Shot down 24 April 1944 in B-17 #42-31172 'Miss Patricia'. Landed in Switzerland. Interned (INT). The plane was first hit as Strasbourg by fighters, but continued on, following Stolz's plane as it attempted to get away from the group, and was then hit again by fighters. By this time the number 2 engine was out and the prop was windmilling. The pilot could get only 12-15 inches of manifold pressure on his badly vibrating number 3 engine. Schwedok's plane could not keep up and the bombs were salvoed while the plane was descending. While some crew members may have thought about returning to England, they were barely able to ake it to Switzerland where they landed at Dubendorf and all were interned for the duration.

1 Oct 1944, the bombardier, 2nd Lt. Howard Hunter and I were caught attempting to cross the Swiss Border. Our punishment was swift, we were sent to a place called Wauwilermoos in Lucerne, 50 miles from the German border. In late February 1945 Gambaiana and 2nd Lt. Howard O. Hunter Jr. , Bombardier, made their way out of Switzerland on an exhange and came back to England. They then visited Thurleigh and reported on the fate of their plane in this disastrous mission. 70 yars later in Oct 2013 The acting Secretary of the Air Force authorized the POW medal for all 143 Army Air Corps Airmen that were held in the Wauwilermoos prison. Paul who is now 92 year old was invited to attend a POW ceremony on April 30, 2014, at the Pentagon, Washington DC. The Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III presented the Prisoner of War Medal to 1st Lt. Paul Gambaiana and eight other living aviators, all bomber crew members, who were held at Wauwilermoos.



Flew on Irwin Schwedok crew.