Hi Fans! Yes, I am closing in on the end of the book. It's well into Ray's 25 harrowing missions and the word count is just under 80,000 (about 320 paperback pages). We are talking to publishers and an editor at this point. So, here's another excerpt to wet your appetite.

It's an incident that happened to the 100th Bomb Group, which accompanied Ray's 486th Bomb Group on the same mission. Word spread quickly about it at the time and it's included in the book. We call it the "piggyback" incident. Scary stuff:

The 100th Bomb Group took the heaviest casualties that fateful day. Thirty-four of their planes went up. Only twenty-five returned. One particularly gruesome accident happened when a B-17 piloted by Glenn Rojohn and William Leek, Jr. watched seven of their ships go down in flames, the victims of a vicious attack from German Bf-109’s during their return flight. Rojohn maneuvered his ship into a gap that was left below him in the formation when a B-17 was shot down by the German fighters. At the same time, another ship, not visible to Rojohn and his crew had the same idea, ascending from below to fill the same opening. Rojohn’s ship pancaked into the ship below, crushing and killing most of its crew. The two B-17’s became locked together like Siamese twins in a death knell, three of the lower ship’s engines and props turning at full speed, one was feathered and burning. Rojohn’s propellers were bent and his engines and electrical system dead. They managed to keep the yoke pulled all the way back, riding the two ships down as if in a bizarre, aerial rodeo act. After getting the remaining crewmembers to bail out, Rojohn and Leek put their feet up on the instrument panel and pulled the yokes back to their stomachs with every bit of strength they could muster. The planes were falling fast, but they managed to ride them all the way to the ground where they belly flopped onto a field. The bottom plane exploded but Rojohn and Leek’s plane slid off, stopping only when it’s left wing careened into a headquarters building, obliterating it entirely. The two pilots suffered only minor injuries and were quickly taken prisoners of war by the Germans. While prisoners, they heard rumors circulating that the Americans had deployed an 8-engined bomber. It must have looked that way to anyone who witnessed the event from the ground.