Samuel C. Gundy, a Kutztown State College student, plummets through the skies of Germany.

   The year is 1944, World War II. It is chaos. German anti-air flak artillery that litter the hills sounds like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Cracking and Popping. They hone in on their targets, Allied planes, and bombers flying high in the sky. When the artillery connects with an unfortunate aircraft, the shrapnel rips the metal apart like it is made of plastic. The planes fall from the sky as if they were clay pigeons at a shooting range.

   A B-17 bomber plane named the Hell’s Bells was on its way. During the war, B-17s was known as Flying Fortresses. They were capable of carrying over 4,000-pounds of bombing loads mounted with over eight machine guns and carrying thick armor plating.

   The Hell’s Bells had been returning home after a successful bombing run on vital German infrastructure. During the bombing runs, the Hell’s Bells had sustained damages from German anti-air artillery. This caused the plane to fall behind its bombing formation with the 388th Bombing Group.

   Separated and alone from its pack like a wounded gazelle, a formation of German fighter planes came from no-where and blindsided the Hell’s Bells. The enemy fighters bombarded the B-17 with heavy machine gunfire. The hail of bullets riddling the plane. Under normal circumstances, the plane may have been able to hold off against the surprise attack, but the damages caused by the anti-air shrapnel during the bombing run weakened the outside armor.
The Hell’s Bells engine began to seize, and the Flying Fortress started to fall from the sky.
 

   The Hell’s Bells’ pilot, James Feeney, held on to the plane as it plummeted, in an attempt to reach the English Channel with the damaged aircraft. The damage sustained by the German fire was significant. The rest of the crew grabbed parachutes, one by one taking the leap of faith to the ground below as the plane descended faster to the grounds below. The co-pilot, Samuel C. Gundy, parachute strapped, turned back to the pilot before throwing himself off the bomber, plummeting into a freefall before pulling the parachute, his descending plummet changing to a gentle fall.

   Gundy watched as the Hell’s Bells, a plane that had survived over 18 vital missions within the 388th Bomb Group, exploded within an explosion of shrapnel and hellfire. The pilot, Feeney, had not escaped. The soldier died attempting to abandon the plane with one of the last parachutes, unable to make the leap before the detonation of the aircraft.
 

   After the ambush and aftermath of his explosion, Gundy slowly drifted downwards, all of Germany below him. The fiery wreckage of the Hell’s Bells crashed into the earth below. Nearby the crash, German troops were already moving, ready to intercept the parachuting Ally survivors. Gundy would soon be forced to surrender at gunpoint once he touched down on the enemy soil.
 

   A Kutztown student turned prisoner of war in Holland, Germany, on February 10th, 1944.

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   A few months later at Kutztown State College, Principle Rohrbach, received a card in the mail. The card let him know that a former student, Samuel C. Gundy, had been taken as a prisoner of war somewhere in Germany. Rohrbach knew that Gundy had previously been listed as missing in action, saying that “he seems to be in 4F of a fashion,” but hopes to be completely well soon.
Rohrbach personally reached out to The Keystone Newspaper to place an article for Lt. Gundy.
  

   Gundy was liberated from his German POW camp in 1945 and returned home to Reading, Pennsylvania shortly after. He received a Purple Heart, along with several other awards for his service in the United States Airforce and actions within World War II.
 

   After coming home, Gundy returned to Kutztown State College to finish his education. He graduated with a BA in Science Education in 1946 and later received a Master’s Degree in Natural Science from Cornell University in 1953. Gundy remained a strong supporter of many military organizations throughout the remainder of his life, most notably his involvement in becoming a figurehead in the Veteran’s Affairs, supporting veterans in their reintegration into society. Gundy also helmed the mantle as the Director of the Reading Museum, eventually retiring as Director Emeritus for the museum itself, providing years of expertise to the museum and its collections. In 2010, Samuel C. Gundy passed away peacefully in his home at the age of 92.
 

   Gundy’s impact on the world around him, though not seen, still plays a large part in how we live our day to day lives here in the small town of Kutztown. For that, he should be remembered as the war-hero alumni that he was.