The aircraft Sgt. Ramirez watched going down was piloted by 1st Lt. Paul Roscher. He and his crew normally flew 'Gotta Haver' (A/C 43-38367) but, according to the official record, on this mission they were in aircraft B-17G, # 44-6820. The record dated 10 April 1945 states the aircraft had no nickname, but according to Gary Ferrell's listings of B-17s that served with the 34th it was 'Miss Purty.' The account from the declassified record goes as such:

This event is also chronicled in The History of the Army Air Forces 34th Bombardment Group (H) published in 1946. Two photographs accompany the story. A partial narrative from that publication:

"On the bomb run heavy flak struck the plane in several places. But it held on its jolting course to drop the bombs on the railroad yards below while seats were blown from under crew members and fires started inside the Fort. The bail-out order was given and the entire crew parachuted out. The pilot, the last to leave, was badly burned passing through the fire in the bomb bays.
The crew landed after several were fired on by waiting Germans on the ground and all were eventually captured. Two gunners led their armed captors a chase and the co-pilot was severely beaten with clubs wielded by angry civilians who climbed from air raid shelters to round up the flyers. Although each man had a different adventure before being captured, ranging from arguing with SS Troopers not to kill them, evading civilians eager for their lives, to being patted on the shoulder sympathetically by a frau, the whole crew found themselves imprisoned on a Luftwaffe airfield with other Americans..... "

Three days later American mechanized units liberated the Americans. The crew all recovered from their injuries and 3 members returned to duty on 20 April, 1945. Crew members were:

	[ back ]		1st Lt Paul Roscher