Alan Magee's Impossible Survival
How did Magee survive 22,000 feet?
4.4 (18)
35 mins
Discover how American airman Alan Magee was thrown from his damaged B-17 during a bombing mission over Saint-Nazaire, France, on January 3, 1943. Explore how his parachute had been rendered useless before he fell roughly 22,000 feet from the aircraft without one.
Ep 1:
The Grave That Hides a Miracle
A quiet Texas headstone hides an impossible tale: a ball turret gunner's story begins with Pearl Harbor and leads toward a deadly mission over Nazi-occupied France.
Ep 2:
Falling Through Flak City
Over Saint-Nazaire's deadly flak and fighters, Magee's bomber disintegrates mid-air, his parachute destroyed, leaving him falling four miles with nothing but a desperate prayer.
Ep 3:
A Glass Roof and an Enemy's Mercy
Plunging through a railway skylight, Magee is pulled from the wreckage barely alive, saved by an enemy doctor's compassion—then faces years as a prisoner of war.
Ep 4:
Wings, Legend, and a Lone Penny
Liberated and unbroken, Magee returns to the skies, becomes a French legend, and finally rests in Texas where strangers still leave pennies in gratitude.
Discussions (5)
Gregory
Level 9 · 1 week agoFalling 4 miles with a shredded parachute and still earning a pilot's license after... that's a different breed of human.
Zachariah
Level 6 · 1 week agoDid you catch that the German doctor who saved Magee's arm never got named in any records? Magee spent his whole life trying to find out who he was and never could. That story within the story is unreal.
Beau
Level 6 · 1 week agoGerman doc saved his arm tho
