Скачать или смотреть 25,000 Feet, Zero Oxygen — How a B-17 Pilot Built a Fix in Seconds

WW2, At twenty-five thousand feet over Germany, the oxygen system failed. Technical Sergeant Walter Koraleski had ninety seconds before unconsciousness claimed him and his crew. The temperature outside was sixty degrees below zero, his fingers were going numb, and his vision was narrowing. But this Nebraska farm boy who grew up fixing tractors had prepared for exactly this moment.

The 100th Bombardment Group, known as "The Bloody Hundredth," suffered losses that defied comprehension in 1943. While flak and fighters claimed headlines, an invisible killer stalked the crews: oxygen system failures at altitude. Koraleski had studied every vulnerability, mapped every failure point, and assembled an unauthorized bypass kit from tubing, clamps, and fittings that fit in a small canvas bag.

When the main oxygen line ruptured, Koraleski moved through the aircraft with failing consciousness, rigging connections that pulled his crewmates back from the edge of death one by one. His field repair, completed in four desperate minutes, saved ten men that day. More importantly, it changed everything. Flight surgeons documented his technique, and within months, Technical Order 43-17 distributed bypass kits across the entire Eighth Air Force.

The lives saved by those kits never appeared in casualty statistics. They were absences in the record, men who did not die, who went on to become engineers, physicians, and teachers. All because one man understood that systems fail, and preparation is the only answer to uncertainty.

If you enjoyed this story, please like, subscribe, and share your thoughts in the comments below.

#WW2 #WWII #WarHistory #Aviation #HistoryDocumentary #WarStories #MilitaryHistory