An A/C believed to be Stroup's was hit by E/A over Kiel Bay and was forced to leave the formation.  Four (4) ME-109's were seen following A/C, but not attacking it.  A/C was last seen over Laaland heading in direction of Sweden under control.

Russell Grower (TG):  "Three ME-109's came in at six o'clock.  I called over my interphone saying three times, 'Enemy fighters six o'clock!'  Then I started firing at the one in the middle.  I saw smoke pouring out of his engine then all of a sudden I saw him burst into a mass of flames and explode.  Then a second later, I was blown out of the tail turret by direct hits of 20MM from other two fighters.  I looked up and saw my left waist gunner grab his knee - my hands were bleeding and I reached for my 'chute [and the] bomb bay was on fire.  I pulled my 'chute handle by mistake and the 'chute spilled over in back of the camera hatch.  I helped open hatch, scraped 'chute together in my arms, said a prayer and jumped.  ME-109's tried to dive on me and spill my 'chute, but P-47's went after them.  I saw three more 'chutes come out of our ship which proved to be ball gunner, left waist gunner, and radio operator."

James Davies (N):  "Upon our capture by the Germans on April 9, 1944, we were taken immediately to a civilian jail.  We were not told the name of the village so cannot give any definite information in that respect.  However, the next day we were loaded into a German military truck, which contained all of our paraphernalia - parachutes, escape kits, etc.  In this truck there were three coffins.  One was evidently that of a German as it was draped with the Nazi flag.  The other two were wooden affairs upon which were written the names of our two crew members - Joseph Stroup and Tommie [sic] Glass.  We were taken to the town of Lingen at which place the bombardier was removed to a German hospital and the two coffins were placed in what seemed to me to be the equivalent of an undertaker's parlor in our country.  The remaining seven of the crew went on to Frankfurt."