"Sooner"
by Lt. Paul Blaida
As the first story regarding the 97th Bomb Group, I thought it would be appropriate to relate this story by bombardier, Lt. Paul Blaida, who accompanied me to Greenland in 1999 to look for his airplane "Sooner". This story, written by Paul in his words, was sent to me after we returned from Greenland.
The accident of "Sooner" in the waters of Southern Greenland occurred June 27, 1942. On this date the 97th Bomb Group took off individually, not in formation, from Goose Bay, Canada, bound for Bluie West I Narsarsuaq Airport on the southern tip of Greenland. With the weather clear at Goose Bay, we were one of the first three B-17’s to take off. On the way to Greenland the weather became very foggy. The radio frequency was jammed and we could not contact BWI or Goose Bay. We were at the point of no return. Pilot John Nichols tried flying to the alternate airport Bluie West 8 but to no avail as the fog was solid at both airports. The gas supply became very low after a couple of hours of flying. The islands were very rough terrain, so ditching in the water was the last resort.
We opened the bomb bay doors and threw all our baggage on the island as we yelled "Bombs away, Duffel bags away". In the process of throwing out our bags one of the duffel bag handles got caught in the bomb bay worm gear and thus we were unable to close the bomb bay doors. With knife in my left hand and holding on for dear life with the right hand, and the wind blowing through the bomb bay door, I was unable to cut the strap of the bag to free the worm gear.
With the bomb bay door open, John Nichols landed the "Sooner" between the icebergs near the island where we scattered our luggage. When "Sooner" settled in the water, all twelve men jumped out on the wing. Our regular crew of ten and two extra passengers hurried to the two dingys that only held five men each. Two decided to swim to shore. We were paddling the dingy to the shore while watching "Sooner" sink, and the swimmers were making better progress to reach the island than the dingys. To our astonishment we were paddling hard but moving backward. Finally one bright fellow noticed a yellow rope tied to the dingy and tethered to "Sooner". Fortunately one man out of ten on the dingys had a knife to cut the rope before "Sooner" would have taken us to the bottom of the fiord. The swimmers turned blue and were almost frozen; therefore they had to be pulled along side each of the dingys to the island. Once we reached shore, we found dry clothes from our luggage, started a fire with scrub wood and whiskey and revived the swimmers. (water temperature was 34º)
Among the many icebergs, we sighted two Eskimos in kayaks. By our use of hand signals and pantomime, we assumed the Eskimos understood our need for help. The Eskimos returned to their village. An hour later a Danish man who could speak a little English came to us with a boat that would hold four people. Eventually all of our men reached the Eskimo Village which was caves, one white wooden structure church, and a house for the Danish mayor. The caves were cut into the side of the hill with an animal skin for doors. Each cave we passed smelled like a fish market or a fish cannery. It was about ten hours since we had eaten breakfast and K rations were at the bottom of the sea, but our appetites were not aroused.
Col. Bernt Balchen, a Norwegian in charge of Bluie West 1, came to the Eskimo village and took all twelve of us onto his Coast Guard Cutter and Col. Balchen zig-zagged his way among the icebergs to Bluie West 1. The fog was still covering the fiords and the passageway to the airport, which was very narrow.
Only two other B-17’s of the group that had proceeded from Goose Bay did not receive radio signals from Goose Bay to turn back. It was later determined that German submarines were jamming our radio frequencies. To the best of our knowledge, "Sooner" was the first B-17 to ditch, and our crew was in demand to give speeches in England on the proper procedure to ditch and use dingys.
In addition to "Sooner", "My Gal Sal" and "Alabama Exterminator" also ditched that morning. Paul and his crew went back to the States and picked up a new B-17 and went to war in "Sooner II". "Sooner II" was shot down on its eighth mission and six of the crew were lost. Paul survived and that story will be told later.