After spending four decades collecting stories to tell in class and the last year researching new stories for this site, it is amazing that there are still more out there. History is so entertaining! This story is one I learned of just today. It’s about an incident that occurred on my birthday, today.
When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, Owen Baggett was just starting his career on Wall Street. He put that on hold and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He ended up being stationed in India with the 7th Bomb Group. On March 31, 1943, his B-24 Liberator was on a mission to bomb a bridge in Burma. The formation was attacked by Japanese Zero fighters and Baggett’s bomber was crippled. The crew bailed out. Two of the crew men were killed by strafing Zeros in their parachutes. Baggett was wounded in the arm. Fearing the worst, he played dead, but first he pulled his M1911 .45 pistol and held it by his side. One of the Japanese pilots swooped down to check to see if he was faking. He opened his canopy to get a closer look. When he got close, Baggett opened fire. The plane went into a stall and plunged into the ground. Baggett was captured and put into a Japanese prison camp. It was there that he learned that the Japanese pilot was found near the wreckage of his plane with a bullet hole in his head.
– https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/the-japanese-fighter-plane-shot.html
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