1st Lt William C. Wetzel, pilot of the B-17 42-5053 "Bloody Tangier Show", took off from Chevelston, UK on a bombing mission to Château-Bougon’s airfield and bomber parts production plant for Heinkel. "Bloody Tangier Show" was one of the 62 planes assigned to this target. After having successfully dropped their bombs, the plane came under heavy AA fire and suffered a hit to its engine, causing it to lose altitude. Three Focke-Wulf fighters exploited their position and strafed the plane repeatedly. Wetzel gave the order to bail out at noon. The radioman and right waist gunner were already dead, and the left waist gunner, wounded in both legs, had to be pushed out by his comrades at 25000 feet. The plane crashed in Saint-Colomban during its religious service. The eight parachutists landed in Saint-Philbert-de-Grand-Lieu. Six of them were immediately taken prisoner, while Wetzel and his navigator found refuge in the nearby Villeda and Lottrye farms thanks to the generosity of the locals, some of whom were taken to the Lafayette prison in Nantes for three weeks. The two aviators escaped by the Spain-Gibraltar-Marrakech route through the French Resistance and returned to Chevelston, UK on September 8th, 1943. William died on May 26, 1982 at the age of 66 and is now buried in the Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia.