One of the bombs hung up in the Bomb rack, and we had orders to never bring any bombs back. I had to open the Bomb Bay Doors, over the Adriatic Sea to attempt a release. Nothing worked, so I had to creep out on the 12-inch wide catwalk, with nothing to hold onto between me and the ocean, and release the bomb manually. I sure was praying that we didn't hit any air pockets or rough air. I found a dime in my pocket and used it to get the bomb to release.

The next day (July 27, 1944) we were assigned to a target in Budapest, Hungary in the same plane. Our pilot protested taking this plane on another mission, which was a 13 hour trip. He was told we had a choice--go then, or fly night missions for three weeks. We went, but ended up in a German prison camp.

Our target was a Ball Bearing factory in Budapest. With only two engines operating, we were forced to drop out of formation. ME109 German fighter planes pounced on us, and set us on fire. We had salvoed our bombs when we dropped out of our formation.

The pilot gave us the signal to bail out. By that time the plane was in a flat spin. Our nose gunner and myself were assigned to the nose wheel opening for emergency exits. The nose wheel came out when the fighters hit us, which didn't leave much room for bailing out. The nose gunner, who was about 6 foot tall, went first and sailed right out. My turn was next, but I kept getting my feet wedged between the nose wheel and the nose wheel opening, due to the slip-stream of air. I tried and tried with the same results, and gave up several times as I was too fatigued to continue the fight.

I rested and tried again and again, and was finally successful.