The Bravest WWII Pilot You’ve Never Heard Of

Major Charles Carpenter was a WWII pilot who strapped bazookas underneath the wings of his tiny artillery-spotting aircraft so that he could knock out German tanks. Pretty heroic, right? But do you know that he also faced a firing squad?

Here are five secrets about him and his heroic airborne attacks:

1. When Charles Carpenter became increasingly frustrated with his inability to attack enemy positions when the artillery he was spotting for was out of range or otherwise unavailable, he took several bazookas strapped underneath the wings of his 5 hp Piper L4 Cub to see what he could do against German armored vehicles and tanks

Not only did it take a lot of guts to strap bazookas in his tiny fabric-covered plane, but it took a lot of brains. Ordinary pilots couldn’t strap as many bazookas as they wanted on that airframe. Carpenter mounted the bazookas on the lifting struts just outboard of the jury struts.

2. When practicing firing targets, he settled on the ideal distance from the target to only approximately 100 yards

Carpenter adjusted the mounts and the bore sightings of each bazooka so that they converged 100 yards in front of the nose of his plane. As soon as he spotted enemy armored positions 1,500 ft. above the ground, he would nosedive his plane.

Once he reached a hundred yards from his target, only then he would fire his bazookas. All that practice eventually paid off when he started earning kills from enemy starting positions.

3. He spent time in a military prison and faced a firing squad

While riding a jeep looking for potential landing sights for his plane, the Major came across a jumble of Allied tanks and soldiers outside the vital town of Avranches, France. They’ve become disorganized by a German artillery barrage which was fired to prevent the Americans from taking the town.

Carpenter jumped on the lead Sherman tank, grabbed the 50 caliber machine gun, and fired a burst, leading the American soldiers into the town and forcing the Germans to retreat. He then drove after the Nazi tanks. He had the Sherman tank fire round after round the German retreating tank- except it wasn’t a German tank at all, but another Sherman with a dozer blade attached to it. Fortunately, there were no friendly soldiers or tank crew were killed.

Still, he was arrested put in a military prison, and faced in a firing squad for putting friendly soldiers at risk. Thankfully, Carpenter’s commanding officer heard about this, showed up, and intervened.

2. By the end of his military career, he was credited with destroying six enemy tanks, but he knocked out closer to 14

That’s because to confirm a kill, somebody else had to see the kill take place. Unfortunately, eight tank kills had never been spotted or seen by another observer.

1. In 1945, after all of his heroics, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease

He was told he had only two years to live. After being awarded a Silver Star, he was honorably discharged. However, in true Charles Carpenter fashion, he beat the odds yet again. He went back to work as a high school history teacher and lived for another twenty years.