Mission No. 20 to the railroad bridge at “Salzburg”, Austria. The lead navigator took us off course over a flak battery. There was 24 burst of flak. The lead ship from Attlebridge was hit, No. 1 engine was blazing and it went into a dive. The gas tank exploded and the left wing broke off at No. 1 engine. It went into a tight spin and the tail broke off at the escape hatch. It went into a real tight spin then. I saw one chute open and the plane disappeared into the fog. It was probably a waist gunner that was thrown out. I’ll never forget the way it went down in flames. The mission was abandoned after we passed Regendburg. It was foggy and raining all the time. We let down and flew back at 300 to 400 feet. I was Remagon bridge, all the trenches, wrecked planes, tanks and cars. I saw all of the PW’s herded in a field. There must have been 200 acres of them. We led the 2nd Squadron. We carried 4x500GP and two smoke bombs. We flew ship No. 591, a B-24L. We landed with bombs.