Louis Loevsky was born March 8, 1920. Enlisted U.S. Army Air Corps, Dec. 26, 1941. Graduated Aviation Mechanic School, Keesler Field, Biloxi, Miss., and J3-26 Specialist School, Baltimore, MD. "Washed out!" ...pilot training, Corsicana, TX. Graduated Navigation School, Hondo, TX, .Nov. 1943. Joined 8th Air Force, 466th.Bomb Group, 786th Bomb Sqdn. Clovis, NM. Stationed at .Attlebridge, England. On March 22, 1944 the 466th Bomb Group flew its first mission to Berlin, Our B-24, "Terry and the Pirates" was hit by flak over Berlin and lost #1 engine. A mid-air collision ensued with "Terry" losing engines #2 and #3 and the "Brand" B-24 lost its tail, causing it to go into a tight spin. Because of the centrifugal force, only two of "Brand" crewmembers managed to get out of the aircraft. A waist gunner ripped open his chest pack chute and payed it out into the slipstream and it popped him out of the plane. About a year later after his 13 months POW incarceration, he ended his life by putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. The co-pilot, C. Wayne Beigel, had clawed his way to the bomb bay to bail out when the "Brand" aircraft exploded and blew him out. Len Smith, bombardier, was trapped in the "Terry" nose turret since the electrical and manual systems were rendered inoperable by the crash. Len had sustained substantial injury, and for me to extricate him was most difficult since he was in shock and kept removing his gloves (at -35F or below) and his oxygen mask (at 23, 500'). Putting his mask and gloves back on repeatedly while trying to spring a nose turret door, I finally got an arm around his chest and pulled him out. I then released our bombs in train. Thirteen of 20 crew members were KIA. Five from "Terry" and eight from "Brand". After assisting Len to Bail out, our pilot, "Bill" Terry yelled, "Hey, Lou . . . Wait for me!” I waited until he left the flight deck, then I bailed out through the bomb bay. Distrusting the Germans, I free-failed and saw one parachute open above me, which had to be Terry's. While free-falling I thought of the gross of condoms scattered in every pocket of every uniform. . . "My parents will think they raised a sex fiend". When I finally opened my chute . . . thinking it safe, I soon found I was being shot at from the ground. Slipping and spilling air, I became an instant expert in maneuvering the chute . . . despite admonitions to keep our "cotton-pickin' hands" off the shroud lines. I got away from a small camp where they were shooting at me toward another small camp where they were not. Selecting a small tree in Berlin, crossing my legs for prosperity, 1 crashed branches clean off one side of the tree, chute caught on top, my feet whipped over my head, back injured, blacked out briefly, came to with toes touching ground, heels off. A home guard (Volksiuim). Shaking . . . had gun in my ribs, repeating: "pistol?, pistol?". Two Wehrmacht troops appeared and took over my custody. While still getting out of the chute harness , three SS arrived, apparently from the small camp where they had been shooting at me. The SS argued with the Wehrmacht, they wanted to take custody of me (and since my parents sometimes talked Yiddish, I could understand}. Fortunately, the two Wehrmacht troops retained my custody. I believe that "Bill" Terry was shot from the ground as he floated down in his chute or possibly the civilians "took care of him". Prisoner of War at Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany until Russians got close in January 1945. Evacuated at 2:00 a.m. In a freezing blizzard. Reached Stalag VIIA, Moosburg, by "marching in subzero weather and then crammed into 40 and 8) box-cars. We were improperly clothed or fed; our conditions were unsanitary and inhumane. Imagine hundreds of American officers and enlisted men lined up evacuating their bowels when the train stopped at a station in full view of German women and children! We were treated like swine! We were finally liberated by General Patton's troops on April 29, 1945. . Joe Greenberg, flight engineer of "Terry and the Pirates" folded his wings in early 1993. 58 years after the mid-air collision, the three survivors of both crews are: C. Wayne -Beigel, "Brand" crew; Len Smith and Lou Loevsky, "Terry" crew. Lou lives in North Caldwell with a lovely lady, his sexy wife, Molly. Lou was presented with the DFC by Col. Beverly Steadman, “Deputy C.O. 466th Bomb Group) on April 1999 at the 466th BG Reunion at the Mighty 8th AF Heritage Museum in Savannah. (55 years after the event!)