The most costly war ever fought over the topography of the entire globe with the most loss of human life was World War II. During this time there were giant steps made in technology which unleashed such terrible innovations as guided missiles, rockets used for bombardments, incendiary aerial bombing, fast and agile armored vehicles, and better military aircraft than ever, and the Atomic Bomb. However, there were even more mysterious developments that were intentionally overlooked by high ranking leadership! There were planes returning to British military airfields that had no crew! These unoccupied bombers were returning from German bombing missions that were strangely unoccupied by the bomber crews! How did this happen? B-17 Flying Fortresses that were anticipated as returning either intact, shot up from flack and fighter aircraft damage, but then there was another bizarre element!

A harrowing mission

In 1943 America took over the role of daylight bombing over Germany with the 8th Air Force assuming the brunt of the burden. FDR and his cabinet had to decide which hemisphere would receive priority in the role of liberation and Europe was chosen. That left the US Pacific Fleet at a disadvantage much of the time yet they overcame and eventually succeeded. Yet, over Europe flight crews experienced not only ME-109's and Fock Wolf 190's attempting to strafe and break apart the formations, but murderous flack that could be delivered by German artillery at a height of over 30,000 feet. B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators faced the daunting task attempting to knock out major German military and fuel output facilities in broad daylight through sheer numbers and massive delivery of ordnance.

New Sheriff in the skies

The British had attempted the daylight mission of bombing German targets with little success and many casualties and now it was America's turn! The B-17 Flying Fortress had been tested and introduced since 1936 as a well defended long range bombing platform and thought to . Unproven in combat yet, it was considered the most technically advanced bomber in the world especially with the addition of the Nordin Bomb Site, an analog primitive computer that helped in establishing the accuracy of bombing. At first, the B-17 being so heavily laden with machine gun turrets and side gunners was considered to be impregnable by HQ. Test missions were flown over the Pacific against the Japanese and it was quickly assessed as a flying coffin by itself without fighter coverage! There was no such things as an invincible bomber no matter how many gunners protected it!

Into the lion's den

Chuck Yeager, ace fighter pilot of 3 wars and a bomber escort fighter over Germany described the demanding ritual of the American aviator tasked with protecting US bombers over Nazi territory. In his biography he mentioned pilots getting up at 5 Am and riding their bikes to their planes where they would get their breakfast of Bilberry Jam over a hunk of bread before they would fly the next few hours over German occupied territory before the bombing mission unfolded. Then it was a chaotic fight of US flyers against well experienced German combat tactics trying to ensure a successful bombing run and a determined enemy that wanted to knock down the aerial assault!

The impossible goal

As has been revealed over the 25 mission reward to bomber crews who were tasked with continuing missions over hostile territory only one Bomber succeeded and that was the " Memphis Bell" the only B-17 to survive 25 missions! Small wonder why we lost a quarter of a million airmen over Europe during WWII. Yet, the fortunes of war often mutate into strange levels of perversity. Civilians killed, friendly fire causing infantry and airborne deaths, but there were other inexplicable developments! Unmanned aircraft unpiloted, unattended, unoccupied! This was at the very least an eyebrow raiser!

Ghostly bombers?

According to Fate Magazine, an avant guard publication in the realm of the paranormal that originally featured pilot, Kenneth Arnold in his single engine plane who reported the 1947 sighting of 9 disks over Washington State and whom the term "Flying Saucer" had been created by the media was now reporting the very unusual ghost experiences of wives who had lost aviator husbands over Germany during World War II and had given their stories to Fate Magazine. Wives who had patiently waited for their young men to come home only to find out they had been shot down over Germany experienced haunting encounters. Yet, there was something even more mysterious going on over Germany and headed for the airfields of Great Britain. The empty B-17 bomber flights headed back to the RAF landing fields after the exhaustive bomb runs over German targets that returned with no crew! Since a bombardier could actually take control of the B-17 briefly in order to more accurately deliver his bomb release it was theorized that maybe the mechanism could get stuck and alter the course of a plane that had been abandoned by its crew.

There must be some plausible explanation

These eerie incidents happened more than a few times. Analysts defined the circumstances as the crew bailing out of a heavily damaged aircraft thinking the plane wouldn't make it when instead the tough bomber managed on auto pilot to make it back, but investigation showed that this was not necessarily the case. Yes, there would be cases where a crew would exit a flack damaged or interceptor raked B-17 that was going into a death spiral, but all crews were dedicated to staying with an aircraft at all costs! Still there were some crews so shell shocked by the pounding of the German 88 millimeter artillery or being harassed by ME-109's or the Fock Wolfe 190's that they deserted by flying to Iceland and landing in a neutral country! Several B-17's were discovered deep down in the ice years later in the 1970's still intact.

Conclusion?

What happened to these mystery flights where a lone B-17 bomber arrived at the airfield without a crew? There were cases where the only conclusion was unknown. It seemed as if the aircraft itself like a homing pigeon, was simply going home with a ghost crew at the helm. World War II is full of strange and frightening legends from Gremlins to Foo Fighters, from ghost fliers to unpiloted planes on some rendezvous with the inexplicable. The answers seem to evade the rational mind.