When  this crew joined the 100th 24 Feb 44 the ROG was T/Sgt Weston H. Rodkey. On 6 MAR 44 T/Sgt Michael J. Tanowigch, Original 100th from the Sammy Barr Crew #4 was flying in place of Rodkey. The crew with the exception of Tanowigch (On his second tour) had flown four (4) missions. Koper ordered the crew to bail out, remaining to fly the aircraft during the bail out and was alone in the aircraft when it exploded.

An un-identified eyewitness reported as follows: "At 1213 hours north of Hanover an aircraft which may have been #051 was attacked by enemy fighters and was shot down. Four or five chutes were seen. This sighting is not definitely identified as # 051 - it could have been #170."

Additional history as given to Michael P. Faley 2011

100th Bomb Group - March 6, 1944 Berlin Mission
Recollection of Charles Corea, Tech Sergeant, Engineer Gunner
349th SQN Koper Crew (Pilot)

Awake 4 am breakfast
6 - 7 am briefing of mission to Berlin
Flying with 351 SQN
Left Coast (English Channel) in am
Test fired top turret guns over channel
Climbed to 21,000 FT, 50 degrees below zero
Scanning skies behind plane
Caught flash from waist gunner, upper SQN

Rotated turret - began firing at ME109 as he passed to my right,
Point blank, hit his tail section - as he made 180 degree turn - he banked off my right wing.
So close that we looked at each other plainly, while I was turning my guns towards him.
Before I could fire, my turret jammed, my electrical cord for my heated suit got twisted around base of my turret.
I stepped down to untangle the cord, saw a fire near gyro equipment - put fire out.
Back in turret- only to find it hit by 20mm shell and dome gone!
By this time, front of plane had also been hit.
Navigator seriously wounded, Bombardier (Drinkwater) asked what to do.
I told him to bailout.
Fortunately, he did, while still in level flight.
We were again hit and went into a spinning dive.
I grabbed my chute, kneeling in front of the hatch.
It took me almost 20,000 ft to clip my chest pack and go out head first towards #2 prop. Which hit my right foot. I was so close to the ground that I never saw the ground or chute open before landing.
My co-pilot (Lein) landed close by and helped tie a tourniquet on my leg. I was bleeding profusely.
We went inside a nearby farm house, placed my leg on the back of a ladder back chair, high above my head to stop the bleeding.
It worked.
Two German soldiers soon arrived.
One sprinkled my foot with sulfa powder, that he had taken from my chute harness.
Lein and I, were driven to the first aid station. Toes severed, taken to hospital, operated on by two surgeons, both graduates of Heidelberg Medical School.
Spent 6 - 7 weeks in hospital bed before being sent to Frankfurt for interrogation and then to Stalag 17B, Krems, Austria until end of war.