| "Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer" | |
|---|---|
 Sheet music cover | |
| Song | |
| Published | 1943 |
| Genre | Foxtrot, Jazz |
| Composer(s) | Jimmy McHugh |
| Lyricist(s) | Harold Adamson |
"Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer" is a World War II song with lyrics by Harold Adamson and music by Jimmy McHugh, published in 1943 by Robbins Music Corp. [1] [2]
The lyrics tell of the aftermath of an Allied night aerial bombing mission over enemy territory. One bomber has not returned, and the ground crew at its home airfield are becoming concerned. When they eventually establish radio contact, the pilot tells them that the mission has been a success ("we really hit our target for tonight"), but that the aircraft was badly damaged in combat and has lost one engine. The crew is nonetheless unharmed and in good spirits, sustained by their religious faith ("With our full crew aboard / And our trust in the Lord"), as the plane limps homeward, "on a wing and a prayer".
Different incidents have been credited as the inspiration for the song. It is sometimes said to be based on the events of February 26, 1943, when "Southern Comfort", a B-17 Flying Fortress piloted by Hugh G. Ashcraft Jr. of Charlotte, North Carolina, was badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire on a bombing mission over mainland Europe. As it approached the British coast, Ashcraft told his crew over the radio: "Those who want to, please pray." The aircraft made it home safely. [3] The song has also been associated with the similar survival against the odds, despite extensive damage, of another B-17, "Thunderbird", piloted by Lt. John Cronkhite, on a mission from Biskra, Algeria, over Tripoli on January 12, 1943. [4]
The song was recorded by the Song Spinners [5] for Decca Records, reaching number one on the Billboard pop chart on July 2, 1943. [6]
"Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer" was the only song with a war connection to appear in the top twenty best-selling songs of 1943 in the United States (although record sales in this period were heavily affected by the first Petrillo recording ban). [7]
The song also became widely known in the Soviet Union in a 1943 adaptation by the popular singer and jazz band leader Leonid Utyosov, titled "Bombers". The translation of the lyrics into Russian is broadly faithful, but the term "prayer" (with its unacceptable religious overtones) is rendered as "word of honor". [8] This Russian idiom – на честном слове, or na ches[t]nom slove (т is not pronounced) – means "only just managing" or "just holding on".
The song is the origin of the English idiomatic phrase "a wing and a prayer", which alludes to reliance on hope in a desperate situation. [9] Most immediately, it inspired the title of the 1944 war film, Wing and a Prayer, The Story of Carrier X .
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater of Operations and dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II. It is the third-most produced bomber of all time, behind the American four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the German multirole, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88. It was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft.
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A bomber is a military aircraft that delivers bombs or other explosives.
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No. 466 Squadron RAAF was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) bomber squadron during World War II. Formed in the United Kingdom in late 1942, the squadron undertook combat operations in Europe until the end of the war, flying heavy bomber aircraft. Following the conclusion of hostilities with Germany, the squadron began retraining to undertake operations in the Pacific against the Japanese, but the war came to an end before it left the UK. In late 1945, the squadron was disbanded.
The Croatian Air Force Legion, or HZL, was a unit of the Luftwaffe, composed entirely of volunteers drawn from the nazi puppet-state, the Independent State of Croatia. Many of them had previously served in the Royal Yugoslav Air Force in April 1941 during the Nazi Invasion of Yugoslavia.
Only "Old Men" Are Going Into Battle is an iconic 1973 Soviet war drama black-and-white film produced in the USSR about World War II fighter pilots, written and directed by Leonid Bykov, who also played the lead role as the squadron commander.
Aerial ramming or air ramming is the ramming of one aircraft with another. It is a last-ditch tactic in air combat, sometimes used when all else has failed. Long before the invention of aircraft, ramming tactics in naval warfare and ground warfare were common. The first aerial ramming was performed by Pyotr Nesterov in 1914 during the First World War. In the early stages of World War II the tactic was employed by Soviet pilots, who called it taran (таран), the Russian word for "battering ram".
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The Song Spinners were an American singing quartet of two men and two women which began as a folk song group on radio in the 30's and then enjoyed a burst of popularity during the 1942–44 musicians' strike. They accompanied Dick Haymes on "You'll Never Know" and several other hits. They had a #1 hit in 1943 with "Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer".
The All American was a World War II Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress heavy bomber that was able to return safely to its base after having its rear fuselage nearly cut off by an in-flight collision with a German Bf 109 over enemy-held territory. The bomber's flight is said to have yielded one of the most famous photographs of World War II, and has been linked with the phrase "Comin' in on a Wing and a Prayer." It inspired the 414th Bombardment Squadron's emblem, an image of a puppy praying atop an aircraft's tail section.
