Memorial

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Saul Spivak attended college for two years.

He joined the US Army Reserve in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 24 August 1942. He graduated from the aerial gunnery school at Harlingen, Texas.

The plane was hit by flak in #1 engine causing considerable loss of fuel an knocking of a part of the left wing. The engineer reported only three minutes fuel remained so the crew was ordered to bail out.

Nine men did bail out and all drowned in the North Sea.

Major Garrett was unable to leave when the plane went into a spin. He was able to right the plane and decided to fly until the fuel ran out. The plane did reach England and Major Garrett bailed out. The plane crashed into a house in Holt, Suffolk. Fortunately there were no injuries to anyone on the ground. The plane was salvaged with battle damage.

Sgt Spivak is also remembered at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Statement of the Command Pilot, Major Joseph C. Garrett: 'About two or three seconds before the bombs were away, our left wing received a direct hit by a burst of flak, knocking part of the wing off, making the left aileron and flap inopeartive as well as knocking out #1 engine and the hydraulic system. There was also a leak in #1 gas tank, as well as holes in both wings.
After we left the target, we were losing about 500 to 800 feet per minute at 142 to 145 MPH. Is was very hard to hold the ship level because of the drag caused by the left wing. After throwing out guns, ammunition, etc, from the ship, we were able to keep the ship in a level flying altitude and only lose from 100 to 300 feet per minute.
As we left the enemy coast, the enigneer reported that we had 700 gallons of gasoline. Fifiteen or twenty minutes later he stated that we had only 200 left. A few minutes later he said that we had 25 in #4, 25 in #3 and 90 in #2 tank. We figured that we had 3 minutes gas left. I instructed the crew to fasten on their dinghies and line up on the catwalk, then while the pilot held the ship straight, I put my dinghy on. The pilot then left his seat, put on his dinghy and went back to check on the rest of the crew. I looked back once and they had started jumoing, when I looked again they had all gone.
I then set the ship on a level course and started to get out of the co-pilots seat. My dinghy got hum between the seat and control column and whn I locked up the ship was in a dive headed towards the water and slipping violently. I get back into the seat and finally leveled off at 1,200 feet. Thinking that I was too low to try the same thing again, I decided to wait intill the A/C ran out of fuel and try ditching it. (Ditching was thought of before the crew left the ship, but because the stalling speed was increased to 130 MPH, I thought it best not to ditch.)
A P-51 was circling the men that had left the ship and the pilot stated that all 9 men were in their dinghies and apparentley were all alright. He also gave the Air-Sea Rescue their position which was approximately 534N-040E.
After flying for about an hour and forty-five minutes longer, I reached the English Coast, made a 180° turn to put the ship out over the North Sea and jumped out. However the ship did a sharp 180° and came back to crash into a house. No one was hurt."