SSgt James J. d’Amore, radio operator of the B-24 Liberator 42-100421 “Aphrodite’s Disciples”, took off from station 114 Hetel, Norfolk, UK at 0700 for a bombing mission over Bergerac along with 220 other aircraft escorted by P-37, P-47 and P-51s. The targets were the airfields of Mont-de-Marsan, Bordeaux-Merignac, Cognac/Chateaubernard, Bergerac, La Roche and Cayeux. However, the plane was harassed by German fighters, who set its No. 1 engine and wing on fire. The crew bailed out at 17000 feet around 1130, leaving the plane to crash in a fireball between St-Ferme and Dieulivol - 20 km NE of Marmande. Reports are conflicting. Some say d’Amore’s parachute never opened, plunging him to his death. Others, including the town locals, say he landed safely and tried to escape the surrounding Germans. However, a Nazi patrol caught him sneaking out of town. He was unarmed and hiding in a farm the patrol was “requisitioning” supplies from. D’Armor was not happy to see them, and they had a verbal altercation, at the end of which one of the Germans shot him in the back. He was 23.