How a Pistol Took Down a Japanese Fighter Plane

On March 31, 1943, a mission over Burma turned into one of the most extraordinary moments in aviation history. The 7th Bomb Group’s 9th Bomb Squadron, flying B-24 Liberators out of Pandaveswar, India, was tasked with destroying a vital railroad bridge at Pyinmana. It was a dangerous run, close to Japanese fighter bases, and disaster struck before the bombers even reached the target.

Colonel Conrad Necrason’s formation came under fierce attack from Japanese Zero fighters. One B-24, piloted by 1st Lt. Lloyd Jensen with 2nd Lt. Owen Baggett as copilot, was riddled with fire. Flames spread after the oxygen bottles exploded, and the crew was forced to bail out. As parachutes blossomed, the Zero pilots showed no mercy—strafing the helpless men as they drifted toward the ground. Baggett himself was grazed by a bullet in the arm.

Feigning death, Baggett dangled silently beneath his chute as one Zero circled back. The Japanese pilot slowed nearly to a stall, slid open his canopy, and closed in for a better look at his victim. That was his mistake. Baggett pulled out his Colt .45 pistol, raised it, and fired four shots into the cockpit. The Zero suddenly stalled, spun out of control, and smashed into the ground.

Captured shortly after landing, Baggett was stunned to later learn from Japanese officers—and later from Allied intelligence—that the enemy pilot had indeed been killed by a bullet to the head. Incredibly, Baggett had downed a fighter plane with nothing more than his sidearm, while hanging from a parachute.

Baggett endured over two years as a prisoner of war, his weight dropping from 180 to 90 pounds, but his remarkable feat was never forgotten. Historians believe his action remains the only confirmed case of a pilot shooting down an aircraft with a pistol.

For his courage and quick thinking, Owen Baggett’s story stands as a one-of-a-kind episode in the history of air combat—a reminder that sometimes, even in the vast skies of World War II, a sidearm and sheer determination could change the outcome of a fight.