At 6'3" tall, Charles Estes could not fit easily into a fighter plane, but he fit fine in the cockpit of a big bomber.
Early in 1945, he was a B-24 pilot leading the 415th Squadron, 47th Wing 98th Bomb Group, 65th Air Force based in Leeche in southern Italy.
He had successfully completed 32 missions when he was awakened March 15, 1945, at 4 a.m. to go on his 33rd.
"It started like every other day when there was a mission," Estes said. "I ate some breakfast and went to the briefing room to be told where to fly. Then the crew gathered, and we went by truck to our planes."
After the routine checklist, start up and warm up, the liberator bombers headed to the take-off line. Then a flare was fired into the air, and the first squadron went onto the runway.
Sometimes crews were assigned a special plane that they flew every mission, but Estes had a different plane for this mission. Since he was leading his squad, he had the best plane, one with radar and other special equipment. Because of the extra equipment, he had a 12-man crew instead of the usual nine men aboard his plane.
After takeoff, all the planes assembled into the flight and then into the wing and headed for oil refineries at Weiner-Neustad, Austria, seven-and-a-half hours away.
Flying at 26,500 feet, they reached the "IP" (initial point) about 1 p.m. and turned onto the bomb run. Flak began to appear in front of them, and they had to fly through it in formation.
"About half way down the bomb run, about four or five minutes," Estes said, "an outboard engine was hit."
Since he was leading his squad, it was important for him to keep in course so the flight could go in together. Flying on three engines instead of four slowed him down somewhat, but they kept going and released their bombs over the target. As they were turning away, a second engine was knocked out. Estes had to turn the lead over to the second plane and get out of formation so the other planes could rally around the new lead plane.
"Then we began the fight to make it as far as we could go,” he said.
The Germans were retreating across Austria and taking no prisoners. Estes knew they would be killed if they came down behind German lines.
They threw out the plane's flak shields, machine guns and everything else they could to lighten the plane so that the two functioning engines could keep the plane aloft. At an altitude of about 8,000 feet, they could not make it over the Alps, so Estes turned towards Greece. The plane had barely enough power and speed to keep its altitude, and it was getting worse. They flew over a river that Estes recognized as marking friendly territory, and he knew it was time to abandon ship.
All of the men had parachutes and had been told how to use them. They had also read about parachuting. About 2:30 or 3 p.m., he gave the order to abandon ship and 10 men jumped. All that was left were Estes and his best friend in the crew, Non Swain, the navigator.
Swain refused to jump and leave his captain in the plane so unless Estes swore he would also jump, and not try to bring the plane down alone. Then, Estes was alone in the plane with nobody to push him out if he got cold feet. He took a deep breath, jumped, and remembered to count to 10 before pulling the rip cord.
"When the parachute opened, I felt as if I were on the end of a whip." he said. He swing about violently beneath the cute until he remembered the procedures for bringing it under control. Then he could see the ground coming up to meet him.
"After I hit the ground," he said, "I felt about five or six feet shorter from the jolt."
As he struggled to release his parachute, he saw an old Yugoslavian lady in a long skirt running across the field toward him screaming, "Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness!" The woman's daughter was in uniform and had grenades strapped around her waist.
American flyers wearing American flag shoulder patches were worth $10,000 each if delivered safely back to their lines after being shot down.
The woman and her daughter had lived in Galveston, Texas, until a hurricane destroyed their home years before, and they had moved back to Yugoslavia.
The crew had landed in the town of Prinyaha of about 3,000 people. Some of them landed on the main street. All of them landed safely except for some sprained ankles. They gathered at the town hospital and spent the night.
The next day they met the commandant of local forces, a one-armed Yugoslavian colonel. In what seemed like a power play, he asked for Estes' pistol, which Estes refused to give him. They compromised by letting him have the navigator's pistol so that the American leader could keep the authority his pistol represented.
At the time they were briefed before the flight that morning, they had each been given an emergency pack containing a map, drugs in case anyone was wounded, and $75 in American money sealed in a packet and to be returned intact if they were not shot down. They were able to use the money to buy things they needed, and the towns' people fed them.
They left town the next morning in horse- drawn vehicles on a winding dirt road with an escort that would take them to the coast where they would be picked up.
They traveled through several towns and finally stopped at a town where there was a match factory. Different Yugoslavians volunteered to put them up for the night.
"The Yugoslavians made their own furniture," Estes said, "and they were such short people, their beds were short."
He and Swain had to share a single bed, less than six feet long.
That night, the crew went to the community house and met some Russian soldiers. There was a dance, and the Russians demonstrated their traditional dance where they squat and kick their feet out in front of them in time to the music.
The nose navigator of the crew was the grandson of White Russians, and could speak some Russian and some German. He was the only one who could communicate with the people. The Russians were amused that Americans could speak only English. They said that they were required to learn the language of every enemy they could expect to encounter.(They did not speak English at that time, being allies of the Americans.)
The Americans stayed in that town recuperating for several days, then started walking through the mountains. Small houses had been built along the trail that contained stoves, firewood and potatoes for travelers who might need food and shelter.
The second day on the trail, they had an encounter with what Estes thinks were some of King Mahalvitch's troops. At first the Americans though they were in trouble, but they learned that the two Yugoslavian factions were fighting over which side got to get reward money for rescuing the Americans. The king's troops lost.
The people in that area were evidently Mohammadens for the Americans met a man coming down the mountain on a white horse followed by about 12 wives who carried baskets on their heads. He stopped and insisted that the Americans have a drink of pear liqueur from a goat skin with him.
That night, they stayed in a house where about four people lived. Some of the soldiers escorting them got into a squabble. Then, they killed a goat to have for supper. "The problem was," Estes said, "they liked it raw, and we couldn't eat it."
They finally came to a narrow gage railroad and got on the train. It carried them 50 or 60 miles through the mountains. It was still cold at that altitude, and the train had potbelly stoves with holes cut in the top of the train for the smoke to go out.
At the end of the rail line, they got in old American Dodge trucks that took them to Split on the Adriatic Sea coast. It was the first town with a barbershop, and they all had shaves and haircuts. There was a money exchange in the barbershop. "An old Yugoslavian man showed me one of the oversized $2 bills the treasury used to print, and said he had gotten it during World War I from an American soldier for a package of cigarettes." The man thought the money was no longer good, so Charles gave him two $1 bills for it.
Estes found an Englishman in an official-looking building to Split, and he made contact with the American Air Force in Italy. Arrangements were made to pick the crew up by plane from the Island of Viz about 50 miles off coast. But the weather was bad, so the plane couldn't fly, and they left by boat for Bari, Italy.
Their next of kin who had been notified that they were missing in action were now notified that they were all safe.
"We got on the boat with all kinds of Yugoslavian refugees, packed in like fats," Estes said. "And the boat didn't have any bigger beds than the other houses did."
After a trip with crying babies and "sick folks," they arrived in Bari, went to the Air Force hospital and were debriefed. They were returned to their unit after about three weeks' of absence.
Estes learned his plan had remained flying for about 100 more miles and then had crashed near the northern border of Greece.
For his adventure, Estes was awarded a shoulder patch with a flying boot on it to show that he had flown out but walked back. He also was awarded for his war-time service the Distinguished Flying Cross Purple Heart, and numerous air medals.
