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40 Insights into the Lives of Famous War Veterans

Khalid Elhassan July 13, 2019 26 min

9. Gable duked it out with the Luftwaffe in B-17s over Germany

Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable in WWII. Margaret Herric Collection

To obtain footage for his recruitment film, Clark Gable flew five combat missions as a B-17 gunner in 1943, including a bombing raid into Germany. His presence in the missions was for propaganda and PR purposes, but the dangers were all too real: during one mission, his B-17 lost an engine and had its stabilizer damaged after it was hit by antiaircraft fire and was attacked by fighters. Over Germany, two of his B-17’s crew were wounded, another was killed after being struck by flak, and shrapnel went through Gable’s boot and almost took off his head.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.