The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Small World: Aviators' Paths Crossed in WWII-- Part 3


Continued from August 31st.

Paul Tuck received a Purple Heart while operating a still camera to record bombing missions when a piece of German shrapnel hit him in the "rear end" over Augsburg, Germany. Quite a few American flyers were wounded that way. Some even killed.

On another mission, his plane was "shot up pretty bad" and had to land in Yugoslavia. The ball turret gunner on the underside of the plane was stuck inside when they couldn't crank the turret up into the plane so they had to land nose first to save the gunner, not a pleasant option.

They were rescued and sent back to Italy to fly another day.

--GreGen

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