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The Navigator, 1st Lt. Carl V. Nielsen joined the US Air Force in 1942 and was temporary on this mission.  His original crew (Robert Moreman’s crew) was the ”Queenie-crew”, because the name of their aircraft was ”Queen of hearts”.  With his crew, he flew 16 missions.  He flew another 8 missions with other pilots.  This was the only mission he flew with Walker’s crew.  Nielsen remembered that 1st Lt. Lewis Walker wore insignia indicating that he had flown for the British RAF prior to flying for the 303rd.  Actually, on that day, Liberty Run wasn’t flying with it’s own unit, but as part of a composite group made up mostly of the 384th Bomber Group flying out of Grafton-Underwood, England.  The target was the Leuna synthetic oil plant near Merseburg, Germany.  The bombers were protected by their “Little Friends”.  These were groups of P-51 Mustang fighter planes. “Liberty Run” was flying “Lead”, “High Group”, and “High Squadron” in the formation at 28,000 feet.  492 flak cannons in the Merseburg area, and 130 fighter planes of the German Luftwaffe from several bases were waiting for them. “Liberty Run” was on a heading of 330 degrees into a strong wind with no clouds.  Their wingmen were planes of the 384th.  On the way, they encountered a lot of flak.  Suddenly, the plane to their left blew up.  Ironically, and miraculously, that plane’s pilot, a man by the name of Canyon would end up in the same German prison camp as the “Liberty Run’s” navigator, Carl V. Nielsen.  Other planes were also hit. Flak fire was heavy and precise. Suddenly, shells hit ”Liberty Run”.

According to the official American report: “... B-17 G “Liberty Run” was hit by flak over Merseburg. One propeller was seen to be feathered, and then the aircraft caught fire, pulled off to the right and then went into a vertical dive, apparently out of control. The aircraft was last seen at 11:18 at 27,000 feet...”

Another document reports: ”... the aircraft was hit by antiaircraft fire over Merseburg/Germany, one engine was feathered, and that when last seen it was completely enveloped in flames and was in a vertical dive out of control...” According to Nielsen, the #3 engine caught fire.

The 26-year-old pilot, 1st Lt. Lewis M. Walker and his also 26-year-old co-pilot 2nd Lt. Joseph J. Doyle, put the plane into a steep dive in an attempt to extinguish the flames on the engine. The plane dove a minimum of 3,000–4,000 feet before the flames went out.

At 11:18, no one of the crew would know that everything would be over in 50 minutes.