Maynard Smith: WW2 B-17 Ball Turret Gunner

Awarded the Medal of Honor for Heroically Saving Lives.

On a bombing mission over France, Smith’s B-17 was hit by flack and badly shot up by German fighters. The middle section of the B-17 caught fire with exploding ammo going off everywhere. Climbing out of the broken ball turret, Smith quickly set about treating the wounded while trying to put out the fire threatening to burn the plane in half. Wrapping himself in a blanket he began patting out the fire by hand, stopping to urinate on it, manning the waist guns to shoot at German fighters and throw ammo out the window so it wouldn’t catch fire. When the plane finally landed at the base in England, it broke in half upon touchdown as the fire had weakened the fuselage. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that Smith had saved the lives of the six men remaining in the wounded B-17 and he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

He suffered from PTSD afterwards and was grounded but his honor and deeds were never in question. Valor is in you. Set it free.