Â· RUEL SK

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122 CRUhL<strong>SK</strong>Y At dusk, a B-24 with green tail and white horizontal stripe markings (491 st BG) landed at Tibenham: the Dewey crew was back home. The RAF had given them another group's plane. While in Manston, they didn't see any other 44S th BG survivors, even though the Mercer crew had landed there too. That emergency base was crowded with planes arriving every few minutes, in bad shape, with wounded and dead on board. In the confusion, they never made contact. At Tibenham, no one came to meet the Dewey crew, and they didn't have any interrogation from intelligence that night. Later that evening, Dewey was visited in his hut by Lt. Keith Frost. They had gone through crew training together at Tonopah, Nevada. He had made a crash landing at Manston a few days before, with his decapitated bombardier. He had aborted today's mission and told Dewey he was resigning from flying, turning in his wings and quitting combat. The FRENCH crew That evening French, Cochran, and Robert Tims were standing the bar of the fighter base officers' quarters - a handsome French chateau a few miles from Reims. "I wonder how many planes got back to England," said Tims. "I saw only three ahead of us and one below us to the right at the end. The group must have lost over half of them." French agreed that the other squadrons were hit as hard as they were. Cochran was glad that Fiske had contacted the base. He was not happy at the thought that the guys had started picking up his clothes, particularly his precious battlejacket. "I hope MacGregor was as lucky as we - or had time to bailout anyway." "Give us three scotch and sodas, please," Tims asked the bartender. He raised his glass: "Here is to the end of your tour, boys." In the meantime, it was hard for the enlisted men of the French crew to find some rest as many of the men stationed at the base came out that evening to ask them questions. They asked Herbert Schwartz if he had been scared. "All I could say was that 1 had thought I had to use the latrine after we crashed but when I got there, all 1 did was wipe! Then I developed a sudden headache and went inside the ship to try to get some rest. However I
The Way Back 123 could not sleep. A.t 00:30 that night the MPs came out in a jeep and wanted us to join them for some coffee and rolls in their tent which we did. Everyone treated us like kings, the CO even offered us a jeep to go into Reims and though I was very anxious to go, I was not quite up to it. After our visit with the MPs, we were driven back to our ship where we tried to get some sleep."
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· RUEL SK .......~, , .
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Picture credit Front cover: Aircraf
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CRUEL SKY 4 PREFACE My name is Luc
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CRUEL SKY 6 I had to wait until Mar
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CRUEL SKY 8 disposed than others to
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10 CRUEL SKY Also: Bill Dewey, Pres
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12 CRUEL SKY But Gotha had been in
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14 CRUEL SKY The crews scheduled we
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16 CRUEL SKY civilians living near
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18 CRUEL SKY Second Lieutenant Carr
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20 CRUEL SKY The navigators got a d
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22 CRUEL SKY had just been repacked
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· The Pearson crew before leaving
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24 CRUEL SKY Crew integrity was som
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26 CRUEL SKY "I introduced myself a
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28 CRUEL SKY pencils, plotter, and
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30 CRUEL SKY then, for McCormic~ th
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-----4.__. " ["""""" ..,....,.."'..
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34 CRUEL SKY props through and chec
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36 CRUEL SKY Pilots were now increa
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38 CRUEL SKY In the distance, other
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High-right element High-right eleme
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•••-T ••• High-high-r
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40 CRUEL SKY leveled off at 23,000
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42 CRUEL SKY tower. The officer in
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44 CRUEL SKY turret. There was a sm
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The fight 47 Chapter 3 THE FIGHT (I
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The fight 49 disbelief of what was
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J Thejight 51 The ship went down ea
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The fight 53 seconds as the plane w
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The fight 55 The SEEDS crew A fligh
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The fight 57 Sergeant Charles Graha
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The fight 59 When an FW -190 attack
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Thejight 61 time to bailout." "The
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The fight 63 The force of the explo
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The fight 65 The BRUCE crew Twenty
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The fight 67 to look at the holes i
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Thejight 69 coming down from the fl
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The fight 71 brought confinnation,
Page 79 and 80: The fight 73 from going out of cont
Page 81 and 82: Thejight 75 bullets and then he sud
Page 83 and 84: The fight 77 shell hit the top turr
Page 85 and 86: The fight 79 the fuel transfer cont
Page 87 and 88: The modem knight A waist gunner re
Page 89 and 90: The Bail Out 81 Chapter 4 THE BAILO
Page 91 and 92: The Bail Out 83 Pilot Raphael Carro
Page 93 and 94: The Bail Out 85 "The jailer was qui
Page 95 and 96: The BailOut 87 Left waist gunner Wa
Page 97 and 98: The Bail Out 89 "About 40 minutes l
Page 99 and 100: The BailOut 91 to dump my chute. He
Page 101 and 102: The Bail Out 93 cord which would op
Page 103 and 104: The Bail Out 95 godly. With reinfor
Page 105 and 106: The Bail Out 97 "The questioning be
Page 107 and 108: The BailOut 99 Tail gunner Frank T.
Page 109 and 110: The Bail Out 101 "After a few minut
Page 111 and 112: The Bail Out 103 obviously a projec
Page 113 and 114: The Bail Out 105 the Jerries wanted
Page 115 and 116: The Way Back 107 Chapter 5 THE WAY
Page 117 and 118: The Way Back 109 navigator. Everyth
Page 119 and 120: The Way Back III flak opened up on
Page 121 and 122: The Way Back 113 storm of shells. A
Page 123 and 124: The Way Back 115 landing. Pilot Jac
Page 125 and 126: The Way Back 117 The SWOFFORD crew
Page 127 and 128: The Way Back 119 calling out all la
Page 129: The Way Back 121 MORE AFTERMATH Lie
Page 133 and 134: The Aftermath 125 Chapter 6 THE DA
Page 135 and 136: The Aftermath 127 33 out of39 (sic)
Page 137 and 138: The Aftermath 129 Raymond Ray: (A p
Page 139 and 140: The Aftermath 131 sounded like ciga
Page 141 and 142: The Aftermath 133 most I could eat
Page 143 and 144: The Aftermath 135 later that I had
Page 145 and 146: 138 CRUEL SKY The survIvors of the
Page 147 and 148: 140 CRUEL SKY LEAD SQD 700 TH BS -
Page 149 and 150: 142 CRUEL SKY ~Q~~02ndBS-~ 1 st Lt
Page 151 and 152: 144 CRUEL SKY HIGH-HIGH RIGHT SQD 7
Page 153 and 154: l46 CRUEL SKY LOW LEFT Second eleme
Page 155 and 156: 148 CRUEL SKY Annex II: "A navigati
Page 157 and 158: 150 CRUE1JSKY There is one major ar
Page 159 and 160: 152 CRUEL SKY S/Sgt. 1. A. Reardon,
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Â· RUEL SK

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