From Sloan's
WINGS OF HONOR, page 357:
"The first of 50th Sqdn mission to locate the 308th Regt came on Oct. 5th, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, in very poor visibility. There were more mssions the next day but little evidence of even partial succcess. George Phillips and Mitchell Brown were shot down, crash-landing at Binarville, and they made their way back to the American lines unhurt. "Tracey" Bird and William Bolt did the same an hour later, near Vienne-le-Chateau.
"Then Harold Goettler [pilot] and Irwin Bleckley [observer] failed to return from their second sortie and the worst was feared. The team thought they had sighted the Battalion in their first flight of the day and went back. But they crashed at Binarville, poossibly from enemy ground-fire. Goettler was instantly killed and Bleckley died of wounds, according to American soldiers.
"At that moment there was no real evidence that Goettler and Bleckley had made contact with the "lost battalion." They, and their comrades of 50th Sqdn, had flown into the jaws of death, and they made the supreme sacrifice. Both wee awarded the D.S.C., later upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
"The day ended with but six serviceable airplanes on hand. More teams went out on 7th October; Robert Anderson and Woodville Rogers, after repeated dives into the supposed location, saw a small panel set out by Whittlesey's men, and they rushed a message to the Division P.C. at about 11:30 a.m. By 6:00 p.m. the 77th Division troops made a breakthrough and the 308th was saved. It was an epic rescue, with much tragedy. Of 463 men in the Battalion, 69 were killed, another 159 wounded, and all were in exhausted condition.They owed their lives to the correct report of their position by Anderson and Rogers."