rtrapasso
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Joined: 9/3/2002
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OK - 2 got out:
same pic and another as below at
http://www.flightjournal.com/articles/b-26/b-26_2.asp
"Lt. Ladd Horn was piloting the plane on Five-Zero's left wing. "There was a cluster of four 88mm shells," Ladd says, "and two of them straddled their plane. One burst sheared their right engine completely off its mounting, and the second one blew a large hole in the left side of their fuselage. They held steady for just a moment and then rolled upside-down and began to spin." Cameraman Sgt. Peter Holmes was in the Marauder on Five-Zero's right wing and was aiming a hand-held camera down through the waist window to record the bomb strike when the stricken aircraft flew right into the frame. It was the first aerial photo he had ever taken.
"The blast knocked me out of the turret, and when I found my chest pack, some of the silk was hanging out and the ripcord had been shot off, but I snapped it on," Moscovis says. By now, the plane was spinning down out of control and was completely engulfed by the billowing flames. The fuselage skin was too hot to touch.
Sgt. Peter Holmes took a second picture of the doomed aircraft as it spun down, now enveloped in flames from nose to tail.
"I started crawling back toward the tail to the waist window, when I saw McCluskey pinned under a bunch of flak suits. They were really heavy because of the G-forces, but I dragged the suits off him and got him to the waist window.
There was no gun mounted in the left window, and I helped him go out, head first. We were really low by then, and I knew I had to get out. I squeezed out the waist window, and that's the last thing I remember." As he floated down, McCluskey watched the Marauder below him and saw it hit and explode. He did not see another chute, and he was sure his friend George had been killed along with the rest of the crew.
German soldiers still occupied Toulon, and they found what appeared to be the lifeless body of Sgt. George Moscovis. They stripped him of his dog tags, his watch, an escape kit with $40 in francs and the Bible he had carried on every mission. Then they ordered some French civilians to get rid of the body. The Frenchmen carried Moscovis to a small shed and laid him on a table, naked and covered only by a towel; they began to make a crude casket out of ammunition boxes, and by the time they had finished, it was almost dark. As they eased the body from the table into the coffin, George Moscovis regained consciousness. "They all started to kiss me," Moscovis says. "Then they all began to cry. Then, dammed, if I didn't cry, too."
Germans were still everywhere in the city, and for several days the French Underground risked their lives to protect Moscovis and get him medical help. "About four days later, these free French had got me to a hospital, and they said they had a surprise for me," Moscovis recalls. "Into my room walked Bob McCluskey. I couldn't believe it and neither could he. We both cried like babies; each of us had thought the other was dead."
Allied troops took over Toulon soon afterward, and Moscovis was flown to a hospital in Naples. In addition to the broken ankle the French had put in a cast, he had broken his right elbow and injured his back. He walked with a cane, but he still managed to visit his buddies in the 95th on Sardinia before he was shipped back to the States. "They gave me an MIA box with all my personal belongings. I had been listed as missing in action, and they were going to send the box to my parents.""
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< Message edited by rtrapasso -- 6/19/2006 8:41:41 PM >
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