From FINDAGRAVE MEMORIAL:
Gunner S/Sgt. George M. Rice KIA
700th Bomber Squadron, 445th Bomber Group
Hometown: Alabama
Service#34589407
Awards:Air Medal, Purple Heart.
Captain Phillip M. Costain Pilot KIA

Target: Gotha
Mission Date: 24-Feb-44
Serial Number: #41-29149
Aircraft Model B-24
Aircraft Letter:
Aircraft Name:
Location:
Cause:fighters Mid air collision Crew of 10 9KIA 1POW
WWII deceased reinterred from Neuville-en-Condrez, Belgium in common grave Interred: 28 Apr 1950 with group burial.

Technical Sergeant Enlow, the top turret gunner and sole survivor of Costain's crew, described the action. He said that 26 bombers of the 700th Squadron took off that day from an air base near Norwick, England. Only 13 bombers returned. German fighters started hitting the bombers in France, and fierce fighting dragged on across France and into Germany. The first pass of the fighters knocked out Cos' bomber intercom system and cut off internal communications. The fighters also tore big holes in the waist of the bomber, and most of the men there were probably killed before the forthcoming collision.

The bombing mission, however, was completed, and the bomb bay remained open which probably allowed Enlow to escape. The chance collision occurred when German fighters shot down a bomber flying overhead which, in falling, sheared off part of the tail section of Cos' bomber.

The day after the crash, citizens of Gotha took Enlow to the crash site where they had buried Captain Costain and his crew all facing the United States. Enlow spent the next 14 months in a prison camp valiantly writing to dependents trying to tell them that they died for their country, but censors blacked out the message.

Costain Crew
Captain Phillip M. Costain Pilot KIA
Captain Phillip M. Costain Pilot KIA
1st/Lt. Jerome Aronov KIA
1st/Lt. William H. Johnson Jr. KIA
1st/Lt. Anthony J. Lapolla Jr. KIA
1st/Lt. Fred L. Shell KIA
T/Sgt. Joseph G. McManamon KIA
S/Sgt. William F. Daly KIA
S/Sgt. George M. Rice KIA
S/Sgt. Ronald R. Short KIA

George M Rice