“Hot Freight”

Hot Freight was lost on March 18, 1943, during the 93rd's raid on the U-boat and shipbuilding works at Vegesack, one of the toughest missions the Circus had yet flown. Her pilot, Howard Kleinsteuber - a Milwaukee man nicknamed "Tarzan" for his devotion to exercise, despite a stubbornly German crewcut - was flying the diamond position of the lead element when a swarm of Me-110s pressed a frontal attack; cannon fire tore through the nose, and Hot Freight went down almost at once. Of the crew, all but one were later confirmed killed, including Kleinsteuber; the sole survivor, Sergeant Louis Webb, became a prisoner of war.