Murray - This is the response from the 100th.

Date = 22 Oct 1 23:29:41 subject = 100thBG Question Submission Steve Neff comments

My Dad was a tail gunner on B-17s. He flew with the 96th Bomb Group and was part of the shuttle mission to North Africa. When the movie "12 O'clock High" came out he told me, I was a kid at the time, that an assignment to the 100th was a "Death warrant." I asked him why and he told me that the 100th had lowered their wheels to indicate surrender to German fighters, I think he told me that the 100th had lost a lot of planes on this particular mission (mission unknown), and when the Germans came close to escort them to Germany the waist gunners shot the germans down. After that the German fighters went after the 100th anytime they could without mercy. Any truth to the story? Thanks -Steve

Hi Steve,
That story is one of the legends of the 100th Bomb Group. On August 17, 1943, the 100th BG was flying Tail End Charlie (Low and Last Group) in the bomber stream. The 96th led the mission that day with Col Curtis LeMay leading. The 100th BG was hit heavy by the Luftwaffe and in the ensuing air battle, lost 9 aircraft. One of these aircraft was piloted by Lt. Robert Knox (a/c Picklepuss) and she was damaged and knocked out of formation. Lt Knox was heading back to England when he was jumped by enemy fighters. Now from this point things get hazy and contridictory. Martin Middlebrook wrote in his book the the wheels down incident was done by a 390th BG aircraft. ALL other books on the subject, accredit this incident to the Lt. Knox Crew (100th BG). The Navigator on this crew was Ernie Warsaw and Ernie says that the plane was shot up, the intercom did not work and when he bailed out, the wheels were indeed down. This could have been caused by damage to the aircraft or the pilot could have put the wheels down to save his crew, no one knows for sure. According to the legend, the ME-109's came up alongside the stricken aircraft to escort her to a German Airfield where the crew was to surrender. Instead, when they pulled up alongside Picklepuss, the gunners (not knowing that the wheels were down since the intercom was shot out) opened fire on the German aircraft and shot them down. The Germans were so incensed by this honor code breach that they mercilessly shot this plane to pieces. From that point on, it was said that the Luftwaffe singled out the 100th BG for annihilation. The group did have many more disastrous missions after August 17, 1943 but the 96th Bomb Group as a whole had more losses than the 100th BG. It was just that when we lost planes on missions, they were BIG numbers. When faced with the truth (which we don't know for sure with regards to this incident) or the legend, I will always pick the legend. I believe there is a certain amount of truth to this story Steve, enough that I believe it. The 100th BG lost a lot of planes on individual missions simply because they just happened to be in the Wrong Place at the Wrong time. It is really as simple as that. The Luftwaffe could not search the entire sky just looking for the 100th BG to attack. They hit the formations that were vulnerable (no fighter cover or loose formations, etc.). Hope this helps.

Regards,
Michael Faley
100th Bomb Group Photo Archives

Steve