Peter Klinke, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Unidentified, August 21, 2005: Saving the Legacy tape no. 733 & 744

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PETERKLI KE 21 2005 PK: ... w had a wing on fire. Well at first they had th wing n fir and n ngm out and the pilot managed to keep flying with that one engine. But th co-pilot and th bombardier bailed out. UNI: This is over enemy territory, right? PK: Forty miles behind German lines in Italy. Italy had already quit the war at that time. They had capitulated. But then the waist gunner hollered on the intercom that he'd been hit and he was bleeding badly. He took a piece of flack right above one ear and just cut the skin, but he was bleeding badly so the tail gunner came up to bandage him up. They both had their headsets off. I still had mine on and I heard the pilot say bail out. Well, I turned to these two guys and they said, "No, the plane's still flying. We're not going to bail out." So I called the pilot back on the intercom and he said, "Well, the fire's dying down. You come up and help me fly the plane. We'll see ifwe can get back to friendly territory." Well just then we got another burst of anti-aircraft, knocked out the other engine and hit that wing, the wing fire started up more. So then the pilot said to get out of this before it blows up. I looked down and the tail gunner was setting, he had a little window about two feet square that we could, that in the back that we had to duck down and bail out of. He was setting in the window looking at me and I just pointed down and he rolled out. Well, the radio man sat down there, he had a seat pack. And when he rolled out, there was a ledge around this window frame so we could put a window in it when we weren't in combat. His chute caught in that ledge. He was hanging upside down outside the airplane with his chute caught. Just luckily I was still in the plane and I got his chute loose for him. UNI: What was it caught on? 22