· RUEL SK

The fight
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The force of the explosion hit the bombardier, Lt. James Dowling, in the back and blew off
his flying helmet: "I recovered from the blast and turned around to see the navigator, Lt.
Herbert Bateman, half out of the ship. He was bloody and staring at me. When I tried to
lift his leg in, the slipstream took him and he fell through the open space. Smoke was
everywhere, 1 could hardly see the nose turret, which was badly shot up and torn away. Lt.
William Flickner must have been killed instantly."
At the same time, the pilot, Lt. Joseph Johnson, announced on the intercom that the
No. 3 engine was just blasted out of the wing and yelled: "Bailout!" The bell was ringing.
Dowling quickly checked his chute and rolled out of the nose wheel compartment.
Fridget Bridget went down at Breitau, 1 km north of Erbberg.
The ELDER crew
Tail gunner, S/Sgt. Stanley H. Morse, glanced down to his right just when the Seeds'
aircraft lost its wings and dropped down. But his own plane, Clay Pigeon, which was the
low, left element leader, was in flames too and was likely to fmd the same fate at any time.
And, very shortly, this is what happened. The plane, piloted by 1st Lt. Oliver B. Elder blew
up, killing her pilot and four members of the crew.
Navigator, 1st Lt. Harold P. Whidden Jr. made his escape via the nose compartment.
Copilot, 2nd Lt. Roy E. Ellender, and engineer, T/Sgt. Paul E. de Vries, escaped from the
flight deck. Tail gunner, Sgt. Morse, was the only one to parachute safely from the rear.
Clay Pigeon went down 1 km. south west of Lindenau.
The FROMM crew
As the German fighters kept pressing their attacks, the low-left squadron continued
to melt away. The left and right elements had ceased to exist and Johnson's ship had fallen
from its position on the right wing of the 703 rd squadron lead ship. The aircraft piloted by
1st Lt. Richard Fromm was flying just behind Johnson's position and was already on fire.
Because of this, Lt. Fromm sounded the alarm to abandon ship. In just a few
minutes, he had seen so many ships in flames blowing up that he decided to give his men
enough time to get their chutes on and bailout. All of the crew, except copilot, 2nd Lt.