McGovern’s first mission went better than that of Lt. David Gandin, a navigator in a B-24. In his war diary, Gandin reported that when his Liberator, called the Snafu, was over the target a piece of flak came through the cockpit window. The pilot, Lt. Bill Marsh, lost the top of his head. The co-pilot, Lt. Hilary Bevins, was on his first mission. He called to his radioman, who came to the cockpit wearing a walkaround oxygen bottle “and removed Marsh from the pilot’s seat. Bevins couldn’t stand it with Marsh in the seat and all the blood flowing around.
”Bevins moved over to the pilot’s seat and kept in the formation until it headed off. All the compasses were out, so Bevins flew the opposite direction of the setting sun. All the men were freezing because of the hole in the top of the cockpit. The engineer was sick to his stomach from all the blood. Bevins’s eyeball was scratched and Marsh’s blood was frozen on his hands.”
When darkness descended, Bevins flew opposite the North Star. Finally Snafu got back to base – but Bevins had never made a night landing before. “As he came in, he banked over and did the same to the right one; the ship crash-landed and caught on fire.
”Thank God all got out okay, though Bevins wouldn’t leave until they took Marsh’s body out also. The plane burned to a crisp.”
Source:
Ambrose, Stephen E. “Learning to Fly in Combat.” The Wild Blue: The Crews of the B-24. Simon & Schuster, 2002. 160. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Aronowitz, Maternity Ward, 59.
Further Reading:
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