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B-17 number 571, and this time the 305th Bomb Group struck the railroad yards at Siegberg, Germany. At twenty-seven thousand five hundred feet, it was even colder than the first mission. Flak was light again, but still the enemy ground gunners managed to hit Jerry Chart’s bomber. Tony had a front-row seat for the incident.
    A flak burst sent a piece of shrapnel through the B-17’s nose, and the fragment hit the toggler, John Stiles. The force of it knocked him backward, and as Stiles slammed into Tony, both men toppled onto the floor.
    At first look, Tony thought his friend was dead. Stiles was not moving. His eyes were closed and his body was limp. When Tony could not find any trace of blood on Stiles’ flight suit clothing, he realized what had happened. The shrapnel had hit Stiles in the chest, and the toggler’s flak vest had saved his life. Soon he regained consciousness, badly bruised but okay.
    The toggler had done his job before getting hit, releasing eighteen two-hundred-pound bombs over the target. The flak damage to the B-17s nose was only slight, but the sound of wind whistling through the hole on the return trip reminded Teta and Stiles that they were in a dangerous business.
    Seven and a half hours after they had taken off, Jerry Chart’s crew was back on the ground at Chelveston. After interrogation,
Tony tried to get a nap but found it difficult to sleep. The scene with Stiles kept going through his mind. Flak! It was the wild card in this game. Unpredictable, like the single bullet in a game of Russian roulette.
    There must be some precaution a guy can take to lengthen the odds a little.
    Tony tossed beneath his blanket and considered the problem for a while without any revelations. Finally, one of the guys suggested they head into town and find a pub. Tony gave up trying to sleep and went along. By the time he returned to the barracks late that evening his mood was considerably better, and sleep came quickly. It was a short sleep.
    Early the next morning, Chart’s crew was up and off aboard B-17 number 555 on a mission to Bullay, Germany. The target was a nine-hundred-sixty-foot bridge over the Mosel River. It was the only bridge between Cologne and Frankfurt, and it was extremely important to the Germans in getting supplies to the western front. Tony expected it would be strongly defended but was pleasantly surprised when the group encountered no flak or enemy fighters. During interrogation, Tony heard tail gunner John Cuffman describe it as “an extremely easy mission.” Since it was the first time in three missions they had not suffered some kind of flak damage, Tony had to agree.
    Still, Chart’s crew had been in the air for almost eight hours on the second of back-to-back missions, and they were exhausted. They all hoped for a little downtime. They got their wish and more. After the mission to Bullay, they would not fly again for six days.
     
     
     
    New Year’s Day of 1945 began with Tony and the other members of Jerome Chart’s crew starting to feel more a part of the 366th Bomb Squadron. With the completion of three missions
over Germany, the rookies were beginning to be accepted by the more seasoned members of the squadron. In fact, many of the new guys were becoming fast friends with the veterans, so it was shocking when tragedy struck the 305th on the very first day of the year.
    While Tony and the other members of the crew slept in after a late night of New Year’s celebrating, twelve other crews of the 305th were up early to join a mission to Magdeburg. Flying without fighter escort, the American bomber formation ran into a large group of German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters. In a desperate air battle, the B-17 gunners managed to shoot down seven of the enemy airplanes, but six Fortresses were also lost. Four of the destroyed B-17s were from the 305th (two aircraft from the 366th Squadron, one from the 364th and one from the 422nd). Twenty airmen from the 366th—twenty new