SSgt Harry L. Minor, right waist gunner of the B-17 42-29876 “Battlin’ Bobbie” (named after the pilot’s wife), took off from station 117 Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, UK at 1030 on a bombing mission over Nantes. However, perhaps due to the high volume of radio chatter they had to use due to overcast conditions on their way to the target area, German fighters intercepted them at 1500. While not concentrating their fire on the “Battlin’ Bobbie”, the fighters did score some hits on their left wing, setting it on fire. Rockets took out No. 1 and 2 engines. The pilot decided to pull out of formation to the right and ordered the crew to bail out, struggling to keep the plane steady as the AFCE was out. Minor jumped at 20000 feet but delayed until the clouds at 3000 feet. However, his feet were in front of him as he opened his chute and the subsequent shock dislocated vertebrae. He landed in the forest, his chute getting caught in the trees and softening his landing. A Frenchman and some women showed up and introduced him to the term “Boche”. They gathered up his gear and went deeper into the woods. They waited there, giving Minor some food. They went to a farmhouse, removing their shoes to sneak past the nearby Germans. There, Minor got a massage for his back and was hidden in a compartment in a haystack, after being told his comrades were nearby. During the night, he gathered all the gear strewn about by the French and hid it there as well. In the morning he talked unsuccessfully about moving on. The locals kept him in the hay stack until September 19th until two men spirited him to another farmhouse with two other Americans. There, so many people came to drink cider with them they brought it to the attention of the two men. As a test, a complete stranger walked up and asked the farmer where he could find the Americans. He said “Oh, I’m too busy to take you, but you can find them yourself in that little house over there”. After being moved, they escaped back to the UK on MGB boat 503, arriving back on February 27th 1944. Minor’s full E&E report can be read at http://media.nara.gov/nw/305270/EE-421.pdf.