They Were Ordered to Jump and Live. Instead They Stayed With a Pilot Who Could Not Be Moved.
On February 20, 1944, a 20mm shell tore through the cockpit of a B-17 named Ten Horsepower over Germany. The co-pilot was dead, the pilot unconscious, the bomber falling in a spin. The two men who took the controls and flew her home were a navigator and an engineer. Neither had ever landed a heavy bomber. This is the story of Sergeant Archibald Mathies, a Scottish-born coal miner on his second combat mission, and Second Lieutenant Walter Truemper, an accounting clerk from Illinois. When the crew was ordered to bail out over their own base, both men refused to leave their wounded pilot behind. What they did next earned two Medals of Honor on the only day the Eighth Air Force ever awarded more than one. Watch to the end. ⚠️ This video is based on real historical events documented in the official Medal of Honor citations (U.S. Army Center of Military History), the National Museum of the USAF fact sheet, and 351st Bomb Group unit histories. Where sources disagree on specific details (such as the exact target city, Mathies' turret position, or whether the pilot died in the crash or shortly after), both versions are presented or the most widely accepted figure is used. No dialogue is invented; all quoted statements come from official records cited in this video. #wwiihistory #ww2history #medalofhonor #B17 #FlyingFortress #EighthAirForce #BigWeek #351stBombGroup #USAAF #ArchibaldMathies #WalterTruemper #RAFPolebrook #AviationHistory #WarHeroes B-17 Ten Horsepower, Mathies Truemper Medal of Honor, Eighth Air Force Big Week, B-17 crew refused to bail out, 351st Bomb Group Polebrook
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