On February 14, 1945, we had bombed our target and were on our way home. I was flying co-pilot on the low left lead airplane (353rd squadron of the 301st group of the 15th Air Force). I was looking at the "Tail End Charley" plane in the lead squadron (419th squadron), which wasn't too far ahead of and above us, when it took a direct hit in the waist. I had been taking pictures of the flack, so I hurried up and took a picture of the plane as it dropped down--probably 20 to 30 seconds after the hit.

Picture taken by 1st Lt. Dwight Olson seconds after the aircraft was hit by enemy fire

The plane--#46259--dropped down below us, and the pilot or co-pilot called for anyone who could give him a report on his damages. He said he had no communication with the crew, so he couldn't even tell them to bail out! I told him of the damage and warned him to stay with the plane, because our intelligence had told us we would be killed if we bailed out in this area! Lt. Butts flew the plane (about 400 miles, as I recollect) back to Italy and landed it at Foggia Main Airstrip.

I later found that the tail gunner (this was his first raid) was Bob Chandler, and he shed some light on what happened. After they were hit, he was unconscious from lack of oxygen until they were over the Adriatic Sea. When he came to, he crawled forward and found the hole in the waist and asked the guys who were huddled near the radio room to give him a hand across the hole. The other fellows were afraid of being sucked out, so he went back and put his parachute on and then managed to get across the hole on his own. He saw Robert Koch, the waist gunner (his first mission, also) who had been killed in the attack, lying forward of the hole.

Nine of the ten men survived. Even the other waist gunner--who was only six or more feet away from the gunner who was killed--survived without getting hurt.

Pictures taken by AF-- Hole in the waist of the plane (right) The nine survivors (below)