1st Lt Ralph McKee, navigator 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. The pilot 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 McKee and his pilot 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. McKee recounts how he landed in a wheat field with a fractured back from smashing into the ball turret before being taken to the farm by two locals on their bicycles. While passing through town, several German soldiers who had been watching the crash saw them pass by (McKee was wearing his decorated flight suit) and never lifted a finger. His full interview can be found at http://test.willoth.com/view/ralph-d-mckee/segment-1. The two aviators escaped by the Spain-Gibraltar-Marrakech route through the French Resistance and returned to Chevelston, UK on September 8th, 1943.