When he was 18 years old, George Henry Britton enlisted in the military at the height of WWII. He trained in Texas and Wyoming, and was deployed overseas as a bombardier on the B24 christened “Sugar Baby.” It was his job to take control of the aircraft via autopilot during the bombing phase of a mission. He had to sight in on his target and release tons of bombs with accuracy. This meant he had to ignore enemy fighters, heavy flak, and the very real possibility of personal injury - at 19 years old, a tremendous responsibility. George did his job expertly on his 19th mission flown on the day “Sugar Baby” was shot down: August 3rd 1944. After successfully bombing a factory in Friedrichshafen, Germany, his plane was engaged in a deadly air battle with German fighters. On the return journey, his box formation of planes headed back with the other groups in the squadron, to their base in Italy. But on the way, several of the planes were hit by flak. Although there’s a cardinal rule amongst airmen never to “break the box formation,” this group of bombers hung back with the damaged planes. At this point, U.S. fighter support, P51 -Mustangs flown by the Tuskegee airmen trained to stay with the formation, continued on, protecting the other B24’s returning to base. As the damaged B24’s and “Sugar Baby’s” group became separated from the other planes, the German fighters had time to mount an attack. Over the small village of Ehrwald, Austria, within thirty seconds, eight B24’s and eight German fighters crashed into the Alps. George Britton parachuted from the plane along with eight of his crew’s members. He was captured and taken prisoner. What happened next? Read more here: https://www.greenboxfilm.com/new-page-1
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