XX-51302

On April 5, 1945, bad weather scattered the formation en route to the marshalling yards at Bayreuth, and Lieutenant James R. Sample's 328th Squadron aircraft was flying alone during the withdrawal over the Dutch coast when it came under heavy automatic anti-aircraft fire. A nearby crew, flying home separately under the same conditions, watched Sample's aircraft get boxed in by the flak and begin a steep evasive bank to the left. The engineer aboard that ship reported that Sample's aircraft completed a full 180-degree turn and ended up flying inverted. Sample and seven of the eight men aboard were killed; waist-gunner Richard M. Sandberg was not listed among the dead, suggesting he alone survived. It was the last 93rd crew lost to German ground defenses in the war.