· RUEL SK

74 CRUEL SKY
Comberg.
The FRENCH crew
In his tail turret, Sgt. Herbert Schwartz faced another FW-190. "I depressed both
triggers and after firing about 20 rOlmds, my left gun had a stoppage and immediately
following this, my right gun jammed. I pulled both charging handles and my left gun
cleared. I was so damn excited I didn't know what to do. I had contemplated on
evacuating the turret and jumping out of the camera hatch. My right gun had failed to
chamber the round and a shell was stuck half way into the chamber with such force that it
was impossible to charge out."
"Our radio man said that our bomb bays looked like a miniature Niagara Falls. We
were really crippled now, our No. 1 engine was feathered. Our plane began to rock
terrifically up and down all due to our right rudder being partly shot away and the other half
hanging on only by the cable. It was shaking my tail turret so badly that I had to get out of
the turret and get out damn quick before it shook me to pieces."
"This was the first time that I got hysterical and screamed over the intercom. I
thought we were in a spin and I had had no warning to jump. My copilot broke in and said
that everything was as much under control as possible and 1 felt a little relieved. In all the
excitement, my oxygen mask had pulled away from my face as I was evacuating the turret.
I was getting no oxygen and felt quite weak but I discovered my difficulty in time."
"Lt. French told the copilot, 1st Lt. Robert D. Cochran, to feather No. 2 engine to
keep the rudder still as the slipstream was causing it to waver so much."
"I saw two more FW-190s coming in. It would have taken very little persuasion for
me to jump out of the damn plane but I had to consider my crew. The FWs came in very
fast and when I should have been firing at the enemy, I was fixing my flak suit beneath my
knees. I popped up into the turret, my legs still standing as firm as possible on the bottom
of the fuselage behind the turret and started fIring. They were coming directly in at 6
0'clock level. I had my gun trained on the one ship that was in the closest to us and he
fmally· peeled away and the second ship continued his attack on our tail. My gun was
beginning to heat up as I had made my bursts too long. I had to fife though and had little
time to worry about the damn gun. This FW came in very close and I sprayed him with