At 0930 on June 29, 1944, flying No. 5 position in the lead element, not more than one second after Bombs Away, I saw four accurate bursts of flak explode in our formation. One burst damaged the lead PFF ship, another exploded within the bomb bay of the number two ship. 2nd Lt. William H Counts was pilot of this aircraft. Immediately after flames started to show out of the right and left waist windows and growing in intensity until the entire waist and tail sections of the ship were on fire.

The pilot seemed unaware of his predicament for approximately one minute. He held his position in the formation for that time. Then he started a slow diving turn to the right, leveling off approximately 500 feet below the formation which was in a turn away from the target to the right. Our nose gunner was watching all the time to count the number of men bailing out.

Approximately three minutes late, our top turret gunner saw the ship explode. One wing came off. The waist and tail became separated from the rest of the fuselage and the other wing, which began to spin toward the earth. Immediately after, the rest of the ship exploded. No parachutes were observed all this time.