Chapter 9 Excerpt

The flight was moving down the bomb-run with Al’s flight-lead bombardier killing the rate as quickly as he could. Al was temporarily relieved when he heard “bombs away” in his headphones. Listening to the shackles release, he looked into the bomb bay to be sure all the bombs had dropped clear. Watching as they fell, Al swore he could see the bombs bouncing off the concrete bunkers that housed parts of the V-1 facility. “Golly, what do they make those things out of, Lieutenant?”

“Hell if I know. Why you want to know, Damico?”

“The damn bombs are just bouncing off.”

“Well, nothing we can do about that. Are we clear?”

“Yessir, all clear.”

As the bomb bay doors closed, Al turned toward the tail and crawled back into his gun turret. Lieutenant Harris banked hard left into a steep dive to get out of the flak, and Al felt the change in G’s.”

Swinging the turret around, Al could see ground flashes from the variety of anti-aircraft fire the Germans were throwing at them. Watching some flashes in front of the downward-banking left wing, Al was suddenly stunned when the 88 round exploded in front of and below the left engine nacelle. “Holy cow, did you guys see that?” Al hollered into the interphone.

The detonation lifted the left wing up almost out of its banked position, from which it fell back quickly, jarring the whole plane. The left engine was smoking almost immediately. Al could see fluid and smoke coming from around the engine cowling, as small flames lapped out of the newly created openings.

“That’s not good.”

“What’s that, Al?” the pilot asked.

“Fire and smoke coming out of the left engine along with some kind of fluid.”

“That explains the loss of oil pressure and hydraulics in that one. Do you see anything else?”

“Lots of holes and lots of smoke in that left wing!”

The Havoc began to lose altitude rapidly as it banked into the dead engine. The fire grew. Al could see the ground approaching a lot quicker than he liked.

“Lieutenant, that fire is getting worse, I’m gone!”

Al ducked out of the turret and reached for the escape hatch. He stopped to tell the tail gunner to get out too. Looking into the tail gunner’s compartment, Al saw it was empty.