The monotonous drone of (bur I'r.ui & Whitney engines seemed to be omnipresent. It completely filled the inside of the BuNo 32022 (42-40282) PB4Y-1 Liberator. Indifferent to the noise, a VB-103 crew carefully combed the airspace around their aircraft. Their commander, Ll. (jg| |ames H. Alexander, had led them on a number of combat missions over the Bay of Biscay and there were no indications thai the September 4, 1043 sortie would be in any way different from the previous ones they had flown. The co-pilot, l.t. (jg| Paul B. Kinnev. along with three other crew-members, trained their binoculars on the surface of die sea in search of a familiar U-boat shape. At the same time the gunners eyeballed the skies for any air-to-air threat. They certainly had good reasons to be vigilant: two days before l.t. Keith W. Wickstroms crew did not return to their base at St. l-val, Cornwall. In his last message the radio operator reported that the aircraft was being attacked by several Jn 88s...