42-94814

On the February 21, 1945 mission to Nuremberg, Captain Edward McGuire's B-24 (G for George) caught three bursts of accurate 88-mm flak while still crossing the Channel toward the target. Shrapnel severed the hydraulic lines; after the bomb run over Nuremberg, one engine seized and another had to be shut down, and the crew lost their flaps. With no formation to rally on and the Channel far ahead, McGuire nursed the crippled Liberator down from 20,000 feet, guided home by an anonymous ground radio operator who talked him through heading corrections mile by mile. Engineer Cornelius Leach worked without a parachute in the bomb bay to stop a fuel leak and coax a bit of flap back. McGuire put the aircraft down at RAF Manston, using its unusually wide 10,000-foot runway, stopping just short of the end. He later called it 'the last in 814 (G for George).' The aircraft did not fly again.