Eyewitness Account

John W Rice
The following is a description of what I saw on the Accident between our ship and the P47 today. Major Wallace was flying at the time of the accident and I was watching the lead ship of our element. We were to the rear and slightly to the left of the lead ship.

I felt the ship hit and saw pieces of metal bounce off the nose and go down under the right wing.

The major checked the ship (Instruments and controls) and asked me to find out how many men we had aboard and if any were hurt. I checked and found the nose gunner, Cpl. Dadig missing. Everyone on the ship was uninjured except for Cpl. Dadig and he was taken off with the nose turret.

The radio operator tuned in Splasher 5 and we came in to the Splasher and made a standard instrument approach and landed OK.