out of Foggia Italy. That day they were bombing the train yards in Vienna, Austria. My father was hoping that day that some maintenance problem would scrub their plan from the mission. Two crewman were not available to fly that day, so Thomas Losh was a substitute.

When the plane was over Vienna, they were hit by flak, twice. One thru the body of the plane and (when going thru the plane) lifted a flight bag off the floor hit the ceiling with the bag. The other hit the left wing, but they were unaware of that hit, until they saw the wing on fire. My dad told everyone to get ready to jump, but they would try to make the Russian lines in Hungary, as you don't want to jump over a city you just bombed. Finally they lost lift in the wing and the plane went into a flat spin. Everyone who was getting ready to jump were smashed about the plane and it knocked Losh and Bowman unconcious. It also trapped the Tail Gunner under his ammunition.

They were able to get out of the spin, and my dad ordered everyone out (he really didn't have to order, they were all headed for the exits).

The two waist gunners were trying to drag Losh to the door to get him out. However, his kept on catching on rivets, etc and the waist gunners realized they were less than 2,000 ft off the ground. They left Losh and made their way to the door and jumped. Their parachutes tangled and they went to the ground on one chute.

My dad and the co-pilot were struggling to keep the plane in the air, when my dad ordered the co-pilot out. However, he was pulling so far back on the yoke, that the co-pilot was pinned to his seat. Apparently, the co-pilot mentioned that my dad had to go easy on the yoke to allow the co-pilot to leave. After easing up, the co-pilot left, followed shortly by my father. My father jumped thru the bomb-bay doors and saw Losh in the back of the plane.

My father did not see Bowman (bombadier) unconcious in the nose of the plane, did not see the tailgunner trapped under his ammunition. The crazy part is the tail gunner went down with the plane and lived through it.

They did not make it to the Russian lines, but landed north of Lake Batalan in Hungary. They were POW's for the rest of the war.

So, my dad always made fun of people who jumped out of planes for fun. The real thrill was being the pilot and jumping out of a burning plane.