“Red Ass”

Red Ass was piloted by Lt. Jake Epting, with navigator Lt. Edward Weir and bombardier Lt. Albert Naum among the crew. Returning from the St. Nazaire mission on November 17, 1942, all four engines briefly cut out; while Epting worked to restart them, the bail-out alarm was accidentally triggered, and Naum and Weir jumped before the aircraft was brought home safely. Naum was found afterward calmly smoking a cigarette after being freed from a tree by a local farmer, and both men spent the night at an English inn before being retrieved the next day.

On February 25, 1943, returning to England from North Africa low on fuel, Red Ass made an emergency night landing near Melilla in Spanish Morocco with eleven others aboard; no one was hurt, and navigator Edward Weir later recalled that Epting brought the aircraft down 'with scarcely a jolt.' Naum destroyed the Norden bombsight with his boot even as Moorish soldiers surrounded the aircraft. The crew and passengers, including gunner Ben Kuroki, were interned by Spanish authorities, held first near the coast and later at a resort hotel in Alhama de Aragon alongside other Allied evaders. Kuroki attempted an escape disguised as a local civilian but was caught by gendarmes and returned unharmed after two days.

The aircraft's tail assembly was badly twisted during a later aborted takeoff attempt and required weeks of repair. Red Ass was ultimately absorbed into Spanish military service, later seen on the Madrid airfield flying under Spanish markings while still bearing its original nose art, a detail that reportedly stayed with Epting's crew for the rest of their lives.