On this date the Group put up 36 planes to bomb the Leuna oil facility at Merseberg, but due to the extremely bad weather the planes had great difficulty assembling and the mission was recalled. Fourteen of the aircraft that had assembled attempted to continue on to the target at infamous Merseberg but, with increasingly hazy weather conditions, they returned from the continent to Glatton. In the fog and haze two of the groups planes collided. One, s/n 42-38064, was cut in half by another plane, s/n 44-8418, and the pieces fell into the Channel. The other plane was able to return to the field. No parachutes were seen.

Plane s/n 42-38064, named "Arf & Arf," and piloted by LtArnet L. Furr, was returning on a "Recall" from a mission to Merseberg when it collided with another plane in the same formation and was cut in two by the rotating props of the other plane. The two pieces spun and fell away into the haze and clouds and crashed into the Channel. The other plane that collided with them, s/n 44-8418, though damaged, left the formation and dropped down to look for survivors. They spotted a man in a Mae West and made several futile attempts at dropping a dinghie to him. They had to leave him and safely returned to Glatton. When Air-Sea Rescue arrived they found the dinghie but no one was in it. All the crew of 42-38064 died.