· RUEL SK

120 CRUE1.JSKY
Even though their base had just been made operational, the people there did their
best to feed and help the lucky crew. After chatting with the personnel of the field, a truck
picked them up and took them to chow. That day, even army chow tasted good although
most ofthe men were too excited to eat very much.
After dinner, Fiske, Huddlesmn, and Schwartz got radio equipment from a B-26
sitting off the runway and called Tibenham. They told them they were safe and to make
sure that no one bothered their personal belongings and particularly the rations of candy,
cigarettes, etc.
The HEITZ crew
The pilots were heading for an airfield at Brussels but Bugs Bunny could not
maintain enough altitude to reach it. They came across a small airfield about 15 miles east
of Brussels and decided to try a landing.
The hydraulic system was out so the manual operation procedure had to be followed.
Copilot Harold Vedera placed the landing gear control lever in "DOWN" position and held
it there. Radio operator Fabian Mack assisted the inexperienced substitute engineer to
complete the procedure. They both went to the bomb bay where the emergency crank was
located, on the forward side of the front spar. While standing on the extreme forward end
of the bomb bay catwalk, one of them reached for the red handle and turned it
approximately 30 turns clockwise, until the main gear was down and locked. The landing
gear indicator light turned on in the pilot's instrument panel, but as an added precaution,
pilot and copilot looked out to check both gears visually.
Mack tied a chute to each waist gun mount and tossed them out as they were about
to touch runway: "It was perfect timing as plane came to a stop in approximately 500 feet.
With the aid of a Belgian farmer on the scene I took three wounded to a hospital in a small
community nearby.
"The nuns were very helpful and secured a local doctor to help. Unfortunately, Sgt
Louis Ochevsky died a few hours later. The doctor offered to take me to the British at
Brussels airfield for more aid for the wounded. The British took care of the wounded and
Ochevsky's body at a large Brussels hospital. They also arranged a flight back to
Tibenham for us,"