Stephen leapt out of the co-pilot's seat and scrambled and crawled his way back to the tail-gunner's cubbyhole at the rear of the plane. Within moments, he was firing a hailstorm of fifty-caliber bullets from the tail turret. One of the Nazi fighters burst into flames and started screaming to the ground in a trail of black smoke.
Until sitting in the tail of the Flying Fortress with its open visibility, Stephen had been almost able to hide it even from himself: he was afraid of heights, and hated flying.
Moments later, Barbara tried to maneuver away from another fighter coming in from overhead. Pulling back on the throttle, she brought the plane up so Stephen had a better angle to fire at it. As the fighter flew over them and then circled back at the bomber, Stephen's gunnery fire hit the fighter face-on.
But the shells could not penetrate its armor-plated cockpit or bulletproof glass.
In return, the 190-A/8's pilot spit a barrage of bullets from a 12.7 mm machine gun that all but parted Stephen's hair. He thought if it hadn't been silver already, it would have turned gray from the excitement.
The machine gun bursts were followed momentarily by ear-deafening blasts from a larger gun that exploded around the bomber.
"What was that?" Stephen asked.
"We've been hit!" Barbara called out. "At least twice. Flack in the underbelly, and we just took a cannon shot in the tail from that fighter. We're going to go down!"
Stephen struggled out of the rear gunner's hole and tried to make his way to Barbara as the plane's engines sputtered and stalled.
"You jump, then I will," she called to Stephen as he lost his balance and fell.
"No way," he said, getting up and trying to reach her again. "We jump together, or not at all."
"It can't happen that way. Maybe in the movies, but not for real. If you don't jump first, I won't, and we both die in the crash. My way, we have a chance. If the Jerries don't shoot at us when our chutes open."
Stephen still hesitated.
"You first," she insisted, "or I don't follow. And there's no way I can bring this plane down with all the holes there are in it. It could catch fire any moment, too."
Stephen felt wretched for getting Barbara into the situation.
"I didn't know there'd be Nazi planes out here. Most of Czechoslovakia has been liberated, and the Jerries everywhere are expected to give up any day now. I thought it'd be safe to fly in, get the foal, and fly right back out. The plan was to bring us together, not put your life in danger."