“Return Engagement / Hell N' Back”

B-24J serial 42-160336 (recorded as 42-100336 in some sources), nicknamed "Return Engagement" (with a large ring painted on the side), departed Hardwick on 11 September 1944 on a bombing mission to Radeburg, Germany.

The aircraft was lost to enemy anti-aircraft fire just after the target at approximately 1258 hours. Eyewitness Sgt. John F. Keener, flying as tail gunner on a nearby aircraft, reported that the ship was apparently hit in the gas tanks in the wing. The left wing was blown completely off and the tail section also broke off near the camera hatch position.

The aircraft burned in the center section before going up in a puff of black smoke and descending through 10/10 cloud cover approximately 500-1000 feet below. Two men were seen to bail out or were thrown out by the explosion, their parachutes not yet open when they passed through the clouds.

German records confirm the aircraft crashed at Vechtel, district Bersenbrueck, on 11 September 1944 at 1350 local time (Abschuss Nr. Kr. 2885). The wreckage was reported to the air base at Quakenbrueck. All nine crew members survived and were taken prisoner, processed through Dulag Luft on 23 September 1944.