 | , ""we€ve been hit."" ""Bad?"" ""Dont€t think so.It missed the control cables-went out through the top."" No more talk.It was over.But it left a shaky feeling.We knew that the war was almost over.A guy€s chances of getting home were good. Each of us was thinking the same thing.If that shell had hit us half a second sooner,it might have hit the pilot.Three inches to the left and it would have cut some cables.A tiny instant later,and it would have hit one of us. The bomb run ended.The bomb bay doors slid shut.Suddenly we were in the clear open sky. We let ourselves feel a bit safer now.We had the three-hour flight home.It was across part of Yugoslavia.Then came the voice of our nose gunner. ""Fighter.Eleven o€clock low.Coming in fast."" ""Whose?"" somebody said. ""Not ours," came the answer,forward. ""Never saw anything like it. it€s closing in now...fast...fast...never saw anything so fast."" ""I see him!"" the left waist gunner said.""It€s a jet-one of those new Me 262€s!"" ""Can€t even hold him in the sight," the gunner said. If one of their new jets hits you,just start shooting and hope that you hit him.You won€t get a chance to aim.That€s what we had been told.The enemy had a fighter so fast we couldn€t even hold a sight on it.It was something we had never heard of.Something they called a ""jet."" And now the jet came at us!Our nose turret turned wildly to follow it.The electric motors of the turret hummed.The gunner tried to bring his guns around. Looking over the other waist gunner€s shoulder,I saw the enemy jet.Saw its shining green nose and its high rudder.It knifed through the spring air toward our plane. In seconds the jet€s cannon would fire.In seconds it would all be over.Our bomber would fold.It would streak down to smash in the mountains below. In seconds...Then I noticed that it had not yet fired a single shot.All of us stared.We were ready for the blow.But no one fired! The jet was in range.Its shining nose was on us as it closed in for the kill. Then the unbelievable: the enemy jet leveled off.It flashed below us and was gone. ""Close!"" somebody said.""Too close!"" Then we went back to the business of getting home.I guess most of the crew forgot about that jet that had us in its sights.But I have never forgotten it. Was the German pilot out of ammunition? Did his guns jam at the last second? Or was it more than that? Was he tired of killing? I€ll never be sure.I don€t know what held the fire of our own gunners.But the sky changed from a rain of hate to a blue sky of hope.
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