And in another moment they would’ve seen us alongside.
And then what?
With the Gooney Bird standing on its starboard wing and slipping away to the right, there suddenly came from the rear of the aircraft a familiar heavy vibration.
What the hell?
That feels like automatic gunfire!
In the next instant, long flames began to light the sky above them. Canidy could now make out that the big and boxy aircraft had a swastika on the vertical stabilizer.
Then came more heavy vibration, a steady endless stream of it.
That sonofabitch!
It’s the Browning!
And damn he’s burning through ammo!
The flames grew longer across the sky—That’s fuel that’s catching fire! He hit a fuel cell!—and then suddenly the German aircraft’s starboard wing was engulfed in flames.
Then came a bone-rattling BOOM!
Darmstadter and Canidy shielded their eyes, the intense, sudden light nearly blinding them.
The explosion sheared off the burning wing. The airplane, its fuselage now rapidly burning away, pitched violently left—and began to spiral downward.
Darmstadter yanked the yoke to level out the Gooney Bird, then slammed the yoke and throttles forward.
The nose dropped and the airframe began making a louder and louder hum as the airplane rapidly lost altitude.
Canidy watched the airspeed needles spin.
“Airspeed two-twenty,” he called out as the aircraft approached its top speed of 250 miles per hour.
“Two-forty . . .
“Two-sixty . . .
“Two-eighty-five . . . Hank?”
Darmstadter did not reply.
“Three-ten, Hank!” Canidy called.
He’s going to tear the goddamn wings off!
Just then, shy of 325 miles per hour, Darmstadter pulled back on the throttles.
The hum of the airframe was deafening—but it slowly began to ease.
“Two-seventy,” Canidy then called out.
It took him a moment to realize that the heavy, steady vibration from the Browning had stopped.
Canidy rubbed his eyes and tried to focus on the control panel. They were still losing altitude but not nearly as fast. The altimeter indicated 5,500.
“Airspeed two hundred,” Canidy announced, “and we’re dropping through fifty-five hundred feet.”