14 Oct 1943	Breuer and Chichester crash landed near Mareuil en Brie (40 kms SW of Reims). They spent 2 nights sleeping rough.
16 Oct 1943	At La Chapelle sous Orbais (5 kms S of Mareuil en Brie) sheltered by the Huot family. Guilbert,the son, went to Paris for identity cards. Suzanne Quinet, Guilbert's aunt, came to see them; she was in touch with an Irish girl, who would arrange things. They stayed until ...
8 Nov 1943	Raymonde Beuré came and took them by bicycle to Mme. Rinette le Gras in Epernay (~25 kms NE of La Chapelle sous Orbais) and then by train to Reims. They stopped at a house where two Americans were staying, then on to André & Berthe Aubert's where they stayed until ...
14 Nov 1943	Raymonde Beuré took them to Paris and turned them over to Edgard Potier who took them to an apartment in Chateaurouge (Suzanne Bastin's).
15 Nov 1943	Potier returned with two girls, Monique de Briey & Mlle. de Guitant, who took them to the railway station. A man took them by train to Chauny. Georges, a Belgian, (Georges d'Oultrement) took them, by van, to a house.
16 Nov 1943	Potier arrived with Sgts. Murray & Maddox (USAAF) and Johnson (RAF). At 2045, after Georges had listened for a message over the wireless, they went to a large factory 1000 yards away. At 2330 they went to a field a mile away.
17 Nov 1943	At 0215 they heard two planes approach. First plane landed & took Johnson, Breuer and Maddox aboard & left. Then the second plane came in, and Chichester, Murray and Potier boarded it. They were met in UK by Maj. Langley.

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[Note: these pages, except for Appendix C, were OCRd and then edited]

NARA:E&E/204
(joint report with Stanley Chichester - NARA:E&E/205)

Members of crew

Pilot	0-798452	2nd Lt Roy G DAVIDSON, Jr	MIA
Co-pilot	0-681334	2nd Lt Stanley R CHICHESTER	NARA:E&E/205
Navigator	0-803455	2nd Lt Alden L FAUDIE	MIA
Bombardier	0-673854	2nd Lt Charles BREUER	NARA:E&E/204 - narrator
Radio operator	16095608	T/Sgt Louis C KOTH	MIA
Top turret gunner	20758568	S/Sgt Fred C KRUEGER	MIA
Ball turret gunner	34035784	S/Sgt Carl Frederick GIBSON	MIA
Waist gunner	12198624	S/Sgt Arthur F HOWELL	MIA
Waist gunner	36259998	S/Sgt Claude W PAGE	MIA
Tail gunner	32592169	S/Sgt Richard H MUNGENAST	MIA

On the way to SCHWEINFURT, 14 October 1943, our formation was attacked as soon as we got over Germany. We were not damaged in the first attacks although our armor-plating near the left waist-gunner stopped one of the rocket shells. Three-quarters of the way to the target our ball-turret guns failed, followed a few minutes later by the tail guns. These were technical failures and not due to enemy action.
We dropped our bombs and started home in formation. During the next concentrated attack by FW's our aircraft was badly shot up. The tail-gunner was wounded in the side and the ball-turret operator had an injured leg. Lt DAVIDSON called the waist-gunners and told them to render first aid to the tail-gunner who went unaided into the radio room. The tail gunner called back to say that the radio operator and waist gunners had baled out over Germany, and that the ball-turret gunner was also badly wounded.
Number three 'prop' ran away and was feathered. The elevator controls were shot up. We had fallen behind formation so we decided to dive for cloud cover. The clouds turned out to be more of a thick haze than anything else. We went on down to deck to dodge the fighter which had followed us. The upper-turret and nose guns were the only ones firing. Number one engine was hit and feathered. Then we decided to crashland. The navigator, who had been busy firing, thought we were over France. The 'IFF' and 'G3E' equipment was destroyed and. everyone went into the radio room to take crashland positions.
We came down in a field and the aircraft plowed about thirty feet into the woods. Lt DAVIDSON and I (Lt CHICHESTER) started to the rear but the engineer said we couldn't get out that way. The aircraft was on fire so we tried to chop a hole to crawl through. Finally the engineer got the door into radio room open. The navigator and Lt BREUER had carried Sgt GIBSON out and administered morphine. Everyone got out of the plane safely.
The engineer ran into the woods alone, followed by the navigator, pilot and tail-gunner. While we (Lt CHICHESTER and Lt BREUER) were trying to make the ball-turret operator comfortable an ME109 buzzed us. It had radar equipment in the nose and while it was circling us, we ran into the wood, got out our compass and started south. It had taken us about five minutes to get out of the plane, help Sgt GIBSON and get into the wood.. As soon as we had discarded our flying clothing we set a fast pace through the wood, avoiding all paths and clearings. We moved as quietly as possible and in half an hour came to a small lake surrounded by open fields.
Rather than go into the open we decided to stay in the edge of the wood overnight. We opened our Aids Boxes and examined them; then got out the maps to see if we could locate our position. We weren't sure that we had gotten into France although the navigator had been confident.
After dark we crawled into the high grass by the lake and tried, to sleep, the ground was damp, wet and cold and we wished we had kept our flying clothing. We soon gave up trying to sleep and started walking south. For a. short distance we kept in the shadow of the wood but soon had to get into the open. Because of bright moonlight we followed a. winding course and lines of trees so we couldn't be seen from a distance.
Once we crossed a stream and stopped to fill our water bottles, We took banzadrine tablets here and found that they helped relieve our fatigue. Eventually we got into another wood but after stumbling around in the dark decided to look for a haystack or barn. An hour later we found a farmhouse. After circling it several times we failed to find the barn or a haystack so we went into the yard. The barn was attached to the house and when we opened the door it fell off and made enough noise to awaken any one in the house had there been people living there. We crawled into the hay and did get some sleep though we were much too cold and some nervous.
We stayed in the barn the rest of the night and all day. Occasionally we heard voices but not very close to us and although we thought the house deserted we didn't investigate. There were some apples in the barn and we ate Horlick's tablets though we were not very hungry. One of us had a hole in a sock and used the needle and thread from the aid Box to mend it.
We stayed in this barn for two days and a night. At 0200 hours the second day we went in search of water and discovered that our barn was on the edge of a small village. We found a well but were afraid to use it because of the noise. However our search turned up nothing else so we returned to the well, tied our water bottles to the rope and lowered them into the water. We made plenty of noise but got back to our barn without arousing anyone in the village. During the second day we heard children playing near us and although we thought, the language sounded French they were too far off for their words to be clearly distinguished. A little later a woman passed near the barn speaking loudly in French and that decided us about starting our trip. We left about 2030 hours walking south with the idea of looking for help.
On this night the weather was cloudy so we got onto a road. We were stiff and sore and in the dark made very slow progress. Once, at a crossroads we chose a road leading west rather than southeast because we didn't know how far, if at all, we were into France. We came to a farmhouse with a lighted window and thought of going in to ask for help. We sneaked beneath the window and heard several men inside talking. There were more voices in the room than we wanted to meet at once and because there was a radio antennae on the house (S-2 had warned us not to go to houses like this) we walked on.
The moon came out about the time we reached a main road but fortunately the road was tree-lined. We were passing several farms and decided to find help because we were exhausted. At the first house a dog barked and we avoided going in there. While we were moving to the second house a man on a bicycle passed us. He was pedalling rapidly and as soon as he got up to us we saw that he was masked. (Later we learned that black market operators often travel like this) We called out, "Ami, ami" but the cyclist did not stop or slow down.
We circled then to the rear of the house where we were going to ask for help, and watched a woman working in the kitchen. We started to the barn to look for hay and then changed our minds and went to the door of the house and knocked. The woman came to the door and seemed very frightened. We wanted to be sure, first, that we were in France and asked "France?" We kept repeating this but she seemed puzzled so Lt BREUER said, 'Je suis americain aviateur, "
She pulled us inside the house immediately and ran upstairs to get another member of the family. Questions were asked us and we produced everything we had which would help prove our identity. We lived in this house until 8 November while our journey was arranged for us.

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[Note: this page was copied from a handwritten Appendix C]

Lts Breuer and Chichester were members of a crew which crash-landed near MAREUIL EN BRIE (18 kms SW of EPERNAY) on 14 October 1943. At LA CHAPELLE SUR ORBAIS (5kms S of MAREUIL EN BRIE) they were taken in by ODETTE HUOT, her father, and her brother, GILBERT. GILBERT went to PARIS for identity cards and returned with a note in English from his aunt, SUZANNE QUINET. SUZANNE came to see Breuer and Chichester on 2 November and stayed until 5 November. She said that she was in touch with an Irish girl who had handled such matters before and that the two Americans must be patient. On 8 Nov. Mlle. RAYMONDE BEURE (22 years old) came and took them on bicycles to EPERNAY to the home of ODETTE’s sister, Mme. RINETTE LE GRAS. Mme. LE GRAS took them to the railway station and bought tickets for them. Mlle. RAYMONDE then took them to RHEIMS, stopped at a house where two Americans were staying, and then accompanied by two girls took them to the house of M. and Mme. ANDRE AUBERT, 28 RUE VICTOR ROGELET. There they remained until 14 November. On 13 November a short, swarthy French-Canadian who had a scar on one cheek told them that Mlle. RAYMONDE would call for them the next day. On 14 November she took them to PARIS and turned them over to CAPT. MARTIN who took them to an apartment in CHATEAUROUGE. The next afternoon CAPT. MARTIN returned with two girls whom Breuer and Chichester followed to a railway station. Thence a man took them by train to CHAUNY. There GEORGES, a Belgian, picked them up in a camionette and took them to a house where he stayed with them. The next day CAPT. MARTIN arrived with Sgts. Murray and Maddox of the USAAF and Johnson of the RAF. At 2045 hrs., after GEORGES had listened for a message over the wireless, they went to a large factory 1000 yards away. At 2330 they went to a field a mile away. At 0215 they heard two planes approach. One plane landed, took the RAF man, Breuer and Maddox aboard and left. Then the second plane came in, and Chichester, Murray and CAPT. MARTIN boarded it. They were met in U.K. by Maj. Langley.