Youtor
Priority Gal
YOUR LINK HERE:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ew5DcYibUtI
Demo Recording, 2012 • • Priority Gal • • Twas in the year of '44, the last day of July • 20,000 feet and falling over German countryside • the plane they call Priority Gal was spinning in dive • and out the hatch jumped eight brave souls • as one remained at the controls • • Here's to all we knew so well • the Bride of Mars, the Memphis Belle, • Jack the Ripper, Old Maxine, • Careful Virgin, Sweet Seventeen, • and to you old friends and pals, • and the man who flew Priority Gal • • There's a little town in Austria • where they drink all night long • and there's one they make called the Henry S., • and they make it good and strong • for long ago, as that plane dove, • 'twas Henry at the wheel • spinning as he gripped it tight • somehow he set those wings aright • five hundred feet above the ground • with one last turn he spared that town • • Here's to all we knew so well • the Bride of Mars, the Memphis Belle, • Jack the Ripper, Old Maxine, • Careful Virgin, Sweet Seventeen, • Lady Luck, the Nine-O-Nine, • Desperate Journey, Bachelor's Bride, • Just Plane Lonesome, Red Wing, Night Mare, • Anxious Angel, My Baby, My Prayer, • and to you old friends and pals • and the man who flew • Priority Gal • • ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- • Lieutenant Henry Supchak, the pilot, was the last one in the plane, pinned by the centrifugal force of it's spinning descent. He too managed to escape by parachute just before impact. He was captured and held as a prisoner of war. The POW camp where he was held was later freed by General Patton. • • Members of the crew were: Pilot, 1/Lt. Henry W. Supchak; Copilot, 1/Lt. John S. Karlac; Navigator; 2/Lt. Nelson J. Fineman; Bombardier, 1/Lt. Wilson Leahy; Engineer, T/Sgt. Anthony J. Skorpic; Waist Gunner S/Sgt. Lewis F. Wetzel; Radio Operator T/Sgt. Luigi L. Lentini; Ball Turret Gunner, S/Sgt. Guy W. LaRocco; Tail Gunner, S/Sgt. William C. Shepherd. • • Thanks to those who captured these remarkable images and to those who have preserved them and made them accessible online through these and other sites: • • www.91stbombgroup.com • www.pacificwrecks.com • The New Jersey Herald • • Thanks also to Mark Stanley, for his night time photo of Neustift, Austria • • Here is a link to an article by Justo Bautista: • http://www.northjersey.com/news/BOMBE... • • excerpts: • • FAIRFIELD — His bomber crippled by flak over Austria during World War II, pilot Henry Supchak steered his B-17 away from a village and toward a mountain... • • ...It would have completely demolished the town and probably killed 1,000 people, Supchak, 93, of Newton, said at Essex County Airport on Thursday after easing himself into the cockpit of another B-17 for the first time in 65 years... • • Supchak flew 33 missions in his bomber, Priority Gal, with the 91st Bomber Group. After parachuting from their planes, Supchak and his crew were captured and spent one year in German prison camps. • • The villagers of Neustift, Austria, never forgot Supchak's unselfish act. They honored him in 2007, and a plaque in the village is dedicated to him. • • ...Supchak, who tutored actor Gregory Peck on the bomber for the movie Twelve O'Clock High, was returning from his 33rd combat mission over Munich on July 31, 1944, when his engines were struck by flak. • • It was so thick you could walk on it, he said. It was our fourth time over Munich; the Germans were waiting for us. • • Supchak and his crew were interned at Stalag III near the Polish border, and later forced marched to Stalag VII near Munich in 2 feet of snow and 20-degree weather. • • The line of prisoners on that march stretched for 20 miles. We lost hundreds of people ... frozen to death, he said. • • With emotion in his voice, Supchak recalled the day Stalag VII was liberated by Gen. George Patton's tanks. • • Talk about crying. ... We just fell to our knees and cried, Supchak said. There were more tears when two of Patton's soldiers ripped down the Nazi flag and replaced it with an American flag. • • I'll tell you, to this day I have a hell of a time holding back tears, he said. • • Priority Gal -- Words and music by Jim Allyn, copyright 2012. • www.jimallyn.com
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