The “Wizard of Koz” was nicknamed after her commander, Captain Henry Kozlowski.  The aircraft sported unique and flashy nose art, that of a leprechaun-like wizard, long hair tied back with a bow, and riding a bomb amid bolts of lightning.

Siracourt is surrounded by open farming country with few trees and little to no natural cover.  The Germans completely rebuilt the town in order to use it to obscure the launch site.  All the homes were built from prefabricated materials and all were identical.  Intelligence had supplied more than adequate target information.  Siracourt had a geometric configuration unlike any other French village.  The launch building was located in the northeast section of the village and faced 30 degrees to the east.

The V-1 was the weapon the Germans hoped would change the course of the war, a flying bomb.  The rocket was 25 feet 10 inches long with a wingspan of 17 feet six inches and a body diameter of two feet, eight inches.  The launch weight was 4,860 pounds with the warhead weighing 1,870 pounds.  The range of the rocket was about 150 miles, easily putting London at risk.

Target time for the B-26 raid on Siracourt was set for 1800 hours.  The bombing altitude was to be 12,000 feet.  The formation flown was a box of 18 aircraft, in three tight groups of six aircraft each.  After take off they established their box formation and then proceeded to Dungenes, on the coast of England.  They then crossed the channel towards France, passing over the French coast about five miles south of Hardelet.  From there the flight headed southeast for Royon and then on to the target at Siracourt.

The “Wizard of Koz” was a box leader and therefore had a crew of eight instead of the usual six.  It was necessary for the radio/gunner to maintain radio contact at all times so another gunner was added to the crew.  The navigator/bombardier position was also divided, so both a navigator and a bombardier flew in the “Koz.”  It was important for the bombardier who was responsible for the accuracy of the whole box to be able to concentrate fully on the bomb run.

Captain Henry Premyslaus Kozlowski, pilot of the “Koz,” was an army brat.  His father was Colonel Karol B. Kozlowski, stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco in California.

The co-pilot was Second Lieutenant Lester Winfield Hauck, from Stamford, Connecticut.  Navigating was 22-year-old Second Lieutenant Gilbert J. Gorski, from Racine, Wisconsin.  The bombardier was was Second Lieutenant Gordon Lester Raschke, from Chicago, Illinois.  In the radio compartment was Technical Sergeant John Kopinski, also a Chicago boy.  The tail gunner was Staff Sergeant William Brockdorf from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The waist gunner was Staff Sergeant Everett Trueman Smith, from Kirkwood, Missouri, and the gunner manning the top turret was Staff Sergeant Charles Hubert Gast, from Ripley, Ohio.

There was a slight late afternoon haze over the target.  The flight was met with the usual heavy German anti-aircraft fire.  Almost immediately after dropping her bombs on the target trouble began for the “Wizard of Koz” and her crew.  One of the bombs was hung up in the bomb bay.  Just as Sergeant Kopinski kicked the bomb free and away, the “Koz” took a direct flak hit at the radio compartment.  Bombardier Gordon Raschke was watching through the bomb sight as the bomb Kopinski freed fell away.  The force of the blast of flak threw Raschke against the sight, knocking him unconscious and displacing his jaw. Sergeant Brockdorf was the last to see Kopinski, “a shadow crumbling in the flames of the radio room.”

With the situation desperate, Captain Kozlowski fought to maintain control of the “Koz,” gaining precious time for the crew to bail out.  Staff Sergeant William Brockdorf bailed out through the waist window, as did Staff Sergeant Charles Gast.  Brockdorf saw Staff Sergeant Everett Smith sitting motionless at his position, “apparently aghast,” although he had no visible injuries.  Brockdorf said that it looked as though Smith would not jump.

In the cockpit, trapped by the flames, Second Lieutenant Lester Hauck and Second Lieutenant Gilbert Gorski fought to escape the doomed aircraft.  When Hauck turned to the sound of the blast all he could see was a wall of flame where the radio compartment had been.  Lieutenant Gorski grabbed a fire extinguisher but realized at once that it was futile.  Escape became paramount.  They first tried to get the nose wheel out of the way or to make a hole they could squeeze through.  They tore at the metal of the plane viciously.

In desperation, Gorski stuck his arm into the flames of the radio compartment trying unsuccessfully to get a hatchet.  Hauck soon realized that the ditching hatch in the top of the cockpit was the only way out.

The flight manual for the B-26 Marauder states; “You are a dead pigeon if you try to escape from the open hatches in the top of the pilot’s compartment during flight.  If the engine propellers don’t get you, the vertical fin or stabilizer will.”