Excerpts of article by Steven Ossad
As the bomber streams approached the Belgian city on Liege on Christmas
Eve 1944, the mission leader noticed that his right outboard engine, which
had been steadily leaking oil, was smoking. First Lieutenant Robert Harriman,
the pilot of Treble Four, a B-17G from the 836th Squadron, 487th Bomb
Group, immediately activated a fire extinguisher and feathered the propeller,
which slowed to a full stop. There was no sign of the enemy yet, but it was
getting impossible to hold their position in the formation as the bomber's
airspeed fell. The leader knew what he had to do....Brig. Gen. Frederick W.
Castle, commanding general of the 4th Combat Bombardment Wing (CBW)
and leader of the largest bombing mission ever mounted, notified his
subordinate bomber and fighter commanders that he was relinquishing
command. Castle also made another desperate decision, one that he
instinctively knew might cost his own life and the lives of his crew. Aware that
civilians and hard-pressed troops of the U.S. First Army were directly below
his flight path, he did not jettison his bombload - which would have been
accepted procedure to gain spped and better maneuverability. As the pilot
banked to the left and dropped down to 20,000 feet, the aircraft was still
vibrating badly....Unescorted, isolated and trying to reunite with the rear of
the formation, Castle's B-17 quickly became the target of German fighters.
At 12:30 the ball-turret gunner spotted a flight of seven fighters from the
Luftwaffe's veteran 4th Gruppe....A single Me-109 made a pass from 2
o'clock, shattering the plexiglass nose and badly wounding Lieutenant Bruno
S. Procopio, the radar bombsight operator. Almost simultaneously, a trio of
Me-109s attacked from 3 o'clock and savaged the bucking B-17G with a
blanket of cannon shells and machine gun bullets.
The co-pilot, Lieutenant Claude L. Rowe, who had given his seat to General
Castle and was manning the tail guns, announced over the intercom: General,
I am wounded. The other three fighters now attacked from 9 o'clock,
blasting the left wing and setting the two port engines afire. Flames moved
rapidly toward the wing tanks....
The German fighters split off, regrouped and attacked again from the rear
and above....

These exciting excerpts are from the opening paragraphs of an article by
Steven Ossad in World War II magazine, 2003. You may purchase this issue,
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