· RUEL SK

72 CRUEL SKY
the fighters were.
The DEWEY crew
A 20·mm shell hit dangerously close to the tail turret gunner and threw him out of
his position. Only slightly hurt, Sgt. Montanez managed to climb back in his turret.
Sergeant George Jolmson, the right waist gunner, started firing at an FW -190 coming
in at 5 o'clock low. The former paddlefoot fired about 200 rounds until the enemy fighter
peeled off to his right, came up past the waist and blew up about 20 yards away from S/Sgt.
Leslie L. Medlock's nose turret.
The left waist gunner, Sgt. Walter Bartkow, saw an FW-190 coming in at 7 o'clock.
He started fIring when it was approximately 300 yards out, steadily pumping rounds into
the enemy aircraft which blew up like a red flash, and was witnessed by the engineer, Sgt.
Charles Craig.
With the intercom out, those in the rear of the plane were fighting their own battle
without knowing what was happening in front of the ship.
The GOLDEN crew
Sergeant Jack Erickson, the radio operator, felt Ole Baldy shuddering as it took hits
in the No.3 engine. From his vantage point directly below the right inboard engine, he saw
a cloud of black smoke pour out into the slipstream and metal parts fly through the air as
the engine came to a stop. The pilot had immediately feathered the prop. A few seconds
later the plane shook like a leaf as the tail turret took a direct hit.
The tail gunner, Sgt. Stewart 1. Norman, was gravely wounded. The left waist
gunner, Sgt. Edward H. Feltus, and the right waist gunner, Sgt. Robert R. Bagley, removed
him from his shattered turret.
As the radio operator had no gun to man, he was looking out through his small
window. "I saw many B-24s falling in flames. 1 saw several parachutes blossom out, but
not nearly enough for the number of crewmen that had manned the planes going down.
Our right wing was hit in the flap area by cannon shells and a large hole was opened up
near the trailing edge of the wing. 1 could see wires and hoses dangling into the slipstream.
Lieutenant William Golden and Lt. Robert Christie fought the controls to keep our aircraft