Don't know how to start this tonight unless it's to say it is a miracle I'm alive.

We were to go to Daun, Germany, on our first combat mission today and we had a load of 24 250-pound bombs. We took off and gas poured out of number 3 engine. It was a hell of a spray and covered us in the waist. So we had to feather that engine. The nose gunner (Sgt. Loberg) was in the bomb bay putting the pins back in the bombs as we intended to land with them. I went down to help him when number 4 engine went dead. Sgt. Loberg was finished putting the pins in the last of the bombs and I had just climbed back into the waist.

The plane was dropping like a rock, so they salvoed the bombs. Had to wait a few seconds as were just passing over a (English) town. We managed to land and then we missed Loberg. The poor guy fell out the bomb bay and was killed. Honestly, it's a miracle we got out alive. As soon as we hit the runway we had to swerve over onto the grass to keep from hitting a truck. Mac (Pilot, F/O J.T. McArthur) made a beautiful landing. We can’t figure out what kept that plane from blowing up and what got me out of that bomb bay in time. I was plenty lucky."