2nd Lt William Leroy Lauten, navigator of the B-24 Liberator 42-109830 “Daisy Mae Scraggs”, took off from station 125 Bungay, Suffolk, UK on a bombing mission over Granville. The aircraft’s engines were in need of maintenance and its crew was “flak happy” and replete with officers who had never met. The weather also conspired against them, enabling only seven bombers to fly to the secondary target, Granville, as the primary was obstructed by clouds. Turning off the bomb run over Granville, they came under attack by Me-109s. The plane’s flight deck caught fire. With no one to put it out and the fire spreading to the bomb bay, the pilot ordered the crew to bail out but stayed on to level the plane off. Lauten jumped into the sea and was rescued by locals from the island who sheltered him along with four of his crew members. A German patrol found them the next day. He was sent to Stalag Luft 1 in Barth-Vogelsang.