How a P-38 Pilot Actually SAVED a Downed Wingman in World War II 

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I met the pilot who picked him up. I was at March AFB, Riverside Ca at the air museum and there was a P38 that was one of the last ones still flying, it look brand new. Sitting next to it was an old gentleman who we thought was volunteer to tell of some of the facts. Well we spent over 3 hours with him and hearing about all his combat time in the P38 to include the story I just watched. Amazing.

It says a lot that in WW2 this action rated a Silver Star for Andrews, when in Vietnam Bernard Fisher was awarded a Medal of Honor for a similar action in the A Shau valley. What's crazy about that incident is that both Willsie and Andrews were involved in supporting roles!

My grandfather was an Army infantry soldier in WW2 North Africa and Italy. He talked about how his unit was penned down and surrounded by German Tanks. He told me how they were saved by a squadron of P-38s. They "cut a hole" for his unit to escape.

Just an amazing story to have gone through that. Their quick thinking and lighting reflexes (no pun intended) saved both of their lives.

Really good upload. "We leave no man behind." A true hero.

I remember hearing this account some years back, and as I recall...these guys tried to replicate this procedure in the P38 cockpit, but couldn't. One of those amazing events that occur, but you can't do it again....like someone with adrenalin in an emergency exhibiting enormous strength.

Hungarians did the same with 109s, on bumpy terrain. When the germans heard of it, they not wanted to believe that, because that was 200% risky and almost impossible because of the 109 landing gear. If you need informations, names, dates etc about it, I can provide.

One of the best stories I've heard... When these guys were in their 60's nobody could have guessed the amazing thing they did.

What a fantastic story! Young Andrews proved himself a very good pilot indeed. What a wingman!

The words"No man left behind" were never truer. Great story!

another amazing story ive heard that was incredible 2 persons in 1 plane and still manage to fly in the air

To add to how difficult the circumstances were with both pilots getting in Andrews aircraft within seconds of take off, when they tried to replicate the feat for the brass and Stars and Stripes it took them 15-20 minutes!

That's a true friend !!

Really excellent. Thank you for sharing this!

Incredible narration and cinematography in the sim! thanks for this outstanding history video!

I'm sure glad you do this. I'm 78and grew up with these veterans you speak of. My dad built minesweepers during the war. His generation is one I spent my early working days talking with theses guys. My uncles fought in this war and all came back safe and sound. I enjoy your type of programs, because this information was not around when I was a teen. I found out my mother's cousin Col. Howard Nelson Tann Jr. Graduated from West Point on June 6, 1944, I was three months old) he was too late to be in the war but he did serve in the Korean War, flying an F-80 and was credited with damaging the first Mig-15 with his F-80. He also flew F-4 IIs in Vietnam and retired a Colonel instead of accepting the rank of General. I'd sure like to see a video about him!

Amazing heroics. Thank you for sharing their story.

WoW, amazing story, true friend for sure, combat brothers for life, greatest generation, no joke

You're videos always send me away with a good heart warming feeling , Thanks again , Mark Battista

Pretty gutsy to fight on sans one engine…would have been more prudent to RTB after losing first engine….but then we wouldn’t have this story .

Wow,what a story of true bravery,unheard of today.Thanks TJ3.

Whoa . Great story . Thank you for keeping these stories alive

Wow....this is an amazing story. Thank you so much for posting. Really nice job.

Impressive and ballsy thats the kind of story you see in comic books, never imagine in real life. Amazing 👍

My uncle Max repeated this account word for word. Max, long past, was a P38 & P51 mechanic. " CLEAR THE RUNWAY I'M. COMING IN!" Uncle Max added. " Plane left with one came back with two."

Unbelievable story and great job telling it!

Fantastic story. Never heard this one before. Thank you

Excellent as always

Thanks for sharing👍

It's a great story and excellent video. My Dad was a P-38 pilot during WW2. "Der Gabelschwanz Teufel" ("Fork-tailed Devil") was well-respected and feared in both theaters during the War. Thanks.

Outstanding video and presentation.

Thank you food sharing such a fantastic story and presenting it so professionally.

You make some great videos man.

Nice story. I'm glad that pilot did what he did for his friend.

That lightning was an absolutely beautiful plane! I would love to have flown one!!

I just found your video. It immediately caught my attention. Reason being my father flew in WW2. He was based in Foggia Italy. He too flew P38s. One of his stories was about the similar event. He and his two wingman were returning to home base when they engaged German aircraft. In this event his wingman was shot down. Dad and his remaining wingman circled the area. Enemy forces were seen to be advancing on the crashed 38. The pilot had cleared the wreckage and was waving. Dad made the decision to land while the other aircraft strafed the enemy ground forces. He landed and the downed pilot jumped on his lap. Dad had the rudders and the other had the throttle and stick. They took off with the canopy open returning to the airfield. Over the years the story was not confirmed until later. At the 50th anniversary of the squadron in Texas my brother met the pilot that was saved. He confirmed dad's story. Dad never received any medals. Thank you for this posting. Still wondering if dad could be awarded posthumously.

Wonderful Story I'd never heard!

True warriors , looking out for each other, RIP

Silver star? Should have been the medal of honor all day long!!!!

Very good information

What an amazing story!

Awesome story mate

Great video

Great stuff . 👍👍👍👍

That's an awesome story!

Such and awesome video!!!!

What an incredible story. I discovered the channel a few days ago. And I am enjoying. Greetings from Brazil 👏🏼🛩️🇧🇷

That is amazing.

What a heroic act.

What a great story of two heros

Awesome stuff. Best known pilot to do that was Hans Ulrich Rudel the Stuka pilot,but as we can see,pilots were doing it everywhere.

Thanks!

as soon as i saw the plane just by the freaken dullness/shininess i knew OH WARTHUNDER

heroism at its finest. the last of the Greatest Generation. thank you for this, TJ.

Fantastic

Five sta* video. Thank you.

Same thing happened with an P-47 during WWII. The cockpit is very crowed with a dude sitting on your lap.

Best story ever

Wow. That was cool.

Hey TJ did you ever watch that episode of dogfights against the odds? If so will you please make a video on that? Also what about making some videos on the Japanese ace subro sakai?

Really cool channel, it suits my interests of history perfectly and is well worth the subscribe. One thing I would recommend is to get a compressor for your microphone, as the p's come in very pronounced, and possibly a pop filter. You should be able to mess with your compression on whatever recording software you use, whether it be OBS or what have you.

Watched the documentary where the guy who did this told his story!! A great watch!

Love the video TJ. Once again you've hit it out of the park. Great storytelling. Have a great weekend.

omg thats amazing

Thank you for this, that's what made America great, we looked out for each other

A nice story .Glad they made it .It must have been pretty scary to drive that train without any chance for cover .It's tough what people go through in wars .

Feeding the RU-vid algorithm. Great video. I appreciate it.

It doesn't shock me a pilot risked himself and his plane to help one of his compatriots. What shocked the hell out of me was HE REMOVED HIS PARACHUTE TO MAKE ROOM!!! With Faith, Man can move mountains.

Great Story! In reality this was done quite a bit on the Russian Front. I read "Stuka pilot" By Rudel over the holidays and it was actually common for Stuka pilots to land and pick up crews of downed Stukas if it were feasible. Rudel himself did it many times and was actually banned from doing it again by Hitler himself. One occasion he landed in very wet bogged down land and got stuck. Russian troops arrived and the two crews had to run for it. Rudel was the only one who got away if I remember right and Hitler said he was too valuable to lose trying to rescue other crews. But Rudel disobeyed orders and kept doing it anyway.

This is why I always prefer "B" version of any fighter planes or jets cause you'll never know when a second seat is needed when siyuation demands.

Brilliant 😊👍

All extremely impressive by those two. What also impressed me was "20 year old flight officer." Youngsters were motivated in those days. While I know we have thousands of fine young men and women serving in today's service branches not sure you could get a typical 20 year old out of their barista uniform these days......

Nice

In the alternate universe, TJ3 is one of the WWII fighters pilot, fought both in the Europe and in Pacific until the end of the war, and he's also an ace with 9+ confirmed aerial victory

Do you have access to original pilot flight reports on what happened? Where do you get your detailed information?

Excellent job with the video. Animation also very good seems like Microsoft Flight simulator ...

Aside from your face on the screen, good video. This kind of story is a sample of so many that most people never hear about. THIS is good content. My Dad flew in the pacific WWII, and wrote many stories about his experiences, but never talked about them. He was in China, Taiwan, Korea, and Vietnam too. Not wishing to offend, I think your screen time may be something that could be limited or eliminated, to streamline your production. I think your subs and views would go up. Just trying to help. Thanks for your efforts.

Thankyou

Nice ...

6:25 RIP german soldier lol

This is the second such rescue I've heard about. First was with P-51s out of Britain.

I find the Lightning to be unbelievably beautiful - a beauty totally at odds with its grim destructive purpose. The best of these WWII killing machines are at the apex where form meets function. The Mustang, the Mosquito, & the Me 109 & 262 are all right up there for me, too.

6:26 "NO YA DON'T! BACK OFF!"

The P-38 model is fantastic. Do you build the 3d models, or just animate them in environments designed by you?

My Father was in the Army in the Pacific Theater. (Philippines, Okinawa, Japan.) He told me, he and the soldiers loved to see "The Fork Tailed Devils" flying over because they kew the Japanese would be suppressed (on the ground or in the air.)

I’ve read of Germans transporting crewmen, photographers, and civilians in the stowage compartment of the Focke-Wulf 190 and that is a pretty tight squeeze, but nothing like this!

The evil that men do is only erased by the heroism that over comes it.

The moral: never leave your friend

Hey, I'd like to see the life of this Merchantman 'William Jessop of Hull' because there haven't been many stories of the great merchant men who risked their lives dearly to bring vital food supplies to Britain (I'm not British, im Australian, and my Great (Idk how many) Grandfather arrived here with the First Fleet.)

good story govna!

this is exultant channel.

My uncle, Harry “Cappy” Edward’s flew the P-38 in Europe during WWII.

Can you do "franz stigler" a german pilot that save a stricken B-17

Germans often landed far behind enemy lines to rescue pilots. Alone Hans Rudel, the most successful soldier ever (destroyed 519 enemy tanks, 1 battleship and helped to develop the A10) rescued 14! He was shot down or crashlanded 30 times, lost one leg and continued flying till end of war. It's a wonder her survived war.

Just ask Admiral Yamamoto what he thinks of the P-38.....that was an awesome aircraft.

tell the story of i think were f-86's where one pushed the other to safe air.

Well, it was an easy version of the Hungarian rescue action. ;) In the snow winter of February 1944 on the Eastern Front Hungarian fighters pilots Miklós Kenyeres and György Debrődy flew air combat mission over Soviet territory. Both were flying aces that time. Debrődy's 109 got hit in the engine block by an enemy fighter. After Kenyeres shot down the Soviet fighter landed with his 109 on the snowy field near his mate. He jettisoned the canopy and threw his parachute out to make room for two in the tiny 109's cockpit. They squeezed themselves into the cockpit and Kenyeres started the take off, in intense small armes crossfire by Soviet ground troops. Unfortunately there was a small water trench, creek across the field. Kenyeres pulled the stick completely back and the little bird jumped over the creek. With that legendary weak undercarriage, and it still hold itself!!! They started to accelerate and finally could took off and headed back to base and landed safely. In an opened cockpit aircraft, sitting on each other and flying in the shivering cold Russian winter. Now, that was something! ;) Debrődy was also go shot by a Soviet Yak-9. He wounded on his belly, a 20mm round went through him and it stopped at the back armor plate. He's got serious pains for years. Many years later - in 1967 - a second round, a 12,7mm one was removed from him, which followed the 20mm on its flight path and got ricochet on the back end of the 20mm round! The 12,7mm round was right beside his spine for over 20 years! You may can use Google translate for this article about the action (not much info about that): www.magyarhuszar.hu/hir/kenyeres-miklos-es-v-debrody-gyorgy-hadnagyok forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/184964-%C3%A1szok-%C3%A9letrajza-debr%C5%91dy-gy%C3%B6rgy/ forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/184917-ace-profile-captain-gy%C3%B6rgy-debr%C5%91dy/ users.atw.hu/bekavsz/index.php?page=debrody-gyoergy

Wonderful story of brave men. And this was a normal practice in the German Luftwaffe - sometimes with the result that the rescue plane didn't made it because of soft or muddy terrain. And I assume that the russians did it too - why not? Comrades are comrades - no matter on which side.

you guys this story isnt animated but was actually a game amazing