SSGT JAMES WALTER WILEY

They had said the B24 plane could not fly with just one engine so our crew was selected to try an experiment mission. We went up to 19,000 feet and Byfield feathered the engines, one at a time, until we were flying with only one engine. Then we climbed a little higher to prove we could continue flying. We flew a long time with just that one engine. This became a reality while overseas. The night I was wounded we came in with one engine shot out, another engine stopped, and we landed with two engines and one of them sputtering.

Once while flying we got so close to a German plane that I could look the pilot in his blue eyes, but we couldn't shoot or both planes would have blown. If I had a fishing pole I could have touched his plane...that's how close we came to death that day. If one plane had veered we would all have been gone. Somehow he got into our formation. As soon as he saw a way out he took a nose dive and he was gone. Thank you God for your protection.