On the 4th of October, Harvey flew his last mission. The gunners of Hey Moe had recently finished their missions and had departed for the states, so the gunners would all be "pick-ups" from the gunners pool. Harvey was delighted to find out that he would be flying as co-pilot for Charlie Trumper in a brand new B-24 SN: 42-78595.

Harvey was horrified to learn that the mission for the day was to bomb the marshalling yards at Munich, Germany.  He had been there once and didn't like the idea of hitting the heavily defended target today, especially on his last mission.  After the briefing, Harvey signed for 10 escape kits, and headed to the plane. Upon arrival he issued an escape kit to each member of the crew, helped Charlie check out the plane and got into his flight gear.

The flight was typical, take off, climb 25,000 feet, get on course, fly over the Adriatic Sea, the Alps, through Austria and into Germany. The flight path was planned to avoid most of the flak concentrations on the ground. Things went rather normal for a mission deep inside German territory,but there were no enemy fighters for the day. As they approached the target,  they could see the tell tale signs of flak: dirty brown puffs of smoke as the flak shells exploded in the air

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the words "bombs away" rang through Harvey's headset. The bomb bay doors were closed and they were in a turn when the aircraft suddenly staggered violently. The aircraft's tail pitched up and the whole plane started to fall off to the right. Luckily for the crew, they were flying on the right side of the formation and had room to maneuver to get back into position. The cockpit filled with dense white smoke and a frantic conversation began between Charlie and Harvey, were the flight controls all right? The engines seemed to be running normal.

The crew was told to check in, nothing was heard from the waist area back. The aircraft sustained more flak hits in the wings, engines and fuselage as they were coming off the target. After clearing the target area, the flight engineer was sent to the rear of the plane to see what was going on. A short while later the flight engineer returned and asked Harvey to assist him with an injured gunner. Harvey strapped on a portable oxygen bottle and headed to the rear, crossing the narrow cat walk in the bomb bay. There was no room for a chute on the cat walk, if they were hit now it would be all over.

Harvey was shocked by the devastation he saw as he passed the rear bomb bay bulkhead. The tail turret had be completely blown off, there were two wounded crew members laying on the floor. One was so severely wounded that he could only be made comfortable. The other had a walnut sized hole in the upper part of his leg and was groggy.  Miraculously the Ball Gunner was unharmed.

The tail gunner had not fallen out with his turret, somehow his arm had become entangled in the ammunition belt and he was swinging in the slipstream. When they approached him it was obvious that he was dead. Since it was impossible to pull the gunner back into the plane, it was decided to cut him loose and let his body fall into the Adriatic Sea rather than have him come loose and hit another plane in formation or be torn to shreds on landing.

Charlie set a course for the 15th's Headquarters at Foggia, Italy because there was an Army Hospital close by. During their approach a red flare was fired to signify there was wounded aboard. When the plane rolled to a stop, it was met by ambulances and medics. The wounded were taken to the hospital where the seriously wounded gunner died. The other crew member made a full recovery and was sent home.

The rest of the crew was sent back to Castelluccia where debriefing, with an ounce of mission whiskey, was short and to the point. It was over. No more missions for Harvey. The photo of 42-78595 at Foggia would appear in "Stars and Stripes."

42-78595 would be repaired to fly again. A new tail section was grafted on just aft of the waist windows. This is a testament to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the ground crews.