Delivered Tulsa 28/11/42; Homestead 14/2/43; Assigned 401BS/91BG [LL-D] Bassingbourn 25/3/43; Missing in Action `1m` Bremen 17/4/43 with Bob Walker, Co-pilot: Bob Vetter, Navigator: Roy Scott, Bombardier: George Zedonek, Flight engineer/top turret gunner: Bob Flanagan, Radio Operator: Gus Collins, Ball turret gunner: Bill Carroll, Waist gunner: Ray Oltman. (8 Prisoner of War); Waist gunner: Don Snell, Tail gunner: Nick Sandoff (2 Killed in Action); heavy enemy aircraft attacks, crashed Hilgenriedersiel, five NE of Norden, Ger. Missing Air Crew Report 15222. (?15522). RAIN OF TERROR.

Aircraft was lost on its 1st combat mission. 



17 April 1943, Target: Bremen, Aircraft Plant

“Rain of Terror” was hit by flak as well as by Me 109 and FW 190 fighter cannon fire over the target, setting the aircraft afire. The bombs had just dropped and the togglier, Sgt Zedoneck, was turning the plane back over to Lt Walker when more flak hit the aircraft. The bomb bay doors were still open. Lt Walker and the copilot, F/O Robert A. Vetter, managed to keep the plane with the formation in spite of the fire. On the way to the coast, a fighter made a pass over top of the bomber, wounding the top turret gunner, T/Sgt Robert F. Flanagan. The tail gunner, S/Sgt Nick Sandoff, most likely was killed during this attack. The radio operator, T/Sgt Gust E. Collias, saw him slumped over in the tail.



As “Rain of Terror” continued towards the North Sea, the fires became more intense and Lt Walker and F/O Vetter no longer could keep her in the air. Lt Walker told Sgt Collias that there was fire in the cockpit and for the crew to leave the aircraft. The aft crew bailed out, Sgt Collias going out through the bomb bay. Sgt Collias did not see the left waist gunner, S/Sgt Donald J. Snell, in the plane when he bailed out. He assumed Sgt Snell had already gone out the waist door. Whatever the circumstances, Sgt Snell did not survive. The ball turret gunner, S/Sgt Raymond C. Ottman, came up from the turret and went out the waist hatch. He had been hit in the buttocks and back during the fighter attacks.



The togglier, Sgt Zedoneck, and the navigator, 1Lt Roy W. Scott, bailed out the nose hatch. Sgt Zedonek landed in a tree, severely straining his back. German farmers spotted him and turned him over to the military. Lt Scott fell softly to the ground about two miles SW of Bremen. The two pilots remained with the plane in spite of the increasing intensity of fire within the aircraft. “Rain of Terror” continued loosing altitude. The pilots finally made a crash-landing on the beach north of Norden. They both survived to become POWs.



All 401st planes were gone now from the Low Squadron. Only the 323rd Group spare aircraft, No. 399, “Man-O-War”, flown by the 92nd Bomb Group crew, was left. Lt Walker formed up with another Squadron for protection. The Low Squadron was gone.

(The First of Many: First Crews of the 8th Air Force by Lowell L. Getz)