It was June 19, 1944. We were on our second mission. As I jockeyed the throttles to stay tight in formation, one engine kept running over the red line. I reported this to the commander and requested permission to leave the formation where we had been ‘tail-end- Charlie’. Permission was granted, so we left the formation and went on our own.
The target was a training airfield at Cazeaux, France.

The bombardier, Charles (Chuck) Arnold, and Navigator Stephen Quinn said, “Let’s find the target and get rid of these bombs”. I said, “How can we bomb without a bomb sight?” (Since we had been ‘tail-end-Charlie’, we didn’t need one.) Chuck said, “I’ll use my big toe as a bombsight”. So I said, “O.K., let’s do it”.

Quinn got us to the IP so we started the bomb run. After what seemed like several minutes, I asked, “How are we doing?” Chuck said, “Give me ten degrees to the right”.
I did that and what seemed again like several minutes, I asked, “How are we doing?” Chuck said, “Give me another ten degrees to the right”. Soon we heard, “Bombs Away”.

Since we had been ‘tail-end-Charlie’, we had a camera aboard and the pictures showed that some of our bombs landed in the revetments and some on the runway.

Our route back to the base was mostly over ocean. We passed the Jersey and Guernsey Islands and wondered who controlled them. When we saw tracer bullets coming at us we knew they were not friendly.

Charles Arnold received no recognition for this, but later was promoted to a lead-bombardier and transferred to another plane. On his second mission in that capacity, the lead plane was hit. They bailed out but he was seen dead on the ground.