"Sooner II"
by Lt. Paul Blaida
Our third story out of the 97th Bomb Group's diary relates to the B-17 "Sooner II". Our trip to Greenland in July of 1999 was to locate and recover "Sooner" that went down on June 27th, 1942. Lt. Paul Blaida, the bombardier of "Sooner" AND "Sooner II", went to Greenland with us and during an interview he shared the following story that was also written in the 97th Bomb Group's diary.
The 97th's first base assignment when it left the States in June of 1942 was Polebrook, England. On August 17, 1942 the first mission was to bomb Rouen, France. The mission was successful without a single loss. From that day forward, things changed on the loss column. On November 10th, 1942 Paul's squadron, the 340th, left Polebrook, England for Tunisia in Northwest Africa. Their new home would be an airfield at Bizerte called Sidi Armed. The primary missions for the 340th from mid November to mid December was to bomb the harbors of Tunis and Bizerte.
The 18th of December 1942 marked the loss of two B-17's bombing the docks of Bizerte. One of those B-17's was Paul Blaida's aircraft "Sooner II". The following is what happened.
Minutes before their bombing run, Paul's B-17 was attacked head on by three enemy fighters. As the 17's arrived over their target they were hit with flak knocking out the #2 and the #4 engines.
The second B-17 to go down was also hit by flak taking out both engines on the right wing. Due to engine failures on both aircraft, they were not able to keep up with the rest of the squadron. As they fell behind, German fighters hit them again. The second B-17 was flown by Captain Dallas. His gunner claimed four enemy fighters as he was trying to coax his damaged B-17 into friendly territory. As he was losing altitude, his #3 engine failed. Due to superb flying, Captain Dallas was able to ditch his aircraft near the Tunisian town LeKef. Fortunately, this was within the allied lines and the crew survived.
Paul's aircraft, piloted by Lt. John Nichols, was not so lucky. Lt. Nichols tried to get maximum speed out of his aircraft but the German fighters took their toll on his B-17. The top turret gunner was killed instantly. A fire broke out in the cockpit and the aircraft lost altitude rapidly. The bailout sign was given but the aircraft was very low...too low for a safe bailout. Lt. Blaida tried to escape through the navigators hatch cover. He couldn't open it because the body of the dead turret gunner was lying on top of it. He went through a much smaller emergency hatch and bailed out at less than 800 feet. He hit the ground hard. Fortunately, his only injury was a strained back. He is the first to admit how lucky he was. Not so for four of his other crew mates. The co-pilot, navigator, and two gunners were killed. Lt. Nichols suffered severe burns and two other gunners escaped when the B-17 broke in two. Paul was able to get back to the crash site where eventually the survivors were rescued.