I the undersigned was flying with the 341st Bomb Squadron, 97th Bomb Group on mission 2 March 1945. On the target run Aircraft #849 received a direct hit by flak, in the number 4 engine. The aircraft left the formation and went below us, watching the plane I saw smoke coming from near the bomb bay. The tail section of the aircraft came off, and then the front part of the plane went into a spin. When the plane went into a spin, their [sic] was a secondary explosion, and the wings came off the airplane. I saw 6 chutes come out of the aircraft and open up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1Lt. John C. Schilling, Sr.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I the undersigned was flying with the 341st Bomb Squadron, 97th Bomb Group on mission 2 March 1945, to Linz Austria. After making the bomb run that day, I heard one of the men in the aircraft I was flying with, mention about chutes being seen coming from one of our aircraft that was in trouble. Sgt. Donald A. Gonnella<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Source: MACR 12812<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Delivered Lincoln 27\/11\/44; Grenier 15\/12\/44; Assigned 341BS\/97BG Amendola 11\/1\/45; Missing in Action Linz 2\/3\/45 with 1Lt William J Gray Jr, 1Lt Joseph L Thomas Jr, 2Lt Irvin S Taylor, 1Lt Herbert D Bartels, T\/Sgt Donald G Bailey, T\/Sgt Donald W Carley, S\/Sgt Louis D Persons, S\/Sgt Louis H Berwick, S\/Sgt Norbert H Moran, S\/Sgt James M Earle, Joseph A Conway; 11 POW; flak, crashed Linz; MACR 12812.","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"airplane-status":[135],"status-date":[490],"status-day":[1854],"status-month":[1872],"status-year":[1844],"production-block":[110],"manufacturer":[131],"delivered":[1824],"project-number":[],"bomb-group":[294],"bomb-squadron":[318],"raf-service":[],"b17tags":[],"class_list":["post-15239","b17database","type-b17database","status-publish","hentry","airplane-status-lost-by-aa-flak","status-date-02-03-1945","status-day-1854","status-month-march","status-year-1844","production-block-b-17g-65-dl-44-6751-44-6875","manufacturer-douglas","delivered-lincoln","bomb-group-97th-bomb-group","bomb-squadron-341st-bomb-squadron"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.0","language":"en","enabled_languages":["de","en"],"languages":{"de":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/b17database\/15239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/b17database"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/b17database"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"airplane-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/airplane-status?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"status-date","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/status-date?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"status-day","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/status-day?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"status-month","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/status-month?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"status-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/status-year?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"production-block","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/production-block?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/manufacturer?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"delivered","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/delivered?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"project-number","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project-number?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"bomb-group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bomb-group?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"bomb-squadron","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bomb-squadron?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"raf-service","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/raf-service?post=15239"},{"taxonomy":"b17tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/b17flyingfortress.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/b17tags?post=15239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Their [sic] was a break in the overcast below us, and I counted 7 chutes thru the overcast, and all were opened. That is all I saw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n