“All the planes from Horsham St. Faith that day were B-24s, designated as “heavies.” The darkness lifted by 4:30 a.m., and a partly cloudy morning shone through for take-off. By 7:32. a.m. the lead bomber of the 96th Combat Wing moved out. The hulking “Rhapsody in Junk” waited to swing around off the tarmac and onto the runway. …Up in the cockpit, the pilot, Northrop understood the futility of their plight. He put the nose wheel down to surrender to the Germans, but beneath the smokescreen, they kept firing. Once down, he could not get the wheel back up, and it blocked the exit through the nose wheel hatch. He hit the bail out bell just outside the flak area. With just eighteen combat hours, the crew’s wings  ...