· RUEL SK

The fight
65
The BRUCE crew
Twenty and 30-rom shells had turned Bonnie Vie into a wreck, but she was still
flying. However, her logbook would bear no more mission entries.
Pilot, 2nd Lt. William S. Bruce, realized it was just a hopeless situation. "There
were just too many of the enemy fighters. I saw at least seven ships go down in flames:
four from our Group plus several Gennan ships. Our fighters were nowhere in sight. I
could not understand where the hell they could be."
"Our ship had been hit several times - two engines were on fITe and the interior of
the ship was in shambles. The gunners kept firing, but finally they were all wounded or
dead. By this time I knew we were in serious trouble with no hope of staying in the air any
longer. I finally gave the bailout order because only one engine was running and it not too
well. I asked my copilot to unbuckle my seat belt before he bailed out. Just as he stood up
to do so a 20-rom shell cut him in half"
The repeated calls and bail-out bell rings were ineffective to revive the dead or help
the seriously wounded to leave the plane. The nose, waist and tail areas remained deadly
silent. Only the men of the flight deck could make it. But the Gennans were detennined to
bring this flying wreck down, one way or another.
The coup de grace came when a Gennan fighter rammed the right wing. The whole
airfoil peeled off and the asymmetric ship flipped on her back The blazing left wing tanks
exploded, followed by the fuselage itself Miraculously, the destructive power of the blast
threw the pilot and the radio operator, T/Sgt. Peter Pogovich out of the cart-wheeling
remains of the B-24. Fortunately both had already donned their chutes.
What was left of Bonnie VIe crashed 1 km west of Richelsdorf.
The HANSEN crew
Pilot, 2nd Lt. Robert N. Hansen, was trying to keep his ship tucked on the left wing
of the slot element leader. His radio operator, T/Sgt. James M. Triplett, was sitting behind
him with nothing more to do than watch the ships going down one by one. The radio waves
were carrying only distress calls. Since there were no Little Friends in sight, this "sit and
take-it" defensive posture became nerve-wracking. Then, the electrical system was shot out
and all communication stopped inside the battered ship.