Veterans mark D-Day at Aurora Airport

After weeks on the loose, Ira Weinstein stopped running.

With Luftwaffe and Nazi elite SS troops on the lookout for any of the hundreds of airmen shot down during a dogfight in German skies during World War II, Weinstein figured it was only a matter of time before he was spotted and shot immediately.

As he wandered the countryside, traveling by night and hiding out by day hoping to make it to Switzerland, he ran into Nentershausen, a city with several churches dotting the town. His choice of towns to surrender in probably saved his life.

“I thought if I'm ever going to get a break, it will be in a town where they have that many churches,” the 91-year-old veteran said Monday at Aurora Municipal Airport. Weinstein and fellow veteran Robert Starzynski were going to be treated Monday to a flight on a restored B-17 Flying Fortress to mark the 67th anniversary of D-Day. But some engine problems grounded the plane.

The repairs should be quick, and to help preserve that storied bit of history, flights on the B-17 and a P-40E Warhawk will be available to the public this weekend.

The bombardier

As Weinstein walked to the center of Nentershausen, a teen approached the bombardier.

“I see you're one of the flying officers they are looking for,” the youth said. Weinstein confirmed, and the teen took him to the town's Bürgermeister, or mayor.

The town leader fed Weinstein one of the best bowls of potato soup he had ever eaten then noticed the Jewish name on his dog tags. The mayor told him he would call Luftwaffe forces, rather than the SS, which probably would shoot him dead.

“He saved my life,” said Weinstein, who lives in Glencoe today.

As Weinstein hid from the forces in Germany, Starzynski was finishing up his own vanishing act in France.

The tail gunner

Starzynski was tail gunner of a B-17 Flying Fortress when his plane was shot down June 17, 1944, in France. He soon took up with French Resistance fighters for three months. Starzynski said flights like those being offered at the Aurora airport help impart the history to younger people.

“It's very important that the younger generation should know, and hopefully they will appreciate what was accomplished by all of the losses that we have had,” said Starzynski, a Chicago resident.

In nearly four years of fighting during World War II, American forces lost nearly 300,000 troops. Both Weinstein and Starzynski survived as part of the 8th Air Force, which Starzynski estimated lost about 28,000 people.

After his time with the French Underground, Starzynski was sent home because of the breadth of knowledge he had acquired, which would have been dangerous in the enemy's hands.

He has not been on a B-17 since, a streak he had hoped to end Monday.

The Foundation

The plane is not the original “Liberty Belle.”

But Don Brooks of the Liberty Foundation bought the plane a decade ago, and chose to paint it as the “Liberty Belle” because of his father, who flew numerous combat missions as tail gunner in the original plane.

It includes 13 turrets with .50-caliber machine guns that fired about 13 rounds per second. Its bomb load normally was 8,000 pounds, but with special external racks could reach about 17,600 pounds.

Brooks paid for the entire restoration and, since 2004, the foundation has sent the plane across the country and offered flights to the public. The $430 fee for a 45-minute flight on the Belle offsets costs incurred by the not-for-profit organization.

Only 14 of the aircraft continue to fly today.

“It's a chance to see a bit of history,” said pilot Mike Walton, who has flown B-17s for 24 years and for the Liberty Foundation since 2005.

Weinstein's mission

Weinstein was not supposed to be on the Sept. 27, 1944, mission. But he chose to forego a three-day leave for Yom Kippur in order to fly what would have been his 25th and final mission and be home for his wife's Christmas Day birthday.

His commanders tried to talk him out of it, telling him, “Don't you know you should never volunteer for anything?”

But Weinstein insisted, and he was placed in a B-24 Liberator headed for Kassel, Germany. But the planes never made it.

As the lead group on the mission broke off, Weinstein said his crew thought something was wrong, only to learn later that his crew had, in fact, been sent to a secondary target.

“We thought the lead group made a mistake, so we were all over the intercom,” Weinstein said. “But then the Germans hit us, and all hell broke loose.”

Weinstein manned the guns and fired at the enemy.

Now oblivious to what was going on in the plane, he realized that the B-24 was on fire and going down only when his navigator pushed him out of his turret. Weinstein then bailed out of the front-wheel hatch.

Weinstein said the Luftwaffe planes shot down 30 of the 35 American planes on that mission. Today, he thinks of his mission as just another life experience. But the thought of boarding the B-17 on Monday kept him sleepless Sunday night.

“I look at it now as a big adventure; it's over,” he said. “I'm safe. Look at me, I'm 92 years old and I'm still playing golf. How can I complain?”

If you go

<b>What:</b> Flights on restored World War II-era planes, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Curtiss P-40E Warhawk

<b>When:</b> 45-minute flights between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: Aurora Municipal Airport, 43W752 W. Route 30, Sugar Grove

<b>Who:</b> Liberty Foundation sponsors and hosts the flights

Cost: B-17 flights are $395 for foundation members, $430 for non-members. P-40 flights are $950 for members and $1,050 for non-members

<b>Info:</b> Call (918) 340-0243 or visit www.libertyfoundation.org