357th Fighter Group pilot and legend, William Overstreet Jr., famously flew his P-51C Berlin Express beneath the Eiffel Tower in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944. During training in 1943, he suffered a near-death crash when his plane, a Bell P-39 Airacobra, began spinning as he practiced maneuvers, and he was unable to control it. He eventually forced his way out through the doors and found himself standing amid the wreckage. When he flew in World War II, he suffered another freak accident when his oxygen line cut out as he flew 25,000 feet over France. He passed out but snapped awake and controlled the plane and dodged trees in front of him to figure out where he was and land safely. Newspapers at the time reported that he could not remember a whole 90 minutes of the flight. In the spring of 1944, he was following a German aircraft over Paris, with the two planes firing at each other. Overstreet eventually hit the other pilots engine. As the German pilot desperately sought to out-maneuver Overstreet, he flew beneath the Eiffel Tower - but the brave American flew directly beneath it and continued to fire. The German plane crashed and Overstreet was able to escape the city. Overstreet received hundreds of awards including the French Legion of Honor. This legendary Mighty Eighth hero passed away in 2013, and we are honored to contribute to keeping his story alive.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 13:00:00 +0000
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