Members of the 791st Squadron were on call to fly in the lead aircraft. They could be lead crew for Division, Wing, Group, or Squadron. The lead aircraft also had a deputy who flew on the right wing in the formation. If the lead aircraft experienced any difficulty, the deputy aircraft was called upon to take over the lead. The lead aircraft was the most vulnerable, since the Nazi knew our attack would fail if they could get the lead aircraft.

My eleventh mission was with Squadron lead on the 5th of January 1945, to a Rail Bridge at Cochen. The aircraft carried six 500 pound general purpose bombs, and it took 8 hours of combat flight time. Rocky Rothchild was flying as Command Pilot, and Ralph Elliott was in the right seat.

In a letter from Ralph, he said that he remembered the Cochen trip, and he wrote me the following concerning the mission: "Led the high-right Squadron today on a raid to Cochen, Germany, on the Mosel River just above Trier and below Coblenz. Assembly was over Splasher 10 SW of London at 18,000 feet. Assembly went well, but con-trails became bad and after starting out on course we hit stratus clouds at 20,000 ft. and nearly lost the formation. Caught it O.K. just before the French coast but trouble really began when the C-1 (autopilot) started to go out. Then the bomb sight froze up as it was 44 deg. below zero and had it been visual we still couldn't have bombed. Then on the bomb run I couldn't lose ground speed and was overrunning the lead ship. Finally got in position just at bombs away although the airspeed was only 140-145. C-1 went clear out and I flew home manually.”

Ralph further added that the clipping from the STARS & STRIPES the next day read: "1,000 HEAVIES DEFY ICE, FOG, HIT NAZI RAMS - Despite bitter cold, ice, fog and thick clouds which have stepped in as foes of the heavy bombers in the absence of opposition from the Luftwaffe, better than 1,000 Fortresses and Liberators of the 8th Air Force... .yesterday hit rail facilities in an area stretching south from Hamm, northeast of the Ruhr, to Rastatt and Achem, southwest of Karlsrule. Seven bombers and nine aircraft did not come home.”

It was snowing and the weather was terrible. Ralph took the third Squadron down to 500 feet as we came back across France. We saw barrage balloons over Antwerp that we just missed.