The B-17 Flying Fortress known as "Little Willie" took to the skies in formation with other aircraft for a raid on Berlin, March 6, 1944. The planes were over the heart of the city when Little Willie was struck by flak. With the supercharger on one engine out of commission, and a runaway propeller on another, the craft fell out of formation. Two German fighters saw their opportunity. According to The Sunday Times archives, tail gunner Robert M. Hayden sent out a hot stream of bullets, and the Nazi pilots broke off their attack.
The plane was in trouble. The runaway engine was threatening to wrench off the wing. The other engine was useless. The tail was badly damaged, and the radio was out.
But Little Willie's pilot, Old Forge native Lt. Bernard M. Dopko, was able to keep his plane aloft. To avoid another attack, Lt. Dopko pointed the plane's nose at the ground and screamed down to 50 feet before he leveled off. He flew down a main street in Berlin, at one point maneuvering between two steeples. "At one place," Lt. William G. Kelly, the bombardier reported, "I had to yell, 'Watch out, Dopko! You're going to run into a curbstone!' " Every member of the crew joined in shooting up German defenses. To aid their efforts, Lt. Dopko rocked his plane from side to side to give the gunners a better view for strafing.
Lt. Dopko was able to remain airborne, but barely. He pointed his crippled plane back toward England. With only two out of the four engines working, it was impossible to gain altitude - but that kept the plane and its crew safe from attack. Across Germany and Holland, the plane never got higher than 100 feet. Over the English Channel, the aircraft was down to 10 feet. Suddenly, one of the dead engines came back to life, and Little Willie climbed to 5,000 feet. Lt. Dupko safely piloted his damaged craft to Knettishall.
"We were a mighty lucky group of people, the 10 of us, to escape and return with our lives," Lt. Dopko told The Scranton Times.
Three days later, on March 9, Lt. Dopko went out on another mission, once again to Berlin. This time, he would not be as lucky. In later years, he told the story to The Scranton Times this way: "Just prior to 'bombs away,' we were hit with a very few pieces of small shrapnel, which should not have amounted to nothing much." Small though it was, the shrapnel severed an oil line. A propeller feathering mechanism was malfunctioning. Fire broke out, and the crew had to bail out over the center of Berlin.
"We all drifted to the outskirts of the city," Lt. Dopko told The Times, "and due to heavy, low overcast, I came down unnoticed and managed to evade capture until late on March 14. I was making pretty good time toward France," Lt. Dopko said, "but the cold, etc. started to get the best of me. I felt then, and still do, that I probably could have made it on foot into France if not captured." He was sent to Stalag Luft 1, he said, on the Baltic coast. He spent his time in captivity there until the Russians freed him.
Lt. Dopko had entered the service on May 30, 1939. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked and spent many months in the Pacific before being sent to England in January 1944. After the war, he remained in the Air Force as a flier. For the last six years of his career, he was stationed at March AFB in Riverside, Calif. He retired in 1959 with the rank of major. Maj. Dopko died in California in 1991 at age 71.
CHERYL A. KASHUBA is a freelance writer specializing in local history. Contact the writer: local history@timesshamrock.com