Things went well until entering Zone 5. An enemy fighter, ME-110, attacked us. It was spotted though and Coleman Bayer managed to damage it. We did see some firing from the enemy but nothing seemed to do any damage.
As we continued our mission we were jumped by another enemy fighter. This time though they fired first. We took damage to our starboard wing flap, it appeared to be inoperable, a hit on our tailplane root, damage to the port tail ammo box, as well as a couple of superficial hits.
The enemy swung around again and fired. A fire started in the starboard fuel tank. We attempted to extinguish it but it did not work. Fortunately the plane was under control as we bailed out.
Grant, Tompkins, Albertson, and I all landed within sight of each other. We saw one chute in the distance but no sight of the others. I was the last to jump so I know they got out but the wind must have taken them.
As we ditched the chutes we headed in the direction of the other chute. We knew we were in France and were hoping to be able to gather everyone together and make it back to England.
Obviously the fighter had contacted ground forces because as we moved toward where we thought they had landed we heard vehicles. Figuring the French populace would not be out at this hour in any type of vehicle we broke off moving in that direction and proceeded to head towards the coast.
We eventually were able to find some friendly civilians who were able to help us make it back to friendly lines.
Note — Sources report that the remaining members of the crew were captured and are now in a POW camp.