1st Lt Neil G. Bartholome was the co-pilot of the B-26 Marauder 42-96199 when it took off from station 162 Chipping Ongar, Essex UK on a mission to bomb Chartres’ airfield. Around 1755, just as the plane, part of the first bombing group, was starting its run, a flak barrage scored a direct hit on the No.2 engine. The latter plummeted free of the aircraft and landed near the town church. The plane itself went into a slow dive. The pilot dropped both 900 kg bombs in order to free the bay door for a potential bail out. The rest of the group thought it to be the attack signal and dropped theirs as well. The damage caused was enormous, killing about 50 civilians and setting the town library on fire. However, only half the crew had time to don their parachutes before the aircraft plummeted to the ground. Lt Bartholome hid in some hay until French citizens wisked him away to the Picourt underground network through subterfuge and acting (one young lady pretended to be the Lieutenant’s passionate girlfriend to get through a checkpoint). However, the network was infiltrated by Jacques Desoubrie, a Gestapo agent, who handed Lt Bartholome and Sgt Owens over to the Gestapo in Paris. The former was sent to Stalag Luft II in Barth, from which he was freed only at the end of the war, in May of 1944.