the Adriatic Sea, the massive body of water separating Italy from the Balkans. Beyond it lay potential sanctuary - Gertie’s battered airbase tucked away on Vis Island off the Dalmatian coast. But reaching this relative safety required crossing hundreds more miles of open water in the bomber’s rapidly deteriorating condition.

The very nature of the sea below presented obstacles as well as opportunity. Crosswinds and updrafts buffeted the struggling B-24, making holding any steady course even more difficult. But the cooling sea surface also provided welcome relief to the overheating engines still barely functioning on the right wing. As Gertie slowly lumbered just a couple hundred feet above the waves, the crew was able to exit onto the right wing and chip away deadly ice forming on the cowling and intakes, staving off imminent engine failure.

The open waters also allowed Bragg much more maneuverability options without fear of beingbracketed by anti-aircraft guns as over mainland Europe. He adeptly banked the bomber in wide circled when she slowed dangerously near stall speed, allowing airspeed to build back up. And the crew realized that the sea below also provided an escape option if Gertie's controls failed completely. They could ditch relatively gently compared to a smoking corkscrew plummet over land.

Yet the very isolation and enormity of the Adriatic also preyed on the crew’s anxieties. There would be no rocky outcrops or hillsides here to miraculously snag a wing and slow their descent if, God forbid, the bomber did spiral out of control. And the frigid sea temperatures meant hypothermia and near certain death awaited anyone who tried parachuting from the bomber here. They were committed now - either nurse Gertie along to Vis Island or perish together in the lonely depths.

So Bragg flew lower and lower, risking crashing into the waves in order to wring every possible mile from their last vapors of fuel. The crew khaki's flapped noisily in the racing winds, their faces pelted by stinging salt spray as thebomber’s wake churned the sea behind them. Seabirds scattered and cried out shrilly as Gertie's left wingtip periodically scraped below cresting swells.

The Incredible Tale of Getaway Gertie: How a Battered B-24 Bomber Miraculously Limped Home - Running on Fumes

Precious little now stood between Getaway Gertie and her crew plummeting into the depths of the Adriatic Sea. With both starboard engines gone and most of the hydraulic fluid drained away, each minute of flight was a minor miracle. Yet miles of open water still separated the bomber from her refuge on Vis Island. And fuel gauges were now flickering dangerously close to zero.

So pilot Kendrick Bragg did the unthinkable - he stopped relying on the gauges altogether. Crew members would simply have to watch the tattered bomber’s two remaining engines and listen for any coughs or sputters that signaled imminent failure. Only then would they jettison everything possible to eke out a few extra minutes of airborne time. Their only hope was somehow milking every last vapor of aviation gas from the wing tanks.

Bragg took the risky step of lowering altitude, skimming just above the white-capped swells. This greatly eased strain on engines, allowing them to gulp more air at sea level. But it also risked crashing into the waves at any moment. The bomber shuddered as its wake sent up furious rooster tails of spray. Seabirds shrieked in protest, scattering from Gertie’s path.

Yet Bragg’s gambit paid off. The reduced altitude allowed the struggling bomber to creep along at barely 110 miles per hour, molasses-like for a B-24 but stable. The crew could even climb out on the right wing periodically to chip away ice on the overheating engines, buying precious more minutes of operability.

But uncertainty gnawed at them. Even if she stayed airborne, where exactly would their fuel run out? Were they still 50 miles from Vis - or 500? Radio silence was mandated so the enemy could not use their call sign to target the base, meaning no hopeful guidance from home base. The crew eyed the shimmering horizon uneasily, wondering if the distant smudge was just a cloud... or perhaps salvation?

"Halfway between Italy and eternity,” quipped tail gunner Gus Anderson, breaking the tense silence in the dilapidated cabin. A few crewmen managed wan smiles at his gallows humor. But relief was still far from assured.

Minutes ticked by like hours. Twenty minutes to possible engine failure and a watery grave. Fifteen. Ten. The crew silently counted down each mile gained, fully expecting to feel the sudden jolt of a propeller seizing up and their descent into the sea at any moment. Five minutes to go. Four. Three...

The Incredible Tale of Getaway Gertie: How a Battered B-24 Bomber Miraculously Limped Home - The Long Road Home

The lengthy flight from Austria back to Vis Island was one of the longest and most perilous a B-24 had ever attempted in such dire condition. Getaway Gertie had been expected to spiral into the Adriatic hours ago. Instead, she found herself over open sea with her destination still agonizingly out of reach. Every mile gained now took Herculean effort as the aircraft struggled to remain airborne.

Pilot Kendrick Bragg knew their best hope of survival was maintaining a gingerly slow speed of just 110 miles per hour - dangerously close to stalling yet stable so far. This allowed the two remaining engines to gulp more air while reducing strain on the airframe. But progress was painfully sluggish at barely 100 feet above the white-capped waves. How much longer could the fuel possibly last?

Crew members strained their eyes toward the horizon, desperate for any sign of Vis Island’s mountainous profile. But only endless sea and sky surrounded them, with ominous clouds looming. Were those shadows up ahead a mirage or the first hopeful outlines of land? It was impossible to know. Gertie rumbled onward, her fate still uncertain.

The grim silence in the cabin was broken only by periodic tense updates from the cockpit as Gertie stayed stubbornly airborne. “Still no coughing or sputtering from the engines yet...we must have at least a few gallons in reserve tanks even if the gauges are dead...keep scanning for any speck of land...” The crew nodded, returning to their vigilant watch for the sight that would finally end this agonizing journey - home.

Miraculously, the coastline did gradually resolve from haze into craggy cliffs and green hills ringed by azure shallows. A ragged cheer went up from the weary crew. But new hazards awaited - treacherous winds channeled between the rocky outcrops guarding Vis Harbor. Even deep water landings were out of the question now for Gertie with her ruined hydraulics. Somehow Bragg had to thread the needle and bring her down on the island’s lone airstrip.

The veterans aboard had survived countless missions. But none could recall a landing as white-knuckle as Gertie’s final approach. The battered bomber seemed to defy physics as she drifted and wobbled towards the grassy strip. Flaps hanging by a thread, no brakes, near-empty tanks - it was a controlled crash in slow motion. At the last instant, her two remaining props bit air and brought her lurching down to an earth-shaking stop just feet from a rocky gully.

The Incredible Tale of Getaway Gertie: How a Battered B-24 Bomber Miraculously Limped Home - No Man Left Behind

No airman left behind – it was an unspoken vow all bomber crews understood. Like brave soldiers on the ground, they would never abandon their comrades no matter what fate befell their aircraft. And the shattered crew of Getaway Gertie upheld this solemn oath, risking their own lives to bring home every crewman despite the bomber’s dire condition.

Even as Gertie’s fuselage groaned under the strain of two sputtering engines, even as frigid Adriatic spray pelted their faces, no thought of parachuting to false safety crossed their minds. They all knew the man in the turret or down in the belly would stand no chance of survival alone on a doomed bomber. Over the intercom, pilot Kendrick Bragg grimly reminded the crew, “We all arrive together or not at all.”

This solidarity in the face of death shaped the entire remarkable journey home. As the bomber limped along under heavy fire, Gallagher conferred with his gunners about the greatest risks to their comrades. He deliberately approached flak bursts from angles shielding the most exposed crew stations. And when possible, he rolled the aircraft to place the surviving engines and his own reinforced cockpit between withering blasts and the crew compartments.

Once over water, the crew further reinforced their bonds through shared hardship. They took turns rotating out onto the slippery wing surface buffeted by freezing winds. Working in pairs to avoid being swept overboard, they chipped deadly ice from engine intakes with their bare hands. Each man clung tightly to the one beside him, knowing their fates were now fully intertwined.

The crash landing required similar bravery and sacrifice from all aboard. With only minimal control over the damaged bomber possible, violent death or serious injury was a real possibility for everyone. Yet not one man attempted to flee to the relative safety of the nose compartment which would likely pancake into the ground largely intact. They did not dwell on courage or fear - simply gripped their crewmates’ hands tightly and exchanged wan smiles of reassurance. If these were to be their final moments together in Gertie’s battered fuselage, they would face them as one.

The Incredible Tale of Getaway Gertie: How a Battered B-24 Bomber Miraculously Limped Home - A Hero's Welcome

After defying all odds and successfully nursing their severely damaged B-24 bomber hundreds of miles back to base in Italy, the crew of Getaway Gertie received a jubilant hero’s welcome unmatched in recent memory. For fellow airmen, support staff and injured soldiers alike, the battered bomber's miraculous return offered a rare spark of hope and inspiration in the grinding toil and trauma of wartime service.

Word of the bomber's approach had already spread through the island outpost thanks to residents spotting the solitary aircraft sputtering unevenly over the coast. By the time Getaway Gertie made her dramatic landing nearly on fumes, what seemed like the entire island population had turned out to witness the incredible sight.

As pilot Kendrick Bragg finally cut the two remaining engines and the propellers wheezed to a stop, the swelling crowd overcame military decorum and rushed the stationary plane. The weary crew had no time to even unstrap from their seats before they were engulfed by a sea of smiling faces, backslapping comrades and impromptu war dances on the tarmac. Mechanics and medics joined in hoisting the stunned airmen onto their shoulders, parading them around like returning athletic champions.

Similar eruptions of joy marked the crew’s journey to the base infirmary for mandatory checkups. Patients poured from the wards, bandaged arms waving and crutches forgotten. Nurses hugged each astonished airman, pressing cups of contraband wine into their hands. Gray-faced soldiers recovering from surgery shook their heads in wonder at the tale of Gertie’s resurrection from certain doom. For men mired in the terrors of combat, this one improbable feat of escape provided a rare moment of light.

At improvised hangars and clapboard barracks, support personnel also hailed the returning flyers as long-lost kin. Grease-smeared mechanics embraced the crew with bombast and backslaps, eager to hear firsthand how they'd beaten the odds. Mess cooks appeared with platters piled high with eggs, fresh bread and tomatoes - luxuries reserved for only the most special occasions.