B-17 "Royal Flush"

This is the story of the crew of that lone survivor, a B-17 Flying Fortress nicknamed, “Royal Flush” (B-17F-45-VE 42-6087 — LD-Z), flown by pilots Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal and Winifred T. “Pappy” Lewis of the 418th Bomb Squadron.

On October 10th, 1943, the 100th Bomb Group will participate in an air raid that will see one of the most ferocious air combats since the beginning of WWII. Being the third mission in three days, the raid to Munster was to target the city center and marshalling yards in an effort to deprive Germany of its much-needed civilian railway workers that supported the Nazi war effort. The raid was probably to become one of the worst disasters in 8th Air Force history. Among those who flew that day, the airmen of the 100th Bomb Group (Heavy) suffered the worst — of the 14 bombers that pressed on to the target, only one bomber made it back. After Münster, the 100th Bomb Group’s nickname would be forever fixed in memory as “The Bloody Hundredth”.

"Royal Flush" is seen here as the only survivor of the 100th BG, on its way back to England after the bomb run. Having 2 engines damaged and many holes in its wings and fuselage due to previous fighter attacks and Flak, the B-17F Spotted by the German fighters who arrived to finish him off, Rosenthal and Lewis, his co-pilot, began a series of very sudden evasive maneuvers. 4 by 4, the fighters follow one another without succeeding in shooting down the wounded B-17. The tail gunner, Sgt. De Blasio wrote a letter detailing exactly these events during which he managed to shoot down 6 German planes in a row: 2 Ju-88s and 4 FW-190s, including 2 which collided in flight after a few short bursts of machine guns. German records report 25 aircraft lost that day. It is very likely that Sergeant De Blasio was behind six of them and saved the “Royal Flush” from certain death.