This page is a dedication to Bob and Birch Hotz of Myersville, MD. Too many extraordinary stories fade away and become lost over time so this is my attempt to keep two local hero’s stories alive a little longer.
Robert B. Hotz
Bob lived an incredible life that I’m not going to try and summarize myself so I’ll share a few links to others’ attempts for anyone who would like to familiarize themselves with him more. With help from one of Bob’s sons I am digitizing as many as Bob’s saved documents from his time before and during WW2 as well as his time after as editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine that will elaborate some of the stories referenced in the links.
Below is a publication from Sept. 2, 1944 of when Bob was the photo/gunner of a plane damaged over Japanese territory. Having to take control after temporarily removing the badly wounded pilot from his seat.
Here are just a few snippets;
"The cockpit was covered with blood. Lieutenant Weber was a mass of blood. He had an emergency bandage around his head and was sitting bolt upright, staring straight ahead. His arm was ripped from his shoulder to his wrist."
"The top hatch had been shot away by an explosive shell. There were bullet holes in the windshield and broken glass in the cockpit"
"We were still 150 miles behind the Jap lines, barreling along over the palm tops at 200 miles an hour with a bloody, dazed, and wounded pilot in the seat."
"Somehow we lifted Weber out of the pilot's seat into the navigator's position and kept the plane steady... I found myself in the pilot's seat, trying to locate the flight instruments."
"He (Weber, after retaking the controls) asked us if we wanted to bail out...
I had my hand on that red release handle for almost every second we were in the storm. We still couldn't figure out how to get Weber out safely, so we told him we would stick it out."
