WINGS OF WAR

Veteran flies in B-17 bomber on display as part of vintage plane tour

BOCA RATON — As the four-engine Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber circled over the Atlantic, John Katsaros looked out the window, much as he had nearly 73 years ago over France.

But as the plane came in low from the north, roaring loudly and closing fast on the Broward-Palm Beach County line, there would be no repeat of Katsaros’ greatest adventure.

The plane did not take enemy fire. Katsaros did not have to parachute to safety with his right arm shattered by a bullet. He did not get captured by German troops.

Instead, pilot Mac McCauley put the plane down smoothly at Boca Raton Airport and Katsaros — wearing his flight suit and a chest-full of combat ribbons — crawled out to greet a handful of onlookers who had gathered to see the B-17 and three other vintage World War II planes that have been carefully restored.

“You have to stay in good shape just to get in and out of these planes,” said Katsaros, now 93 and a winter resident of Ocean Ridge.

The B-17 in which Katsaros flew and the other aircraft will be on display at the airport from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday as part of the

“Wings of Freedom Tour” sponsored by the Collings Foundation, a nonprofit based in Stow, Mass., that preserves and shows historical artifacts.

“It’s an honor and a responsibility,” said Katsaros, who has flown often on the B-17 that is part of the show. “There are not too many of us left who were there.”

Katsaros said he credits prayer and several subsequent “miracles” for surviving that fateful day in March 1944, when he was a 20-year-old Air Force sergeant, and the ordeal that followed.

Katsaros, an aerial gunner, and nine other crewmen were returning from a bombing run over Germany — their 11th of the war — when the plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. Three crewmen were killed during the attack, two engines were knocked out and the plane burst into flames.

Still, given the order to jump at 27,000 feet, the wounded Katsaros did, somehow managing to delay pulling the rip cord until he reached an altitude where he could breath, he said. He broke two ankles on landing.

What followed was a harrowing adventure that Katsaros tells in his book “Code Burgundy: The Long Escape.” On the ground in France, he was captured by the German Gestapo, freed by the French Resistance, captured again, and once again freed.

Eventually, after being hidden for three months and nursed back to health, he made his way to the Pyrenees, only to be seized by the Spanish Constabulary, he writes.

Back in the U.S., Katsaros attended Boston University on the GI Bill, married and found a career in finance and real estate. He and his wife Mary have two daughters and four grandchildren.

“John makes it come alive for the people who come to see these planes,” said Jamie Mitchell, flight coordinator for the tour. “One woman here today was in tears hearing his story. And we are losing these veterans. So we are lucky to have him.”

Katsaros said he talks often to school children, college students, service clubs, and various groups. “I tell them, it’s a crazy world,” he said. “Cherish your freedom.”

Also on display at the show are a B-25 Mitchell, a P-51 Mustang and a B-24 Liberator.

MARIA LORENZINO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER John Katsaros, 93, who served as an Air Force aerial gunner in World War II, stands in front of a B-17 Flying Fortress.

MARIA LORENZINO/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER “It’s an honor and a responsibility,” said John Katsaros, who has flown often on the B-17 that is part of the show.