It was February 14, 1945 and at briefing I saw the reconnaissance photos of our target - a railroad bridge at Engers, Germany. I was to fly the No. 2 position in my flight and the ship I was to fly was a new one in our squadron named "The Texas Queen." (TQ-G; Serial Number: 44-67916).

I met the co-pilot at the ship. He was from a replacement crew that had just come into the squadron; his name was Lt. McDonough. I'll never forget when he introduced himself to me, because he said, "Boy, at this rate I'll be going home in a couple of weeks!" When I asked what he was talking about, he said he had just gone on his first mission and this was to be his second. I never knew whether he had been on a morning mission this day or was referring to having been on one yesterday.

Little did I know what a prophet he was.

On the way to the target we got a moderate amount of flak at the bomb line, nothing really heavy. As I was flying in the No. 2 position I was resting my head against the middle window while watching the wing of the lead plane on my left. We arrived at the Initial Point and turned to start the bomb run. The bomb bay doors were opened and we had started toward the target when we took the first direct hit. The explosion of the shell deafened me and blew my sunglasses off. My vision was blurred so I wiped my face and eyes, and taking my hand away, I saw all this flesh and blood.

I thought My God, they have shot my face off but 1 didn't feel any pain. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw McDonough falling between our seats. I saw that about half of his thigh had been blown off. The debris of flesh and blood from his thigh was what had blurred my vision. I managed to get Thorin, my engineer/gunner, up into the cockpit to attend to McDonough. I was doing my best to keep my position in the flight.

Since my vision was still blurred, I moved my head forward to the front window compartment to see the lead plane better. Just after my head moved forward, a shell came through the middle window and hit between the top hatches blowing them open, damaging the trim cables, and taking out the radio. (You cannot imagine the speed of a shell until you experience it. It passed so close to my neck that 1 thought my flesh had been burned).

If 1 hadn't moved my head to the front glass, I would never have known what hit me. I t would have taken my head off. So, McDonough getting hit and part of his thigh being blown onto my face really caused me to move the position of my head, which saved my life and undoubtedly the entire crew.

With all that going on, I still managed to keep the plane in a reasonably good formation until our bombs were released on the target. We took another hit just as the bombs went away, and a piece of flak came up through my parachute and between my flight jacket's inner and outer lining. It exited below the collar of the left shoulder area.

There was no way I could fly formation and keep up with the lead plane taking

evasive action to get away from the target area. I remember going into a dive and seeing the air speed indicator go past the red line. I started to the base as fast as I could go. Thorin and Suders (radio gunner) worked at getting the hatches closed and began administering to Lt. McDonough, using sulpha powder, morphine and bandages.

I got back to A-71 ahead of the Group and started a straight-in approach. There was another B-26 just ahead of me and I was closing on him fast. Since I didn't have a radio I had Thorin fire a red flare. When the plane ahead of me did not get out of the way he fired another red flare and this time the plane pulled up, which gave me clearance to go in and land.

As I pulled off the end of the runway and onto the taxi strip the ambulances were right there so I killed the engine and the rescue crew brought out stretchers to take McDonough out. Sgt. Suders was also hit, but not as severely, but they took him with McDonough to the field hospital. Our Squadron surgeon, Dr. Thom, did the surgery on them.

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Joseph 0. Stevens received the Silver Star for the heroism he demonstrated on this mission. He has not heard what has become of Lt. McDonough after the war and if anyone has information on his condition or whereabouts, please contact Joe.


Editor's notes:

There are two interesting sequels to the above story:

1. Lt. Stevens and Latvala went to visit McDonough in the hospital while he was under treatment. His wounds were so gross to look at that Lt. Stevens fainted, hit his head on the floor and was unconscious for several hours. Eino also was so upset at the sight that he had to go outside and vomit.

2. Joe also commented on an incident that happened after he landed that Valentine's Day, which shows the imbecility of certain persons involved. The procedure after you cut off engines is to turn off the inverters, which in this case he forgot to do. Joe was embarrassed that he was criticized in front of his fellow pilots by our then commanding officer.