Things went smoothly until we hit the target area. We were surprised by a 110 and it ripped us up badly. Both our pilot and mid-upper gunner were hit badly. Besides that there was damage to the heat and oxygen system of our mid-upper gunner and damage to the tail guns.
Then the flak got us. They nailed the fuel tank which developed a slow leak. We only hoped that we would be able to make it out of enemy territory.
With all of the damage we had endured we dropped the bombs but not sure if we hit anything. We turned for home but had to descend due to the oxygen and heat being out.
We were fortunate that we were able to make it back without being attacked by any other enemy fighters. We were hit by a flak burst that took out the nose gun.
We were able to stretch out our fuel supply and make it to water. There we ditched and were picked up by a friendly ship. We were later told that we had lost Bernard, who had succumbed to his wounds. It also looks like our pilot we will be out of the show for a while due to his.