Heller's description of the second mission to Bologna is one of the most vivid and realistic depictions of battle in the novel. The contrast with the tranquility of the squadron meeting is immediate; his use of literary devices such as simile is spare but overwhelmingly effective. Chapter 15 opens with the introduction of placid Piltchard and Wren and their tone of calm efficiency. Without warning, all hell breaks loose as the run over Bologna is one of the roughest that anyone has seen. As the lead bombardier in the first formation, Yossarian must determine when to open the bomb bay doors and when to drop his bombs; the other bombardiers will follow his lead. Because the ground defense knows this, the bomber flying point is their primary target. Yossarian is trapped:
Heavy flak was everywhere! . . . There was nothing he could do until his bombs dropped but look back into the bombsight. . . . He was trembling steadily as the plane crept ahead. He could hear the hollow boom-boom-boom-boom of the flak pounding all around him in overlapping measures of four, the sharp, piercing crack! of a single shell exploding suddenly very close by. . . . He wanted to sob. The engines droned on monotonously like a fat, lazy fly.
The bombs hit the targets, resulting in a "churning wave of pink and gray and coal-black smoke" that rolls and quakes "convulsively in its bowels as though from great blasts of red and white and golden sheet lightning."
As Yossarian screams at McWatt to take evasive action as soon as the bombs are away, Aardvark (Aarfy), the navigator, annoyingly invades the bombardier's space and frustrates his movement, refusing to leave. Flak concussions slam against the plane. Air fills with sweet clouds of blue smoke. Yossarian is certain that he is about to die until he notices that the smoke comes from his "grinning, moon-faced navigator" who has struck a match and is calmly lighting his pipe. The plane is hit, and "[t]housands of tiny bits of white paper (from Aarfy's maps) were falling like snowflakes inside."
