Newspaper interview with Staff Sgt Charles B Lozenski about the 29/7/43 mission to Kiel "We bombed Kiel that day,"Lozenski said "On the way back whole bunches of Focke-Wulfs and Messerschmitts ganged up on us It was pretty fierce They knocked our bomber out of formation, And they were sure we were a dead duck A shell explosion came too close to me as I stood at a waist gun It tore my left arm and thigh open I managed to keep firing until someone yelled our tail gunner was gone We didn't know if he had fallen out or bailed out-anything could have happened "Tail gun is about the most important post in a scrap like that I figured the other waist gunner could take care of my position so I went up to the tail as best I could I got there all right, then laid into those fighters with every ounce of lead in the belt It was a regular slugging match All of us in the Fort were playing for time--staving off those attacks until the fighters ran out of gas We made it I guess we never cheered ,but we felt mighty thankful inside when we saw the last of those Nazis beating it for home They didn't have enough gas to stay with us Lozenski completed 24 such missions including raids on Schweinfurt Gdynia and Norway in addition to the Silver Star he wears the Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal and the Purple Heart Received Silver Star for this mission