Evening star., 1944-04-21

be j IOIy, d1lQ t5 S6fS
this time it was
Stuttgart, deep
in Germany.
Our group took $751;
of early in the
morning and we ~
few across the Channel and owe
the French coast before the sun wa
up. 1t was quiet all the way to thu
target, too damned quiet. Their,
were no fighters and hardly any flal
at all. We were actually on oul
bombing run when disaster hit us
They came into us high and I didn'
see them. The one who got us lei
60 with his cannon just as our en-.
gineer caught him with the top turre
gun at 400 yards. The German blew
up in front of us and parts of hi:
plane smashed into our tail ane
knocked part Of the stabilizer away
That wasn't bad. 1t was what his
cannon had done that mattered.
Tore Planes Nose OFF.
One shell had torn the nose out
of the bombardier's compartment
Another had come through the win
dow beside the co-pilot. A third
went through wing tank and gaso-
line was squirting out in streams
My co-pilot was lying across the
controls, covered with blood. He
pulled himself back into his seat
and stayed there by holding the
right edge of the chair back with
his left hand. The 20-mm. had gone
through his right shoulder and ex-
ploded against the armor plate be-
hind him. Most of the fragments
bounced back and hit him again.
found that some of the pieces hac
sprayed across the aisle and hit ms
in the right arm. After I landed ]
found there were some pieces in my
right leg also. / must have beer
leaning forward a little when the
shell burst, and most of the pieces
went behind me. They tore away
the metal back of my seat.
Others Wounded.
The navigator, Second 1t. Russell
w. Engel of Clarissa, Mimi. wa,
bleeding from other wounds. Tn,
bombardier, 1t. Peter F. Delao O.
San Antonio, Tex, was wounded ir
the face, head, arms and legs ane
couldn't do anything for himself
On top of that, the oxygen system
which feeds the bombardier. the co.
pilot and the top turret gunner, was
shot away. We were at $4,000 feet
and fighter attacks were going on
all the time.
There was nothing to do but pee
out OF formation and. take eyaaivs
action as best we could. Irxsye ths
Fortress everything I had In the wa,
of acrobatics and some way it stayeS
IN one piece. ALI the gunners wer.
black and blue from being throwr
against things. At one time tn,
waist gunners we're lying on the roo
OF the fuselage trying to climb bacl
up to the floor. The copilot sa
there, holding himself together
Then Sergt. Harold L. Pope of Emer.
son, Nebr., came down from the to,
turret when he got free of fighter
for minute. told him to take tn,
copilot out of his chair and lay hin
down. He finally got him out of hi
seat and laid him down in tn,
hatchway The copilot wouldn't sta,
there. He got up three separat,
times and tried to get back to hi
seat to help.
Didn't Use Oxygen.
The third time he almost mad
1t and then fell back into the hatch
way. I didn't see him move again
All this time Pope was fixing u,
an emergency oxygen line for tn
wounded bombardier. He didn'
have any oxygen himself. He woul,
work until he felt himself blackin
out, then take few whiffs from M
system which was still working. II
had to go back several times to fl,
the line he had rigged up for Delao
Delao didn't know where he was O
what he was doing most of the tim
and he kept breaking the line. Thel
Engel climbed into the copilot's sea
to help me. There wasn't any nos
gun for him to work-in fact ther
wasn't any nose and the blast of al
that came through the hatch mad
1t almost impossible for a man to ge
down there. Yet Pope made the tri,
q dozen times, without oxygen.
"Engel was a terrible sight will
the blood pouring from his wounde,
eye. had taught him to fly tn
ship back in the States and he sa
there doing what he could to helr
Finally Pope persuaded him to e
back in the radio compartment an,
lie down. He was getting very veal
from loss Of blood and his other ey
had swelled shut. Pope helped hin
over the hatchway and somehoy
Engel managed to crawl through tn
bomb bay on the catwalk by him
self.
Back in the radio compartment
the radio operator, Sergt. Connor {
Brewster of Montverde, Fla, went +
work on him with first aide, band
aged up his head and covered hin
up. Engel insisted on having a hea,
phone and mike and all the rest @
the trip he talked to me when tn
gunners were not calling attack,
But about the time Brewster ha
stopped his bleeding a shell burs
right under the radio room an
Brewster says the conclusion LITE
Engel foot off the floor The shoe
started the bleeding again wors
than ever.
"All this time the fighters were a
us. / don't know how they misse,
us. Altogether they were on u
about three hours and a half. Their
were no nose guns and only one to-
turret gun was working by thi
time So we had to keep the fighter
oehind us where our gunners coul
Keep them of. The men would cal
Sove This Newspaper
ManV Daner mile orc shut