Submitted by MetaSatakOz t3_10hyd66 in todayilearned
Lots of interesting info. Thanks!
[deleted]
Looks like one of them, Jerry Ennis, reunited with Bob at an airshow years later. I don't think anyone knows what happened to the other guy, though. Edit: All they know is he was a Canadian named George.
That's interesting. Do you have a link to his (Ennis) story?
edit: there is a little bit more here https://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Fw190-Hoover-1945.htm
Can't find anything on what happened to him after Bob took off so I'd just be linking you to the same story as what's in the wiki.
This youtube vid is where I first learned about Bob and it has a few more details. But some of the details don't match the wiki and it seems embellished in some parts (using the sun to navigate? these planes have compasses) and I don't trust it 100%.
But this article at least confirms the airshow reunion.
What an harrowing adventure that must have been!! Glad he succeeded!!!
Hoover went on to work with Chuck Yeager on breaking the sound barrier.
The irony is this was very late in the war and the POW camp he was in was liberated by the Russians like a week later.
He says it was one of the stupidest things he's ever done.
Ww2 vets got to live through fuckin call of duty missions
Bob Hoover could fly anything with wings and controls. Hell he didn't even need engines when most others did. here he is pouring anice glass of tea
TIL The US flew Spitfires too.
Also Mosquitos.
Probably not that stupid in hindsight
It's entirely likely that the Germans could have killed as many as they could before the liberation if a few different orders were given, like has happened at other locations.
I used to watch him at the Abbotsford Airshow. The guy could fly anything. Flew 3 different kinds of planes per day. Great showman.
Imagine being able to tell that story to your grandkids. Badass.
They were best friends.
People born around 1920 are the most amazing humans ever.
Or the Russians just completely neglect the POWs once liberated. Soviet mindset wasn't really forgiving to anyone in the war....
"I was here first you're not getting in this plane"
"Come on bob, look I can just sit in your lap facing the other way, you can look over my shoulder, wrap your arms around me to handle the controls, just tell me if you need to to reach for anything. Hell I can even keep an eye out to see if we're being followed"
At some point in the 1990s two dickheads at the FAA managed to get his flight medical revoked. Eventually it got restored, but in the meantime The Australian aviation authority gave him a license and medical.
This is literally the second half of top gun 2
One of dambusters was an American too.
To be fair, being liberated by the Soviets was far from a guarantee of salvation. They sent tens of thousands of Allied POWs to the gulags to use as bargaining chips against the West.
Bob Hoover's autobiography Forever Flying is an awesome read. Highly recommend it.
The notorious rape of Poland and east Germany agrees with you.
Still incredibly shameful how they refuse to admit to any atrocities their troops committed, even after 79 years.
[deleted]
I don’t think it was Holland, but the Netherlands. The Holland provinces weren’t liberated until the end of the war.
Considering that the US housed literal nazis to gain gain an advantage over the Soviets and never paid for it, it was par for the course at that time
I am American and upvoting you for truth. I despise a lot of the atrocities committed by the Soviets and of course the Nazis, but we did bad stuff too. Like use Wernher von Braun to go to the moon after he shot rockets at London (the V-2s namely) that were built by concentration camp labor. And bomb Dresden to pieces. And firebomb Tokyo to pieces.
Yep. Pretty much. The victors tell their own version of history. And repeated enough times, it becomes the truth
My British grandfather was in a German POW camp and he escaped west a few days before the camp was liberated by the Soviets in order to avoid being subjected to their hospitality!
...how has this not been made into a film yet?!
I mean other than the fact that everything being made nowadays is existing I.P. / a sequel or reboot..
War is cool cause it’s like bideo gaem!!
AdoltTwittler t1_j5b8lbv wrote
I have to wonder what happened to the two guys he left behind when he flew off in the stolen plane. Great story though, thanks for sharing op.