Mike Anthony Perrotta was born on 4 June 1921. He enlisted in the USAAF in Erie, Pennsylvania on 17 July 1942. He became an air gunner, stationed with the 91st Bomb Group (H). He was the ball turret gunner on Lt. Keene C. McCammon’s crew, flying the B17 41-24399 'MAN-O-WAR' out of Bassingbourn.

On July 30, 1943, Lt. McCammon’s crew participated in a bombing mission to Kassel. In this ‘maximum effort’ mission, 186 bombers bombed the Messerschmidt plants near this city in central Germany. It was the crew’s first mission.

The outbound leg, to the target, proved uneventful. The formation did not meet with the Luftwaffe. The weather was excellent, and the target was found without difficulty. It was subsequently bombed with good results.

On the way back to Bassingbourn, their luck turned. They were intercepted and attacked by FW190 fighters of JG26. A fierce fight ensued during which the ‘MAN-O-WAR’ and a second B17 (‘Yankee Dandy’, commanded by 1Lt. Robert M. Miles) were forced to leave the relatively protective realm of the bomber formation. The ‘Man-O-War’ was last seen leaving the formation, burning from under the wings with both inboard (no. 2 & 3) engines out and going into a dive. The German fighters pressed home their attacks on the ‘straggler’. After fierce fighting from both sides, Lt. Johannes Neumann, a leading fighter pilot with JG26, finally claimed the ‘MAN-O-WAR’ 5 kilometers south of Est, close to Opijnen. The entire crew of ten bailed out, but were strafed by German fighters while under parachute. Eight of the ten crew were killed, while the remaining two were captured by German forces on the ground and taken to a POW camp. The eight aircrew members killed are buried in Opijnen and their graves are maintained by the village residents to this day.