TWO PLANES MISSING IN TWO DAYS

We had one plane missing from this first mission but we soon learned that it had landed at one of the first coastal airfields in England The pilot was 1st Lt Richard Randolph the co pilot according to one record was 2nd Lt Fern W Pett Randolph remembers his co pilot as 2 nd Lt Charles E Johnson He doesn't remember the navigator and there are conflicting reports about the crew chief and radio operator The course was planned to fly west of London to avoid the trigger happy anti aircraft gun crews in that city They would fire at any overhead planes and ask questions later

Randolph tells it like this

We were caught in a search light from about the door back and we were under heavy fire from both sides This was after letting down through the overcast to about 500 feet The oil line on the right engine was severed and I feathered the prop The left engine was also acting up and the rudder cable was severed The navigator had a sliver of wood from his desk pinning the lids of one eye together I dropped on target and got out of there We nursed the plane back across the channel to a single strip airfield just over the coast called Tarrant Rushton I landed straight in and while we were there contacting our base the crew counted holes in the airplane There were 326 some as close as 6 inches from the gas tanks Part of the trailing edge of the left wing was turned up in a 90 degree angle Someone flew down to get us but I don't remember being debriefed The airplane was repaired and may have been the one we called Patches Randolph cannot verify this at this late date

ONCE A SECRET REPORT
But not today
The Jumpmaster called the shots

This is the official narrative statement of the crew of A C 42 93002 62nd Troop Carrier Squadron 314th Troop Carrier Group in connection with events of BIGOT NEPTUNE 1 The crew of this aircraft consisted of

Capt Charles S Cartwright 0 731943 Pilot
F 0 Alma M Magleby T 926 Co pilot
2nd Lt Edward I Osborne 0 805327 Navigator
S Sgt Raymond H Farris 151147O3
Crew Chief S Sgt Frank A DeLuca 3245328 Radio Operator

"We flew number seven position in our first serial on this mission leading the third element of the first squadron We reached the Drop Zone in formation and have nothing to add to the mission report up to that time Approaching the DZ our airspeed was between 105 and 110 mph our indicated altitude was 700 feet the same as the leading element in our formation In seeing the stick leave the lead ship we gave the green light but our stick did not jump The jumpmaster Capt Simmons instructed the crew chief to tell the pilot that the plane was too low and that he would not jump his men at that height The intercom was damaged and the crew chief could not reach the pilot so he passed the message to the navigator who relayed it to the pilot As soon as the message was received we went up to 800 feet indicated made a right turn and began a second pass at the DZ At this time the jumpmaster had come up to the cockpit to confer with the pilot who said to him Get the hell Out every one except your stick has jumped

HIT ON THE SECOND PASS

During this second pass we were hit by explosive flak probably 40mm two rounds of which went through the plane One round narrowly missed Crew Chief Farris who was at that time in the door of the companionway and the other went through the rear of the fuselage Paratrooper No 17 in the stick was hit by fragments of this flak which detonated two of the hand grenades in his pouch seriously injuring him We went over the DZ again and once again the troops did not jump although they received the signal

DOWN ON THE THIRD We turned for a third pass and this time the navigator told the jumpmaster that there was going to be a forced landing The stick went out at once a short distance south of the DZ going in a westerly direction at 750 feet at 110 115 mph The injured paratrooper No 17 did not jump

Immediately after the jump both engines quit either at once or so close together that it made no difference The pilot turned the plane 180 degrees to the right hoping to reach the ocean He saw that he would be unable to do so and made a further 90 degree turn to the right putting the aircraft on a southwesterly heading hoping to reach the flooded area to the south of the DZ

The altitude was not sufficient to reach this area so the crew took crash positions in the plane and it was set down in an open field On gong in it clipped a row of trees bordering the field Both engines were on fire but Capt Cartwright made a relatively smooth belly landing The plane came to rest in the middle of the field and the crew evacuated it with all speed The wounded paratrooper got out by himself The pilot the crew chief and the radio operator carried the paratrooper who had collapsed close to the plane further away and then the pilot went back into the plane for a first aid kit and supplies He recovered a kit but was unable to reach anything else Upon return to the paratrooper the pilot found that he had his own morphine and was asking to have it administered. The co pilot and navigator did this We then began to carry the paratrooper toward the hedge bordering the field which offered the only nearby cover and as we got a short distance away the aircraft exploded

The paratrooper now unconscious was concealed in the hedge and about 2 45AM we began traveling south in a zig zag line looking for a place to hide out About 3 4 mile from the plane we found a dry ditch cowered with brambles and this became the hideout for all of us We cannot positively locate the position of the crashed plane but believe it was over a mile east of DZ N It was not in the flooded area and we did not cross any large streams on our way to the coast so we believe the crash was east of the Merderet River probably in the vicinity of the village of Coquerie

About an hour after we had hidden we heard a voice say Sprechen Sie Deutsch in an American accent which was followed by the sign We gave the correct countersign and two US paratroopers one with a badly injured ankle on which he could hardly walk joined us At dawn the uninjured paratrooper left to find his outfit The whole crew with the injured paratrooper stayed where it was until 2 00PM on Tuesday 6 June l944 During these hours we could hear a variety of firing of all types in all directions We identified machine guns rif1es hand grenades 88s and other large German guns and naval bombardment in the direction of the coast