Bloody Tangier Show

“ Bloody Tangier Show ” is the nickname given to the bomber B-17 number 42-5053 . Sunday July 4th 1943 an air raid of the 8th Air Force, formed of 62 bombers, takes for target the airfield of Castle-Bougon to Bouguenais close to aeronautical Nantes and its workshops, where drifts and rudders of bombers for the German company are produced Heinkel.

The finished bombardment, the flying fortress B17-F n° 42-5053 , baptized “ Bloody Tangier Show ”, is touched by DCA. One of the engines burns and the plane loses altitude. German hunters “Focke-Wulf” continue the bomber. The pilot sounds the signal of evacuation but it is too late for the radio operator operator and the side machine gunner right, mortally wounded. The remainder of the crew ejects apparatus in flames. The left, seriously wounded side machine gunner with the two legs, is thorough in the vacuum by one of his comrades.

He is 12:00. Eight parachutes open in the sky above the commune of Saint-Philbert-of-Large-Place, while the flying fortress falls in flames to the place known as “ Besson ” to Saint-Colomban. At the same time, the parishioners of Saint-Colomban, celebrate the " Festival God " in the church.

Six American parachutists are captured at once by the Germans, who occupied the area since June 1940. But, the pilot William Wetzel and the navigator Ralph McKee, find refuge with close to young French, in two farms of the surroundings, with Villeda and Lottrye , two hamlets located at Saint-Philbert-of-Large-Place. What is worth with some inhabitants of the hamlet of Gentiserie with Saint-Colomban, wrongfully shown to have lodged a parachutist, to be led to the prison Lafayette of Nantes where they remain three weeks.

Via resistance networks, the two escaped aviators crossed the Vat and find themselves one week after the crash landing, in company of Felix Guyot at Jean Ligonday the pharmacist of Low-Indre, associated of the chief of the secret army of Loire-Atlantique. After many difficulties, a die of escape is found. The two Americans cross the France, the Spain where they are interned a few days, then Gibraltar, before flying away towards Marrakech and the England. They are of return to their base of Chelveston in England, the September 8th 1943.

The six other aviators, are prisoners of war. William Hulett, persuades the doctors of the camp not to cut down it by its left leg. 'William Mooney, prisoner with the Stalag 17B , in Austria, in spite of the deprivations keeps its independence of mind. The May 3rd 1945, the prisoners are released by the American troops. William Mooney turns over in England to join its been engaged, while William Hulett turns over to the the United States of America aboard steamer Queen Mary, and still remains several weeks in the military hospitals before re-examining its family. The other aviators turn over to the the United States.

The July 4th 1943, two American Earl Salt and Bernard McKnight, perished at the time of this aerial combat.

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B-17
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