Down The Runway - The Making of A Pilot by Samuel Hawkins

[J.A.F.O.]

I've just read Down The Runway - The Making of A Pilot by Samuel Hawkins and thoroughly enjoyed it but have a question which some of you may know the answer to.

In it he describes his 49th mission on B-17s, a raid on Magdeburg on which they encounter a lot of german fighter and flak defence including downwards shooting ME 110s. During the mission one of his gunners displays so much courage and bravery that he is awarded the Medal of Honor.

Is this a real account of a real raid or an amalgamation of stories told for dramatic effect?

If anyone can help I'd like to know whether one of the most touching accounts of aerial warfare that I've ever read was real or a fabrication.

[J.A.F.O.]

Okay, anyone know where I might start finding out? I've searched citations for the Medal of Honor and haven't, yet, found anything to match.

[XV490]

I had a look, too, at 8th Air Force MOH winners. Very few gunners among 'em. Sounds like Mr Hawkins is really into fiction...

[XV490]

Does the book refer to Hawkins' Bomb Group and/or base? And are there any dates? If so, it'll be easy to track down the facts. He might, of course, have been in the 15th Air Force - but the Bomb Group number's the important factor. And 49 missions on US heavies was unusual.

Frankly, I'd be amazed at any REAL veteran USAAF pilot daring to invent a MOH award. Imagine doing that about a VC?

[J.A.F.O.]

XV490

Very few clues in the book and someone was kind enough to PM me a link with MOH winners and none matches the description in the book. It's a great book and is written like autobiography, it may be it's based on truth but with enough details changed to protect real identities and confound me in my search.

[longer ron]

I have not read the book so cant comment really,but is it possible that the gunner was recommended for the MOH but it was downgraded to a lesser award,happened quite often in the RAF.

[J.A.F.O.]

Down the Runway is a memoir (or so it seems) of Samuel Hawkins who learned to fly while he was a boy on his father's dairy farm. The blurb on the back cover states that he had at the time of publication 35,000 hours and was chief pilot for the Lone Star Oil and Gas Corporation.

The mission he describes was his 49th from an unamed English airfield to Magdeburg routing via Hamburg and Berlin.

They are flying a B-17 called Danny's Dream with the group commander Colonel Robert Howell Austin on board.

During the mission Bill Jackson (co-pilot), Herb Tollison (bombardier), Bob Mason (navigator), Bob Gunderson (top gunner), Al Martin (left waist gunner) and "Shorty" Rogers (ball turret gunner) are killed.

Sergeant Tubbs wins the Medal of Honor for his actions.

I'm beginning to think it's a fictionalised story based on many people and missions and not an actual account.

The book's still worth reading, though.