Do WHAT you can WHEN you can

Greetings:

From my friend in Pittsburgh:




Sometimes it's not really just luck Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II.

He tells this story of a World War  II bombing run over Kassel , Germany , and the unexpected result  of a direct hit on their gas tanks.

"Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns.

That was not unusual, but on this particular  occasion our gas tanks were hit.

Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without  touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was  not quite that simple.

"On the morning following  the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck.

The crew chief told Bohn that  not just one shell but 11 had been found in the gas tanks.  11  unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast us out of  the sky.

It was as if the sea had been parted for us.  A near-miracle, I thought.  Even after 35 years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.

"He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused.  The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up.  They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer.

"Apparently  when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no  explosive charge.  They were as clean as a whistle and just as harmless. Empty? Not all of them!  One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it was a scrawl in Czech.

The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech.  Eventually they found one to decipher the note. It set us marveling.  Translated, the note read:

 "This is all we can do for you now. Using Jewish slave labor is never a good  idea."

Lesson:  Do WHAT you can WHEN you can.  You never know when it might be sufficient.

Shalom
Ya'akov