“Lucky”

Flying as Ramsay Potts's wingman during the return from Ploesti, Hap Kendall's Lucky took a 20-mm hit in a bomb-bay fuel tank that drained most of its gas before the crew could plug the hole. With his crew already strapped into their parachutes awaiting the order to jump, Kendall spotted a fighter strip in southern Sicily and put the aircraft down. Lacking hydraulic fluid, Lucky ran off the runway, crested a hill, tore through a row of unoccupied British tents, and damaged seven parked P-40 fighters. No one aboard Lucky was hurt, though the ground crews whose freshly repaired P-40s had just been wrecked were unimpressed by the arrival.