MR. SMITH GOES TO WAR PERFORMANCE OF A LIFETIME

He sat in the half-empty combat mess one night, eating alone, the tension within him mounting painfully. The mess was half-empty because 13 crews had failed to return from the day’s mission to Gotha, Germany, during which [enemy fighter planes] had knocked the hell out of the B-24s in a desperately fought 2½-hour air battle.

Jimmy was scheduled to lead the group to Nuremberg, over the same bloody route,