My father, who will be 94 years old in April 2016, was lead navigator in a B-17, flying missions over Germany out of RAF Glatton. He has many amazing memories of the war, but probably the most terrifying one is of his aircraft being involved in a mid-air collision with another B-17 while flying in formation (I believe returning from a mission). The other plane spiraled into the North Sea, and everyone perished. (My father always mentions that the pilot was 19 years old.) My father's aircraft was badly damaged, and the crew were preparing to bail out into the North Sea, but they discovered that the ball turret gunner was severely injured, so they decided to attempt to get back to England. They did so, found an airstrip, and crash landed. The entire crew survived. Lt Ashton B Geren flew 30 missions in both the 748th and 749th Bomb Squadrons.