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I was flying on Lt. Ralson´s crew as a Ball Turret Operator when we had to ditch our flying fortress, 42-31148 in the North Sea. Three of our engines had runaway props as I understood and neither of them could be feathered. We aborted from the group as we approached the German coast. The pilot and co-pilot made a wonderful landing in the rough cold sea. As far as I know nobody was injured in anyway, but to our surprise when the dinghies were released on the extremely rough sea they were not tied to the plane as they should have been. I reached the right one by swimming. The bombardier had the left one but it was torn. The co-pilot managed an individual. He and I were the only ones to be picked up alive after three hours of tossing in the North Sea, approximately forty miles off shore as the Air Sea Rescue told us. The last I saw of the rest of the crew was the Radio Operator and Right Waist Gunner who were washed off the plane into the sea hanging on to the dinghy radio. The engineer was on the plane hanging out individual dinghies. That is where my co-pilot got his. It was awful rought and cold and snow was falling. Two P-47´s were circling the area where the co-pilot and I were. When we were picked up we were probably over half a mile or so apart. We couldn´t see each other because of the high waves. What happened to the rest of the crew I couldn´t say but I judged they were frozen to death. Neither the co-pilot or I could stand when picked up. Statement from S/Sgt Charles F. Horak.
Co-Pilot 2nd Lt Herman B. McKiernan and BTG S/Sgt Charles F. Horak were rescued by the Air Sea Rescue Service, Bombardier 2nd Lt Peter Vitolano drowned and was recovered. The remaining 7 crewmembers are MIA.