With the Memorial Day weekend release of the movie "Pearl Harbor," there seems to be a bit of resurgence of interest in World War II.

I would like to share a brief version of a story of a true war hero from our county.

His name is Charles Mendel. His parents were Mr. and Mrs. L.B. Mendel, of Burket. He was born in Burket and lived by Yellow Creek Lake.

He had six brothers and sisters, three of whom still live in the area - Arden Mendel and Naomi Hartle, of Warsaw, and Ethel Rosbrugh, of Leesburg.

Hartle's son, Hal Hartle, also lives in Warsaw.

These days, Charles Mendel lives in Sarasota, Fla., and is in failing health.

But his story - and countless stories like it - are worth telling and worth remembering.

Worth telling because they should live on long after the war and war heroes are gone. Worth remembering because they illustrate the dire consequences of war.

The following was excerpted from a poster that used eyewitness accounts and information from the military. The poster was compiled by Tom English, of Katy, Texas.

Mendel was part of a Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress bomber crew stationed in Bassingbourne, England.

On Dec. 20, 1942, this crew set out on its fourth and - as fate would have it - final mission.

On that day, 101 B-17s and B-24s flew into France to the Nazi refueling and refitting airdrome and railway marshalling yards at Romilly-Sur-Seine, 65 miles southeast of Paris and the farthest into German Europe that U.S. bombers had yet ventured.

All the way in from the English Channel, the bombers were chased by more than a hundred Focke-Wulf 190s and Messerschmitt 109s, each capable of 400 mph and armed with 20 mm cannon and 7.9 mm machine guns.

The bombers, with a top speed of 226 mph were no match for the speed and maneuverability of the German fighters.

Mendel, a 26-year-old first lieutenant, was the co-pilot. His pilot was Robert English, 22, also a first lieutenant.

The German fighter formation had been over French airspace for about 15 minutes before they targeted English and Mendel's plane.

In the initial German attack, Tech. Sgt. Allen Haynes, the top ball turret gunner and flight engineer, was mortally wounded in the leg. English motioned for Mendel to go to his aid.

While Mendel was putting a tourniquet on Hayne's leg, Haynes pointed to English, who had been hit by a 20 mm cannon shell in the chest and killed instantly.

When English was hit, he slumped forward onto the controls and the plane went into a dive. Mendel was able to get back up front and take over the controls, but the plane had lost 5,000 feet and fallen out of the protection of the formation.

Six or seven German fighters followed the plane on the way down and peppered the plane with hundreds of rounds.

All the engines were out and on fire except No. 2, and it was damaged. Mendel couldn't keep the plane in the air without stalling. Steve Stefula, the tail gunner, was mortally wounded. All the crew began receiving hits. No one was spared and the plane was being shot to pieces by the German fighters.

Mendel gave the order to bail out and those who could move to the door parachuted out.

Three crew members were unable to bail out, however, and Mendel decided to attempt to crash-land the plane even though the bomb pins had been pulled and there was imminent danger of explosion.

Mendel was in a crouched position between the two pilots' seats, with one hand holding back the dead first pilot to keep him from leaning on the controls, and grasping the wheel with the other.

It was in this manner that he landed the plane in a field behind enemy lines.

It was difficult to see through the smoke in the cockpit and the enemy fighters kept firing on the plane.

Mendel caught some flak, which broke the lower portion of his left leg. Recovering, he looked out the side window to see if he could spot a place to land, but all he could see was trees at first, then he spotted a farmer's field.

Mendel did a belly landing in the field; he and another crew member crawled out the broken plexiglass nose of the plane.

He remembers plainly seeing a French farmer and his wife in a flatbed wagon. The farmer was beating the horses for all he was worth trying to get away from the crash site.

Despite his wounds, he must have been in shock because he could feel no pain. The Germans were there in a second because the plane landed within a few hundred yards of a German flak battery.

Mendel and the three other crew members, all severely injured, were removed from the plane and taken by van to the American hospital in Paris.

The crew was separated there by officers and noncoms and did not see each other until after the war.

Mendel suffered facial, arm and leg wounds, had three front teeth knocked out, a broken leg and an 8-inch gash in his left thigh where a bullet went through.

He spent two months in the hospital and picked shrapnel out of various parts of his body for five or six years.

After recuperating for two months, he was sent to Frankfurt, Germany, for interrogation. He was there for about two weeks in solitary confinement. He spent the rest of the war in Stalag Luft III and then in Mooseburg prison camp.

This crew paid a heavy price for freedom. Three of the crew members were killed in action. All the others were wounded, some critically.

Were it not for the courage of Mendel, three more lives would have been lost that day.

As for the mission itself, 153 tons of high explosives and 12 tons of incendiary bombs were delivered. The mission proved that the Americans and Allies could penetrate hundreds of miles into enemy territory with a daylight bombing raid.

For me it is difficult to imagine what it must have been like for Mendel and many others like him.

Their great sacrifice allows us to enjoy freedoms that most of us take for granted.

Stories like Mendel's remind us of those sacrifices.

Relatives of the crew members are taking up the fight to secure the crews' wartime medals.

I hope they succeed. [[In-content Ad]]