08/21/2026
The photograph is often presented simply as an image of a bomber losing an engine. In reality, it captures the final seconds of an aircraft carrying eight men, two of whom were about to survive one of the most extraordinary escapes of the war.
On August 20, 1944, a formation of American B-26 Marauders approached Toulon, France. Allied troops had landed in southern France five days earlier during Operation Dragoon, and French forces were now fighting to liberate the heavily defended port. The bombers’ target was the network of German guns guarding Toulon Harbor.
Among them was B-26C Marauder 42-107735, nicknamed “Flossie’s Fury,” of the 95th Bomb Squadron, 17th Bomb Group, Twelfth Air Force.
German antiaircraft fire struck the aircraft between its right engine and fuselage. The shell tore the engine from the wing and ignited the bomber. A photograph taken from another aircraft captured the engine falling away as flames poured from the ruptured wing.
Inside, Staff Sergeants George Moscovis and Robert McCluskey were stunned and injured. Moscovis later recalled crawling toward the rear of the bomber and finding McCluskey trapped beneath heavy flak jackets. Fighting the tremendous forces inside the falling aircraft, he pulled the jackets away and helped McCluskey escape headfirst through an open waist-gun position.
Moscovis followed, squeezing through the same opening as the burning Marauder descended toward the ground.
He was only about 1,200 feet above the earth, and his parachute apparently never opened.
Moscovis lost consciousness during the fall. German soldiers later found him and, believing him dead, ordered French civilians to dispose of his body. Members of the French Resistance placed him in a shed and began building a coffin from ammunition boxes. As they prepared to place him inside it, Moscovis opened his eyes and smiled.
The Resistance hid him from the Germans and obtained medical care. Several days later, they brought another wounded American into his hospital room. It was McCluskey. Each man had believed the other was dead.
They were the only survivors.
“Flossie’s Fury” crashed and exploded near La Palasse shortly after the photograph was taken. Six men were killed: pilot 1st Lt. Joseph L. Albury Jr., copilot 2nd Lt. Joseph J. Casey, bombardier 2nd Lt. Edgar W. Hawthorne, navigator 1st Lt. Paul Marshall Jr., gunner Staff Sgt. Francis A. Pesta, and aerial cameraman Pvt. Herman L. Frieden.
