Phyllis the Fortress

Phyllis had just roared over her target when the 30 Focke-Wulfs pounced on her.

Phyllis is a Flying Fortress. She had been sent to bomb an aircraft factory in Meaulte, France, and the German fighters had picked her for their dish. They swarmed in on her from all sides, blazing.

Two of Phyllis' gunners fainted as shells smashed their oxygen equipment. Cannon shells knocked out one of Phyllis' engines. Pilot Charles Paine headed Phyllis downwards to revive the two gunners. The Nazi fighters closed in for the kill.

Phyllis kept going. The coast was a solid wall of anti-aircraft fire but she got through it. Lumbering along, minus another engine now, spitting at her annoyers, she wobbled out over the Channel. There was a shell hole in Phyllis' wing, three shell holes in her rudder, three in her stabilizer. Half her controls were shot away, her landing gear was wrecked, her upper turret was shot away, her fuselage was a sieve. But she downed at least 13 fighters, and in mid-Channel, baffled by Phyllis' indestructibility, they fled.

Like a weary, wounded bird, Phyllis took a long dive for England. The nearest airdrome in England was too small for fat Phyllis, but Pilot Paine decided to try it before Phyllis collapsed. She was going too fast over the pocket-size drome and neither of her engines would cut out. Paine lifted her up again, knocking some bricks from an airfield building. He careened around and headed back. This time he let Phyllis brush the tops of some trees to slow her down. Her flaps refused to work, her wheels would not come down. She landed on her belly.

Phyllis had to be patched. Upper Turret Gunner Charles Coburn had to go to the hospital for a cut in his head. But the rest of her crew were back on duty last week.

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