Memorial

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The aircraft was attacked by fighters and damaged by flak. Most of the crew were wounded and bailed out. Sgt Arian L. Shutes didn't bail out because he was hit by a 20 mm shell which killed him immediately, and S/Sgt Richard G. Schmidt couldn't bail out because his parachute had been hit by machine gun fire. So he stayed in and fought off fighters using the right waist gun. When the ship was getting too close to the ground, he crawled to the flight deck and took over what was left of the controls and belly landed in a potato field. Just before he took control, #2 engine caught fire. #1 And #2 engine were dead. #3 and 4 engine were going to fall dead. The rudder was shot away and controls were jammed.

George Gilmore was badly wounded and unconscious. He was pushed out of the front hatch near Braunschweig, Germany. The radio man saw his body on the ground, his parachute was out of the pack but did not blossom.
The crew members picked him up and wrapped him in his chute and placed him in the truck which took them to a large German airbase. From there they were sent to Dulag-Luft at Frankfurt the following morning. George was initially buried at Alvesse.