On Christmas Day, 1944, around noon, a B24 Bomber named Bold Venture crossed the English Coast and crashed near the Wales boarder. There was nobody on board and no parachutes were seen over the English Channel.

I witnessed the story of what happened to the Bold Venture. I was a Co Pilot flying in the high right section of the 467 Bomb Group on that Christmas morning. The Lead plane of our squadron was hit by flak and our flight turned away from the Bomb Line. We were quickly attacked by German Fighters and below me I watched Bold Venture's Number 1 engine hit and catch fire. The Pilot feathered that engine and dove down toward the clouds. The fighters followed but broke off the attack fearing a collision ni the clouds. Bold Ventures Pilot turned on the Automatic Pilot and rang the Abandon ship alarm not knowing it had been disabled by the enemy fighters. The Pilot, Co-Pilot, Radio Operator and Top Turret Gunner bailed out but were unseen by the rest of the crew because of the clouds. Eventually, the Bombardier noticed that there were no feet on the rudder pedals. With the Navigator they hurried up to the flight Deck. Now out of the clouds, the Bombardier using the Automatic Pilot, turned the plane to a west heading.

The Navigator called up the rest of the crew to the flight deck and poured over his maps trying to find friendly lines. No one knew how to land a B24 and as soon as the Navigator found friendly lines the six crew men bailed out. They were sent back ot the 467 to complete their missions but the crew from the flight deck was captured by the Germans. Bold Venture continued
its west heading. It flew over France, over the English Channel over the English coast and crashed near the Wales boarder, 300 miles from the site where Bold Venture was set on fire. Completely wrecked Bold Venture was abandoned but not forgotten!