· RUEL SK

102 CRUEL SKY
to the village where a crowd lined the streets to get a close up look at me. It was like
walking down a gantlet, and I sensed their hate. A teenager stepped out and kicked me with
his big rubber boots. We stopped in the courtyard of the Burgenneister's house. They
made me loosen my pants and hold my hands out while they searched me. 1 was standing
there with my pants around my ankles when a guy came through the crowd and planted his
fist right between my eyes. While he was swinging again and again, I was trying to get my
pants back and to dodge away from his big fists. Finally I got my pants up and had two
hands to work with so he broke away and picked up a long-handled spade. He swung at me
with this square-nosed spade. I ducked and felt it whistle over my head. I closed in on him
and got hold of the spade. As we were wrestling, an old man with a big walrus mustache
and a green felt hat came out of the crowd and started to help me. Then the Burgenneister
and the village cop came to my aid and disarmed the ugly looking farmer. They marched
me away from the crowd to the local jail. They locked the door and 1 sat on the straw on
the floor. What was going to happen next?"
Waist gunner Glen McCormick (CHILTON crew).
"I was the first to bail out from the rear of the airplane. 1 delayed opening my chute
to avoid detection from the ground, if 1 could. My oxygen mask was flipping me in the face
and I decided enough was enough and pulled it off and dropped it. To my surprise, it went
up not down!
"I opened my chute when I dropped into a cloud undercover - I didn't know where
the ground was and I wasn't going to take a chance. After passing through the clouds, I saw
two airplanes headed toward me and I said, 'I'm going to get shot for sure!' It turned out
they were P-51s and not ME-I09s. One of them went right on by and the other circled me
and waved. I thought you son-of-a gun you are going back to a nice warm bed and 1 don't
know where I'm going!
"Nearing the ground, 1 saw many chutes already on the ground. It was obvious that
several airplanes were downed in this immediate area. I landed in a tree and my chute
caught in the top of it. 1 was about 10 feet from the ground. I swung on my chute to the
trunk of the tree and slid down to the ground.
"I came across a small lean-to made from small branches and limbs. This was