Bernard W. Bail’s Distinguished Service Cross citation

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to

Bernard W. Bail

First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces

for service as set forth in the following

CITATION:

for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Navigator of a B-24 Heavy Bomber of the 66th Bombardment Squadron, 44th Bombardment Group (H), Ninth Air Force (Attached), and as the Group’s Lead Radar Navigator on a heavy bombardment attack on 5 June 1944, against defended enemy coastal positions in the vicinity of Boulogno-Sur-Mer, France, in preparation of the invasion on 6 June 1944. As he approached the target, Lieutenant Bail’s aircraft was hit repeatedly and severely by enemy antiaircraft fire which seriously crippled the ship, knocking out three engines and causing the remaining engine to be cut off, killed the pilot, and wounded several members of the crew, including the Command Pilot whose foot was severed. The co-pilot set a course for England while the aircraft rapidly lost altitude. While over the English Channel, Lieutenant Bail applied a tourniquet to the leg of the Command Pilot and the crew was ordered to bail out. He remained with the Command pilot, who had sufficiently recovered from shock to reach the aircraft’s steering yoke, and turn it around from its inland course and head it back to ditch in the English Channel. This extraordinary act of heroism enabled the Command Pilot to steer the aircraft away from and English village preventing further loss of life. Lieutenant Bail’s valiant and unselfish efforts, above and beyond the call of duty and at great risk to himself, are keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the 9th Air Force, and the United States Army Air Forces.