Memorial

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Pilot Stephen G. Nason remembers: Our most damaging blow came from a 20mm in the bomb bay, igniting some of the incendiary bombs. The engineer told me we had a fire in the radio-room and the bomb bay. The bombardier tried to salvo the bombs but couldn't, so I used the emergency manual release. Just about the same time as this was going on, one of the B-17's in front - and below us to the left - got a direct hit and he pulled up. To avoid a midair collision, I was forced to the right, out of formation. Immediately the fighters swarmed in on us. The Co-Pilot's controls were shot out and at the same time a 20mm shell exploded in the nose, hitting the Navigator across the eyebrow and setting the hydraulic fluid and oxygen on fire. I pressed the bail out alarm and the Bombardier pulled the Navigators ripcord and pushed him out the front hatch, following right after. The Co-Pilot and the Engineer bailed out the bomb bay. I tried to contact the Gunners to see if they had made it out, but no answer, or the intercom wasn't working, the plane was in a swallow spiral dive. I tried to straighten the plane out buy my controls were jammed. I met up with all of my crew except my Ball Turret Gunner Eldon E. Leavitt and my radioman Garland Owens. Later I was informed by the Germans that the Radio Operator was MIA and the Ball Turret Gunner was presumed dead.