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This Day in History: William E. Metzger, Jr. and Donald J. Gott earn Medals

  • tara
  • 2 hours ago
  • 3 min read

On this day in 1922, a hero is born. William E. Metzger, Jr. would go on to become a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces, as well as a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

 

His sister would remember him as a kind, considerate soul.

 

“When he was a junior in high school,” she told a reporter, “one of his best friends died, and I think that had some kind of impact on him. He was different than a lot of young men. He was just sensitive about things. He was just a very considerate person.”

 

He wanted to help our country in the wake of Pearl Harbor, but he also loved flying, and he worked hard to do both.

 

By the fall of 1944, 2nd Lt. Metzger was flying bombers with the 8th Air Force’s 452nd Bombardment Group in Europe. “I’m not real happy being over here dropping bombs on people,” his sister remembers him writing the family, “but if that’s what we have to do for our country, that’s what I have to do.”

 

The young pilot’s heroism came on November 9, 1944. He was co-piloting “Lady Jeanette,” a B-17 tasked with bombing the marshaling yards at Saarbrucken, in Germany. The lead pilot was 1st Lt. Donald J. Gott, who performed heroically that day as well.

 

The B-17 was taking too much fire during the bombing run, and the antiaircraft fire took its toll on the plane. “Three of the aircraft’s engines were damaged beyond control and on fire,” Metzger’s Medal citation explains, “dangerous flames from the No. 4 engine were leaping back as far as the tail assembly. Flares in the cockpit were ignited . . . increased by free-flowing fluid from damaged hydraulic lines.”

 

One crew member sustained a severe leg wound. Meanwhile, the radio operator had part of his arm severed off. A tourniquet was applied, but he passed out from the pain.

 

Gott and Metzger quickly consulted with each other, then decided they’d try to get back to friendly territory. The radio operator could not survive otherwise: They did not have a static line, so they would be unable to parachute him to safety. They also hoped the rest of the crew would be able to bail out without getting captured.

 

Miraculously, they got that plane out of enemy territory, and Metzger went back to distribute parachutes so the crew could jump. Twice he declined a parachute for himself. He even gave his to a man whose parachute had been shot up.

 

Maybe no one was going to talk Metzger into leaving: He had already decided that he would stay and help Gott. Together, the two would try to crash land the plane and get help for the unconscious radio operator.

 

“[M]y brother could have gotten off,” Metzger’s sister explained, “and it would have been perfectly legitimate. Instead, he worried about the man with his arm blown off . . . . He knew exactly what he was doing. That’s just the way he was.”

 

In good news, most of the crew survived because of Gott and Metzger. Unfortunately, the pilots and radio operator would not be as lucky. Instead, Lady Jeanette exploded about 100 feet above the ground.

 

Both Gott and Metzger would soon be awarded the Medal of Honor.

 

A newspaper from Metzger’s hometown eulogized him at the time, although surely the same statement could have been made about both men?

 

“So long as our country can produce men,” The Lima News concluded, “of the calibre of Lt. Bill Metzger [and Lt. Donald J. Gott] we need have no fears for it. Other young men like him will continue the struggle until peace once again rules the world.”

 

Rest in peace, gentlemen.


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