SPECIAL HISTORICAL REPORT

Narrated by: 1^st Lt. Sigurd J. Nilsson

                        723^rd Bombardment Squadron (H)

                        450^th Bombardment Group (H)

Mission: Regensburg, Germany

Date: 22 February 1944

Crew: 1^st Lt. S. J. Nilsson                 S/Sgt J. P. Vaughn

            1^st Lt. L. F. Wilk                      T/Sgt R. J. Waldrop

            2^nd Lt. R. D. Schultz               S/Sgt S. L. Kyriakos

            2^nd Lt. C. A. Moliter               S/Sgt C. C. Hubbell

            T/Sgt J. S. Ish, Jr.                  S/Sgt R. F. Hahn

We took off for Regensburg that morning and I was leading the low left box of seven ships of our squadron. By the time we hit landfall in northern Yugoslavia, there were only three ships left in my squadron; myself, Lt. Tom Miller and Lt. Jack Wells. The rest had turned back because of mechanical failures. We kept on flying low left for a while and in checking there were only five ships in the lead squadron and four in upper right. I tried to call my wing men to join the other formations and fill them out, but couldn't contact them, so I flew in the No. 5 position of the lead squadron. My wing men stayed right on me so I couldn't fly too close. About 10 minutes before the target, I was lagging behind the formation. I was trying to keep up and was pulling 45 inches to try to keep up. Then oil pressure in #3 engine wavered and fell off and both #3 and #4 engines were throwing an excessive amount of oil. When I started losing pressure on #3, I called Bombardier Molitor and told him to get the bombs out. He called me and said he couldn't get the bombbay doors open and I instructed Engineer Ish to get down and open them. It was necessary to drop bombs through the left Bombay doors. Then I pulled the power off #3 engine but was unable to fether it – oil pressure was down to about 10 lbs. I called Engineer Ish for assistance and about that time #4 engine pressure started to drop. Ish was able at that time to feather #4 engine. Lt. Molitor was in the upper turret after Engineer Ish cam down to help me. I instructed the Ball Turret Gunner to get his turret up. I tried to call Major Davis, the Group Leader, but didn't get an answer, however, Major Orris answered and I told him I was lagging and was in trouble and couldn't keep up. I told him there were no ships behind us to join and that we were going to have to go down. We were about a half mile behind. I was unable to contact Lts. Wells and Miller, so I waved Lt. Miller on with my hand and Lt. Wilk waved Lt. Wells on by hand signal. So, as Lt. Miller passed, he smiled and waved at us. They took off and joined some other formations ahead. The weather had been solid overcast all the way, so I started down with intentions by fly just above the overcast where it would be hard to be observed by fighters.

On the way down, Navigator Schultz called and said "Look out for the mountains," so I leveled off at 12,000 feet and I called my navigator to come up on the flight deck with me. He came up and we (the crew) agreed that if we were attacked by a number of fighters that we would bail out. Navigator Schultz said we had 20 to 25 minutes to fly to northern Yugoslavia. We were flying a heading to northern Yugoslavia because we had been briefed that morning that if we got in trouble, that was a good place to go. Our heading was about 150 degrees. We were briefed that the Partisans were strong in northern Yugoslavia and that they would help us if we had to bail out. About five minutes later, we saw a B-24 about a half mile off out our right; #2 engine was on fire; as it got on our level, it exploded. No chutes were observed and so far as we could see, no one got out. Sgt. Hahn saw the rear end explode as it went down a little farther. Then the men in the rear called and said there were fighters up above us. About a minute later, they said they were coming in to attack us; there were seven. At this time, I gave the order to all the crew to bail out. They all heard the order and then they started bailing out as follows: Lt. Molitor went out the bombbay first and then Engineer Ish, then Hubbell, then Lt. Wilk, the Schultz – all out the bombbay. "Old Molitor had that sad look on his face as he came out of that top turret; he was slow and deliberate as he went to the bombbay and out – he sure was a good old boy." "Old Schultz turned around and looked at me and said something but I didn't hear." Everybody looked plenty grim because they knew the fighters were attacking. Through the holes in the clouds, we could see that the terrain was fairly flat where they could land. Our heading was about 150 degrees. When they were out, I called over the innerphone to check to see if anyone was left in the rear. T/Sgt Waldrop, radio operator, answered and said that none of them had bailed out yet. He said they were all ready to bail out but that he was watching the fighters out the waist window and that two or three had blown up and that somebody else must have been shooting them; might have been P-38's. One enemy plane had dove down and under us but had not fired on us and didn't return. The rest had discontinued their attack on us. When I found out they were still there and the fighters had left, I ordered them to stand by. I figured we could make northern Yugoslavia. I changed my heading further left, 10 degrees to 15 degrees, to try to avoid the enemy air bases in northern Italy that S-2 had briefed us on that morning. We continued to fly and I was alone up front, so I called T/Sgt Waldrop to come up on the flight deck with me. He helped me put on my chute at that time. We were past the high mountains by this time and still above the deck of clouds, so I let her down to 4,500 ft. We threw out ammunition and all extra weight. We flew just above the overcast. It was hazy, so I figured fighters wouldn't see us. We saw open spaces in the clouds once in a while and we saw some towns. It seemed each time we reached a clear spot, there would be a town under us. The terrain was fairly level. At one point over a town, they fired at us. I don't know where it was. It was inaccurate and by circling the town, we escaped being hit. After the others bailed out, we flew for about 1 ½ hours. We were drawing about 41 inches on both good engines - #4 was feathered and #3 couldn't be feathered and it had about 1,000 R.P.M.

We started running out of fuel on both #1 and #2 engines. S/Sgt Vaughn was an engineer on Henderson's crew but was flying as a replacement tail gunner that day on my crew; S/Sgt Vaughn came up to the flight deck and seeing our trouble immediately switched fuel valves to cross feed which saved us from going down at that time. I decided that I would have to get over the Yugoslavian mountains because I wanted to try to get back home. I pushed my power up on my two good engines to 45 inches and over a period of 30 minutes was able to get up to 7,500 feet. The weather over the mountains was bad; there were clouds all over and I knew some of the mountains were higher than that, so I decided all I could do was keep out of the clouds and weave in and out and try to get through the mountains. S/Sgt Vaughn was keeping a check on our fuel supply which was being used up rapidly due to excessive power being pulled on our two good engines. Radio Operator Waldrop was finally able to contact Bari and got a course for us to fly which was 190 degree heading except I dodged clouds. At 1600 hours, we got into a cloud and being unable to see the ground and unable to gain altitude and fearing that we would hit a mountain peak, I ordered the remainder of my crew to bail out. S/Sgt Vaughn had told me we had about 100 gallons of gas left. Sgts. Waldrop, Hahn, and Vaughn were up on the flight deck; S/Sgt Kyriakos had accidentally pulled the rip cord on his parachute as he was trying to put it in the ball turret. It was lucky because we had an extra parachute onboard because he had to use it. I think that it's a damned good idea for all planes to carry an extra chute on all these missions. The three men bailed out from the flight deck through the bombbay doors and as Sgt. Waldrop left, he yelled at me to call Sgt. Kyriakos, which I immediately did. He answered and said O.K., I'm going. I turned her on aileron control an A-5 and I got out head first through the vertical door to the bombbay. I was on the catwalk and the next thing I knew I was out floating in the breeze and was that a relief to get out of that plane! I jerked the rip cord and the chute opened and at that time I heard the plane hit the mountain with a dull thud. I think I was about 1,000 feet when I bailed out – I came down in just a few seconds; my chute caught over a tree and I swung down into the snow. I looked around and I was about 10 or 15 feet from a 500 ft. drop. I looked around and I couldn't see any houses. All I could see were mountains, trees, and snow. It was a little after 4 o'clock and it was starting to snow, so I got my chute out of the tree and made a bed, preparing for the night. In about an hour, I heard someone calling - I yelled back and in a few minutes two men came over the mountain and to me. They shook hands with me and we tried to greet each other with signs. They took me around the mountain and in 10 minutes they took me to Sgt. Kyriakos, whom they had already picked up. Kyriakos had indicated to them where the other four of us might be. There were probably about 10 men out looking for the rest of the boys. They took Kyriakos and I and we walked through the snow up and down over the mountains. There were two old men about 65 years of age and they were plenty tough. I got tired and one of them took me by the arm and helped me and boy did I feel cheap to think that an old man had to help me.

After 2 ½ hours we arrived at a peasant's hut on the side of a mountain at about 43-10'N/18-45'E. It had two rooms made out of stone with a straw roof. We were wet and tired so we sat around the stove and talked. One man had been in America. We talked two hours and they gave us water and barley bread and goat's cheese and raw smoked meat. I wasn't feeling good and I went to bed on the floor. About 11 o'clock Hahn woke me up. They had found him and brought him to the hut. During the night we could hear rifle and heavy gun fire. They told us the Germans were 5 miles away. Sgts. Hahn, Kyriakos and I stayed there all night and the next day and the second night. Then they next day (morning) we started waling and walked for 6 hours. There were four guides with us. We stayed at a Garrison that night and for the following three days. The same afternoon that we arrived there they brought Sgt Walrop in. Then the next day they brought Vaughn in. He had slept two nights out in the snow. He looked good and was in good spirits. Sgt Walrop spent one night out in the snow. They had used their escape kits but the compass is not good. There were about five or six guides with us all the time and we walked for about 15 days. We got to Kolosin on March 7, 1944. Every day we were wet from the snow and at nights we would sop and the people would dry our clothes and make us sleep in their beds while they slept on the floor. About two days from Kolosin we were caught in a snowstorm – we were on a mountain of about 7,000 ft. We got lost in this blizzard and wandered around for an hour or so and we found the trail again and got to a hut about 7 o'clock that night where we stayed until morning. We stayed at Kolosin for two days and then we walked on over to Berane 42-52'N/19-52'E on the afternoon of March 11. There was an airfield there and we received information that we would be picked up there and flown back to Italy. There were seven Englishmen there who had been there since Dec 1, 1943. Planes had come over many different times and had dropped supplies but did not land. When the British told us that and when we saw planes come over and drop their supplies and not land to pick us up we were sweating it out. We just sat there day after day and waited. On March 29 the day started out without a cloud in the sky; it was a beautiful day. Two SM-79's came in and landed about 1130 and we all rushed up to the field. About 1245 a German observation plane came over the field at about 4 to 5 M feet. He dropped pamphlets over the town. We got away from the field in a hurry. We then heard more planes up about 10,000 ft. They circled and left. These two planes were Macchi 202 and were to be our escort. All five of us and the seven British got on one of the SM-79's and we took off 1320. The second SM-79 carried wounded. We arrived in Lecce about 1515. They gave us a truck and brought us to Manduria. We arrived at 1800 – and were we happy!

This statement was taken April 1, 1944 by 1^st Lt Gale H. Gillan 723^rd Squadron Historian.

P.S. 1^st Lt Nilsson and Sgts Hahn, Vaughn, Kyriakos, and Waldrop were ordered to return to the U.S. and left A/B Manduria, Italy on April 3, 1944.