Us Official Photographs

Lt Vernon R Richards after bomber escort mission

For the first time in seven hours, during which he participated in a heavy bomber escort mission deep into the heart of Hitler's rapidly shrinking Festung Europe, Lt. Vernon R. Richards, Feit Mills, N. Y., can loosen his flying equipment and relax. The great strain he has undergone still shows, however, in the taut lips, and in the narrowed eyes still surrounded by a rim of dirt where the flying goggles have covered his face. These are the keen, deep set eyes of a man who has downed two Nazis in the air, destroyed three on the ground, and above all kept watch over the heavy bombers entrusted to him. On the back of his hand can be seen the capsule information fighter pilots need for their missions, broken down into minuted times: Start engines, take-off, Set course, Rendezvous with bombers, and head for home. In case of trouble, the pilot need only lick the writing with his tongue to obliterate it so that any Germans who may capture him may learn nothing.- ENGLAND