Mystery of Unexploded Shells

Mystery of Unexploded Shells

(By Elmer Bendiner in the book "The Fall of Fortress", picked it up from the internet)

Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in B-17 bomber aircraft during the second world war. He narrates the story of how his plane was hit with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire from Nazi forces but the crew survived- nothing short of a miracle when it happened.

Later on, when the shells in the fuselage were investigated- they found that they were empty and contained no traces of explosives!

In one of those shells, they found a note scribbled in czech- written by the person who was forced to manufacture shells that said, "this is all we can do for you, now".

Imagine somebody working in a country occupied by Nazis, removing explosives from shells in a soul-destroying factory, writing a note that will probably never be read.

That same person may have died wondering if the quiet work he was doing to subvert the enemy war machine would ever make any difference to the outcome of the war.

It did.

In a gentle way, he shook the world around him.