Callahan’s Trapeze

Ron Clarke recounts the true story of an incredible rescue from a stricken Carpetbagger B-24

Relaxed they were looking forward to “hitting the hay” for a few hours. 1^st Lt. Bill Huenekens and his crew of the 850^th Bomb Squadron were returning to their base at Harrington, Northamptonshire, after a night navigation exercise. It was 03:00 hours on June 27^th1944. Harrington was home to the clandestine “Carpetbagger” units supporting resistance units working within Occupied Europe. Unknown to the crew, they had been found by a prowling German Junkers JU88 intruder and the pilot was at the moment lining up the big Consolidated B-24 Liberator in its reflector sight.

In the tail turret Sgt. “Randy” Sadler saw the fighter just before a stream of cannon shells ripped into the central fuselage area of the B-24. Sadler saw the Junkers veer off to watch the result of his attack. A fire broke out amidships fuelled by broken hydraulic pipes. Cannon shells had killed the engineer T/Sgt. Carl Adams and the bomb bay area was soon ablaze.

Huenekens hit the bail out button and stayed at the controls to give the others more of a chance to leave the ship. The shattered body of the co-pilot, 2^nd Lt. John Cronan, was slouched in the seat next to him.

The navigator, 2^nd Lt. Bob Callahan, and the bombardier. 2^nd Lt. Bob Sanders, were in the nose compartment, which had been adapted for visual navigation in line with the covert supply missions being carried out by the Harrington bomb group. They made their way back into the cabin and saw the fire in the central area. Sanders tried to reach his parachute that was hanging in the bomb bay but was driven back by the flames. He returned to the nose where Callahan was preparing to jump through the nose hatch.

Sanders shouted to his friend that his chute was burnt and Callahan told him to climb on his back and hold on to the harness with crossed arms. They sat on the edge of the open hatch and dropped away into the roaring slipstream.

Once they were clear of the blazing bomber, Callahan pulled the handle of the ripcord and the parachute snapped open with a jerk that nearly broke Sander’s grip. They were 1,800 ft (550 m) above the ground when the parachute started to spin, it then straightened and Callahan told Sanders to work his way round to his front where he could help to support him. They then heard an explosion and saw the fire where their B-24 had crashed.

The ground then seemed to rise up and hit them. Callahan’s ankle broke. Sanders had sprained his, and they were bruised and scratched but had made a remarkable escape.

They had landed in a wheat field near Eaton Socon, Cambridgeshire, they took off the harness and started to limp over to a nearby road when they heard someone cry out from the other side of the field, it was Sgt. Randy Sadler, the tail gunner.

Sadler had stayed in his turret in case the Junkers had made another attack, but had to bale out when the fire reached him. He had been badly burned on his head and arms before he left the aircraft. The three were the only survivors, Bill Huenekens had been unable to bale out.

The three were found by a farmer living nearby who had heard the noise of the attack. He managed to get them to his house and after some telephone calls were made, an ambulance from the base picked them up and took them to the sick quarters at Harrington where their wounds were dressed.

The news of the feat soon travelled around the base and later Colonel Heflin, the Group CO, asked them for all the details. He decided to record the event and after they had recovered, a parachute was rigged up on a crane and the two “celebrities” demonstrated their act for the photographers.

2^nd Lt Robert Sanders holds onto the parachute harness at the back of 2^nd Lt Robert Callahan as they were before exiting the aircraft through the nose wheel door. Note that the parachute pack was worn on the chest

Having pulled the ripcord the pair start to descend under the parachute canopy

Suspended from a crane they show how they were positioned before landing

On August 11^th 1944, the Office of the Commanding General USAAF issued an order in which 2^nd Lt. Robert Callahan was awarded the Silver Star for saving his fellow crewman. The rest of the crew, living or dead, received the Purple Heart, the awards being presented by General Doolittle.