Statement of Rollie King in 1945
"I was the pilot of a B-17 type aircraft in which S/Sgt Robert G. Mitchell was ball-turret gunner, and that on 17 March 1945 we proceeded on a regularly assigned bombardment mission over Berlin. That on said date, S/Sgt Mitchell was acting as ball turret gunner. After bombs away on the target, we received numerous fighter passes. The first fighter pass knocked out our vertical stabilizer and the tail turret, killing the tail Gunner. On the next fighter pass we received a great deal of damage to the plane and practically all of the controls were knocked out. S/Sgt Gitlin, the waist gunner, checked the ball turret gunner and he had previously checked in the tail for the tail gunner. I saw Sgt. Gitlin going out by himself and inasmuch as S/Sgt Robert G. Mitchell was a very close friend of his, I do not believe he would have bailed out if he could have in any way helped Sgt Mitchell. I have never seen Sgt. Gitlin since that time, nor have I heard what happened to him, and I do not know whether or not his chute opened when he bailed out. I have never heard regarding S/Sgt Mitchell, and I do not know whether or not his chute opened, or whether he bailed out, prior to Sgt Gitlin. As soon as I bailed out the ship exploded."
Rollie C. King 1st Lt USAAF

Statement of John W. Spencer from his home in Elizabeth Town, Kentucky in 1945
". . . . Am writing in response to a letter received by me today considering S/Sgt Robert G. Mitchell. The last time I actually saw Sgt. Mitchell was on the ground before take-off 18 Mar.1945 but he was on the mission. Everything went well until just after we had turned on the I.P. a couple of minutes after we turned we were hit by an ME 262 that got practically all of the left horizontal stabilizer. A second attack was fought off half way down bomb run with no damage done. Since being hit we were gradually trailing the formation more and more so by the time we were over the target area the rest of the formation was approximately one-half mile away. We salvoed our bombs over the "built up" area at 1125 and at approximately 15 to 30 seconds later there was a terrific burst that seemed to come from the rear of the plane. From where I was in the nose I could see smoke boiling up from under the pilot's seat. The conditions of the plane then was that the controls had been shot out, as had tho interphone system, & the right wing was on fire. Up until we received this last attack everyone in the ship reported they were all right. As soon as we were hit -since there was no communication - I looked thru the astro-dome into the cockpit & my first pilot nodded for me to bail out. So then I handed my toggalier his chute & then put on my own but still wasn't sure to bail out so looked thru the astro-dome again & seen both pilot & co-pilot preparing to abandon ship. Then looking at the right wing which was burning pretty badly decided it was time to leave. So I bailed out, floated to the ground and was picked up immediately. The rest of my information was received from talking to the fellow crew members when I ran into them two or three days later. I found out that our tail gunner, James .Baker, was hit badly on the last attack - or may even have been killed & never left tho ship. Later on his unopened, bloody, chute was shown to the enlisted men of the crew & they recognized the number on it to be his. As to Mitchell, his fate is not known. The crew member who was to assist him out of the ball turret - in case of emergency - is also missing -waist gunner Meyer Gitlin. Although the waist gunner is known to have bailed out, he was not seen since. The radio operator, Archie Mathosian, says that Gitlin bailed out ahead of him through a hole in the fuselage made by cannon shell from the jet. From that time to my knowledge he has never been seen or heard from. It is my suspicion that, if his chute did open he may have been killed by the Germans for he was a Jew, had it on his dog tags, and didn't seem to care who knew it. That may or may not have happened. Nonetheless that was the last seen of him. If he were alive today he could probably tell what happened to Mitchell. According to my talks with the crew no one knows what condition the ball turret was when the last man abandoned ship. The only other man in the rear of the ship was the radio operator and since he says he does not know, I know of no way of finding out.....John W. Spencer