ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Nearly 70 years after they died when their crippled bomber slammed into a northern Italian mountain, the two Americans at the controls of the ill-fated warplane are being honored by residents of a village near the crash site.
The B-25 Mitchell dubbed “Maybe” was damaged during a bombing run near Trento during World War II. Pilot Earl Remmel of Hooker, Oklahoma, and co-pilot Leslie Speer of Jeffersontown, Kentucky, kept the plane steady long enough for the other five crew members to bail out. The plane crashed into a mountain moments later.
“There’s no question that Remmel and Speer were heroes,” said Silas Barrett of Norfolk, Massachusetts, who was a 19-year-old gunner when he safely parachuted to the ground along with the other crewmen on Feb. 6, 1945. All five were captured by the Italian police and handed over to the Germans.
In the alpine village of Ronzo di Chienis, the two pilots are remembered as heroes for another reason. With their airplane severely damaged by anti-aircraft fire before it could complete its bombing run over a rail yard, Remmel and Speer apparently decided not to jettison their bombs as they flew over the nearby village during a desperate effort to gain altitude so the crew could bail out.
“From reports I’ve heard from the town, they consider my dad a hero also because it saved the town,” said Barbara Nash, Remmel’s daughter, who was only 1½ when her father died.