Towering Titan
Story Of World War II B-17 Aircraft Brings Together New Union County, German Friends
In the final days of World War II in Europe, an American B-17 bomber crashed in eastern Germany.
History suggests that the bomber was brought down by another aircraft, a new, high-technology twin-engine jetfighter developed by the Germans in the closing days of the war.
The fighter, called an Me262, apparently rammed the B-17. The American bomber nosedived into the ground. The B-17's entire crew were shared. All that remained of both aircraft were tiny fragments.
Nearly 60 years later, memories of that aircraft and more importantly its crew, were shared by new friends who had gathered during mid-August at a Jonesboro home.
The story centers on an American B-17 bomber called the Towering Titan. The B-17 was one of the keyaircraft used by U.S. armed forces in their fight with the Allies over Germany during World War II.
Collin Lyerla of Jonesboro was a crew member who flew on the Towering Titan. He and his crew were transferred to another B-17.
During World War II, Lyerla served with the U.S. Army Air Corps' 8th Air Force, 305th Bombardment Group, 365th Bomb Squadron. A member of what newscaster Tom Brokaw has called the Greatest Generation, Lyerla spent nearly three years in service to his country, from early 1943 until his discharge in 1945.
Lyerla remembered that he spent one year in the infantry before going to air crew gunnery school. The military sent him to an air base at Chelveston, England, where he was assigned as a member of the first crew of a B-17 which would play a very important role in his life, and in the life of a young German man.
During the war, it was common practice for bomber crews to give names to their aircraft. in the case the name Towering Titan was picked. The names were accompanied by art work.
“If you had an airplane. you had art on it,” Lyerla noted.
Lyerla said he had seen the image on which Towering Titan was based in a magazine. "The picture struck my fancy," he remembered. Lyerla himself painted the image of the titan on the B-17. He used some gray and black paint which was "requisitioned" in true military style. The titan. in this case. was a
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