Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer

DESCRIPTION: "Comin' in on a wing and a prayer (x2), Though there's one motor gone, we can still carry on, Comin' in on a wing and a prayer." There was a great raid. One plane is late, but it finally arrives, damaged but still flying and with all her crew
AUTHOR: Words: Harold Adamson / Music: Jimmy McHugh (source: Gardner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1943 (recording, The Song Spinners)
KEYWORDS: technology escape
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
LibraryThingCampSongsThread, posts 44, 46, "(Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer)" (1 text, from user John5918, posted August 29, 2021)
Roud #32497
RECORDINGS:
The Song Spinners, "Comin' In on a Wing and a Prayer" (Decca 18553, June 1943)
NOTES [543 words]: This clearly originated as a pop song, but there are just enough reports of oral survival that I am indexing it.
Although the authorship of Adamson and McHugh does not seem to be disputed, and there is little doubt that all known versions are derived from the popular 1943 recording by the Song Spinners, there is definite uncertainty about what inspired the song. The "This Day in Quotes" web site cites the story of the B-17 Flying Fortress "Southern Comfort," piloted by Hugh G. Ashcraft, Jr., which barely survived a mission on February 26, 1943. In that flight, as he brought the plane home, Ashcroft suggested to the men, "Those who want to, please pray." The plane managed to land.
The "This Day in Quotes" site think this the origin of the phrase "On a wing and a prayer." But Eric Partridge apparently thought it older, and British. I think this a significant possibility. The B-17 was a tough plane, but the British Wellington bomber was famous for its ability to survive damage; many, many Wellingtons returned on "a wing and a prayer" before the Flying Fortress even started flying.
Chaz Bowyer, The Wellington Bomber, William Kimber and Co, 1986, pp. 135-143, tells a typical example which resulted in the only Victoria Cross for a Wellington flyer: On July 7, 1940, R. P. Widdowson took a Wellington on a raid over Germany, with pilot-in-training James Allen Ward one of his crew. The plane was attacked over Germany and one of its two engines hit and set on fire. Widdowson told Ward to do something to put out the fire. Ward crawled out on the wing and tried. He couldn't put out the fire, but he tore enough canvas off the wing that the rest of the plane was safe, and Widdowson managed to bring home the plane -- with only one engine and a torn-off wing. Ward got the VC, and lesser awards went to Widdowson and others on the plane.
Note that the song says the plane has *one* motor gone. The B-17 had four engines. It could fly fairly well on three; the loss of one engine was not an absolute disaster, and if three were working, it still had to have a fair amount of wing left. If a two-engined Wellington lost one motor, it was truly in trouble. The song may have been directly inspired by "Southern Comfort," but the idea was probably floating around because of the Wellington.
For more about the B-17, see the notes to "Flying Fortresses"; for more on the Wellngton, see "Ops in a Wimpey."
It is perhaps worth noting that the Song Spinners recording features both male and female voices, even though a combat flight crew in 1943 would be all-male, whether the plane was British or American. The Soviets has female combat pilots, but not the western allies.
John5918 recalled the song almost verbatim from the early recordings, but since it's still in copyright, I don't think I can put the full text in the Supplemental Tradition.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 465, estimates that this was the seventh most popular song in America in 1943, peaking at #1 in June 1943 (#1 for the year being Johnny Black's "Paper Doll," with the famous lines "I'd rather have a paper doll to call my own Than a fickle-minded real live gal"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: LTCSCIWP

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography