Crosses of Fire is a journal kept by Richard Fredericksen during his military service aboard a B-17 Bomber attached to the 331st Bombardment Squadron between Sept. 25, 1944-March 8, 1945. His journal lists 33 missions flown, all originating from England to Northern France Ardennes and Rhineland Central Europe.
Richard's military occupational specialty was an air-plane and engine mechanic, and also top turret aerial gunner. Before being deployed overseas, he received his training at Gunnery School in Las Vegas, Nev. and Air-plane & Engine Mechanic School at Shepherd Field, Texas.
Richard intended to write a book about the missions he was involved in, therefore, because he didn't proceed with his plan to do so, copies of this journal will be distributed among his family members who will lovingly remember him for who he was, and for his brave and faithful service to God and to his country. Crosses of Fire would have been the title of the
book had he accomplished his plan to write it. The reason for the title being that the images that he saw through his eyes resembled burning crosses, when allied planes, totally engulfed in flames were going down. Richard passed away at his home, August 14, 1996.
Top row L to R:
- Top Turret Gunner Flt Engineer Richard A Frederickson "Red"
- Radio Operator Waist Gunner Harbon B Heap "Herder"
- Tail Gunner Arthur R Heino "Kid"
- Ball Turret Gunner James E Holmes "Pappy"
- Waist Gunner Richard M Newman "Tex"
- Waist Gunner Melvin C Mealer (dropped from crew after training)
L to R
- Airplane Commander 1st Pilot (left hand seat) Richard A Brown "Brownie"
- 2nd pilot (right hand seat) John Q Swift "Swiftie"
- Bombardier Sidney A Mandel "Sid"
- Navigator Richard A Adamson "Borg"
RAID #1 SEPT. 25TH, 1944 LUDWICKSHAFEN
On the morning of Sept. 25, 1944, we were awakened at 4 o'clock a.m... This was our first raid and we were somewhat lost as what to do. The change of night quarters called out Heap, Fredericksen, Holmes, Heino and Newman. Breakfast at 4:45, briefing at 5:30. We made our way down to the chow hall and being we were the first ones there, there was no line to sweat out before we ate. We had dehydrated eggs, sausage and cereal which we call horse feed, and which is some of the most tasteless stuff I ever got hold of. Dick Newman, waist gunner who eats more than any other human I have ever seen said; "that stuff isn't fit fer' a hog" and went on cussing the cooks.
After we had eaten we climbed aboard our beautifully designed and made British bicycles which are mostly frames and not much of that and started on our way down thru the woods which separate the chow hall from the air field. Upon arriving at the briefing and drying room which is used to keep electric equipment dry and in working condition, we called for our electric suits which consist of pants with suspenders and a vest like a coat with long sleeves. On the sleeves is a snap attachment for attaching heated gloves and on the pants there is a like attachment for the shoes. Thru this equipment wires run to nearly all parts of the clothing including gloves and shoes.
After we had drawn our electric suits and gathered up our flight equipment which consists of an electric suit and cord for plug in on the ships power system, a summer suit of flying tags, winter fleece lined flying clothes, may west life vest to keep one afloat, earphones and throat mic., demand type oxygen mask, constant flow type also, summer & winter flying helmet, goggles to prevent flash burn of eyes, escape kit, winter flying gloves, boots and our 45 automatic with shoulder type holster and ammunition pouches which held 14 rounds & 6 rounds in the gun totaling twenty in all. We also had a flak helmet made of steel and the same as the ones the infantry wear only different being the sides cut out for phones and a flap of steel attached to drop down over the ear phones. After all had been put in our
A-3 or flight bag which is made of heavy canvas we laid our parachute harness of the chest type A-3 and chest type chute on top of the bag and headed for the gun shop.
In the gun shop there is many shelves for caliber 50 air cooled machine guns and in each shelve or compartment is 12 guns for each ship, each compartment has the number of a plane above it designating to which ship the guns belong. After we had carefully checked and cleaned our guns until the bore looked like a looking glass we wrapped them in rags from the rag can to keep off the dirt and the condensation out of the gun which at high altitude causes a frozen gun. We then put then is a truck which was waiting outside and rode to the drying room which was across the street, to pick up our flight equipment and left our purses plus all papers in the operations room for safe keeping till our return.
During the mean time, the radio operator, pilot, navigator, and bombardier were being briefed on the route the target, type of target and fighter escort and number of enemy fighters to be encountered plus a few other things. The remaining part of the crew went on the airplane which
was parked out near the A formed runways.
All of the enlisted men excluding the radio operator who was yet briefing, put in their guns and checked the oil buffer setting for slow or fast firing and the headspace for being to loose or tight.
Pappy Holmes our lower ballgunner and all and I the Engineer and upper turret gunner had also firing solenoids and sperry computing sights to check. After we had installed our guns we hand changed a couple rounds thru the gun to make sure she was working OK.
I the Engineer checked the oxygen for pressure and for working order at all stations also the walk around bottles which hold enough for 45 minutes normal breathing. I also counted the heavy flak suite which are like a vest and fit low on the hips with a quick release for removing for a quick bail-out.
They are made in two or more pieces with a snap on each shoulder. The pilots suits have only steel armor in front because of the armor plating behind the seat which covers the back of the seat and extends to the roof behind their head.
Besides the previous items, the flare box was checked for an assortment of flares and the presence of a flare pistol from which the flares are fired thru a port in the top of the cockpit, behind the co-pilot and are used for signaling other ships in the bomber formation. After this I checked over the ship for flight ability while Pappy Holmes and Dick Newman installed the bombardiers chin turret guns. The chin turret guns are underneath the very nose and are operated by the bombardier. In the four turrets including the tail turret are two guns each. Everyone . checked for ammunition to be sure he had the maximum allowed. The turrets carry 850 rounds apiece excluding the ball turret which holds 1100.
In the mean time the ground crew had started the engine known as a put put to Engineers and which has a generator incompanated for supplying of external electrical current to the airplane to save on the 3- 24 volt batteries installed in the airplane so we could check our electric suits on the ground by plugging in and turning up the Rheostat.
Soon Brownie our pilot, Borg Adamson (navigator), Sidney Mandel (bombardier) and Harbon B. Heap radio operator arrived. The co-pilot had arrived before and was checking over the flak suits, he is the corn fed boy, John I. Swift from Iowa. We were all called into the waist of the airplane where some were still dressing and the navigator & pilot gave us our briefing.
Our target was LUDWICKSHAVEN Germany and the flak was reported as meager and there was a possibility of enemy fighters, but we were to have 3 groups of P-5 I's and one of P-47's making a total of about 250 escort fighters. We all helped pull the prop thru them.
The sky was very clear and the sun was rising, sending up beautiful pink rays. The ground crew chief wiped off the cockpit windows and upper turret and in the mean time the time for stations had arrived. We all were rather shaky except the pilot, navigator and bombardier who had put in 3 missions before we went along.
After another half hour had passed the engines had been started, and it was taxi time and a jeep came driving up bringing our emergency bag which contained an extra parachute, oxygen mask and electric suit and asked us if we needed anything.
We didn't so we taxied out to the runway after exercising the propellers, checking the (nags)(?) for firing and the superchargers for 46hg (inches mercury) of manifold pressure we checked everything for take off position.
We were one of many to take off so after those ahead of us had taken off and were climbing at a safe distance the tower gave us the green light and Brownie shoved the 4 throttles wide open and we roared down the runway with 6,000 lb. Of bombs aboard.
As the end of the runway was nearing she left the ground like the huge mechanical bind she is. Brownie gave the order for wheels up and we were on our way. We circled for nearly three hours
then after we had gained 16,000 ft. and formed into a formation of 12 planes we swung our nose East toward the Channel.
Far below the yellow, red and green foliage of the approaching winter season could be clearly seen. We were soon over the Channel and for the better part of an hour we flew over the North Sea which was dotted with a convoy of ships which stretched for miles of the gleaming fog patch covered sea. We counted at least 23 we know of. We passed over the French Coast near Dunkirk and flew inland over the many patched landscape below. I had nearly forgotten we were on a mission then came the voice of " the Kid" A.R. Heino over the interphones fighters at 5 o'clock low, then a few seconds later its OK, they're 51's, must be the escort.
We flew for quite some time the Borg told us we were crossing the front lines which were still some few miles outside Germany, He also announced the crossing of the Reich Border and the approaching of our first flak area. Upon the latter announcement I climbed down out of my upper turret to help Brownie & John I. With their flak suits. After that I climbed back up into my turret.
I was pretty miserable as my oxygen mask felt like a muzzle and it was always hitting my sight every time I turned my head. I had my flak helmet on and my goggles which kept falling off and annoying me.
As I was in the midst of all this trouble, the navigator called out flak at 11 o'clock. I whipped my turret around and then saw my first real burst of flak. As we neared the target three jet planes (enemy) shot up from the ground below at at least 10,000 ft. a min. leaving a long trail of exhaust behind them. They climbed up into the sun and we never saw them again on this mission. As we reached the initial point and Sid opened the bomb doors, I could see the flak and rockets streaming up from below, they were leaving long white ribbon like trails where as the flak was just black puffs in the sky. Occasionally there was a red burst.
As we flew thru it I was all ears as well as the rest of the crew, the pilot was zigzagging thru the flak which everyone was calling over the interphones. There was several close bursts and after we reached the rally point, Newman hollered over the interphones, "Frank, the bastards just missed my head by inches"; we had about 5 holes in the plane.
Everyone now was quite talkative and we had learned an awful lot on this mission. We left our flak suits on until we were back over France then we removed them and left our turrets. We dropped down from 25,000 ft. which was our bombing altitude to 7,000 ft. as we passed over France. We soon were above the Channel and soon after over the English coast then a little later the base..
We came down and made contact again with the mother earth . Were we glad no. 1 was over we soon reached the parking space and removed our guns and equipment and went back to the drying and briefing room where we received scotch and hot cocoa and sandwiches, after which we cleaned our guns and returned to the barracks as a soon to be veteran crew.
Tired yes, Still nervous ? NO
RAID #2 SEPT. 26TH 1944 BREMEN
On the morning of Sept. 26, we for the second time were called out very early and started on our way to the mess hall where we again had the usual army breakfast, of dehydrated eggs and sausage. From there we went to the operations building to check the plane number & deposit our personal belongings_
Then to the gun shop where we checked our guns, from there we went to a gunners briefing. After all gunners checked in the briefing started, we were raiding Bremen tank factories. We were to have P-51 escort and were carrying 250 pounders. We were likely to meet 350 to 400 fighters. After the briefing we all went back to the gun shop to pick up our guns, from there we went to the drying room to get our flying equipment then on to the plane.
Once there we became busy boys as this being our second raid we weren't exactly sure of the system to follow, but we installed our guns and I checked all flak suits, oxygen, flares and for flare pistol as well as the operation of my turret and guns as well as for amount of ammunition. As I was doing this the remainder of the enlisted men were also busy & Pappy Holmes was installing his guns in the ball turret and Tex Newman was putting in his waist guns with an occasional cuss word and a banging of metal which no doubt was his gun banging in to the receiver as it comes to a sudden stop. The Kid Heino was asking for some help he wanted someone to hold a driving spring in the end of the barrel so he could get it into the front barrel bearing, at last Pappy went back and slammed the guns into place. Just as we were finishing up with our checking, Harban B. came out to the ship, he had been briefing with the officers on his radio equipment, upon arriving he proceeded to install his right waist gun and he was tramping around in A-3 bags and flight equipment to his knees. At last he was thru and began checking the radio equipment.
Pappy had gone up to the nose to install the chin turret guns while Heino installed the cheek guns. As they were finishing Swift came out to the ship followed by Sid, Borg and Brownie.
Borg gave us a short briefing with a few additional suggestions from pilot Brown. As we were gathered in the waist, Johnny handed out our escape kits and Borg our Navigator handed out our British candy rations which was hard candy with Wrigley's gum. It wasn't long until station time so we all put our flight equipment on and got into our positions.
When start engine time arrived, John read off the before starting checklist while Lt. Brown followed it out. Soon Brown called for prime one start one and after 15 seconds called for mesh one. John meshed the starter to the engine and when the prop turned over Brownie flipped the mag switch to both on position and moved the mixture control from idle cut off to auto rich position. The engine started running but kept backfiring so Brownie put the mixture control in full rich, the backfiring stopped. Soon all sour engines were roaring and as we sat waiting for time to taxi to arrive, I could hear the tower talking to Brownie.
When taxi time arrived we taxied out of the last stand and were at last on the way to make our second mission. We were flying tail end charley so we had to wait for the rest to take off before we, but when we neared the runway we stopped our plane diagonally to the runway, we were on
to give her the last ground check before take off.
Everything checked O.K.. so when our turn arrived we pulled on to the runway on the opposite half of the runway and slightly behind the plane to take off before us. After the plane ahead left the runway, the tower plashed the green light to us and we shot down the runway with engines roaring under full power and the slip stream from 11 ft. 3 bladed props, remaining behind.
Brownie pulled the big bomber off as Johnny called of airspeed 105 miles per hour and we were headed for the skies.
After we reached 500 ft. Brown called for 2300 rpm & 38 inches we had been pulling 46 inches of manifold pressure and 2500 rpm which is the safe operating range for take off under load. I put a green galen flare in the gun as we weren't flying lead and squeezed back thru the
Bombay which harbored 12- 500 pounders. As we reached 13,000 ft. Sid called out it out and
we all put on our oxygen mask and checked the regulator for malfunctions. After a couple hours of assembling and climbing over the base we headed out over the Channel toward Holland_
When we reached the middle of the Channel, us gunners got into position to watch the skies which were cloudy for enemy aircraft, when we were approximately 15 miles off the Continental shore we turned so we were flying parallel with the shoreline to stay our of range of the flak. We flew north until we were opposite Bremen then left the sea and flew directly inland toward our target. As we neared the target, flak could be seen coming up in barrages and rockets were also leaving long white trails toward the ground. When we reached the D. P. Sid opened the bomb doors on the lead planes opening and then we started thru the flak. Everywhere around us flak was bursting and then I heard a close explosion and heard Newman call from the waist. The waist oxygen has been shot our and Pappy has been hit. Then a little later he said he was changing to the right waist from the left. Pappy had been knocked down by flak which struck him on the elbow.
As we flew on thru the thick flak I saw the lead planes bombs go away and heard Sid call bombs away and felt the sudden jerk as bombs went away. As we left the target black smoke came up thru the flak and clouds and we knew we had scored a hit. We had several holes in the ship which I went back to investigate, outside of the oxygen nothing was done. We left Bremen by-the same route as we had followed in and as we flew toward home we made the mistake of flying over the Frisian Islands as we were passing over, we received another hit shooting our all our elevator control cables except the ones to the automatic pilot and one elevator up cable and the cables to the rest of the trim tabs. We were also over the north sea.
I once more checked the damage and reported it to the pilot, we flew on home and when it was our turn to peel off and put our gear down, I found the tail wheel wasn't retracted, a piece of flak had cut the screw mechanism up so that only by shear force did Heap the radio operator and myself crank the gear down.
After we had landed, I checked and found we also had one no. 3 turbo shot out and had over 40 flak holes in our plane & after taking care of my guns I returned to the barracks of course via the chow hall, a tired man.
(side note: flak intense, fighters(enemy) appeared, 2 b-17's went down, one blew up.)
RAID #3 SEPT. 28TH 1944 MERSBURG
We were called at 2:30 am with breakfast at 3:00, briefing at 4:00 and gunners briefing. After eating we made our way to operations there checking our plane number, position in flight and depositing our personal belongings, we then collected our flight gear and checked our guns by this time we had to continue to the schools building for gunners briefing as I walked in the door I noticed a white sheet of paper covering the Leipsicburg area and I thought then as many English men put, I had had it.
Once all the gunners were seated the gunnery officer started the briefing by removing the white sheet, we were bombing the Leuna Oil refinery at Mersburg Germany, the hottest flak filled hell Jenny ever made while on my tour. We were carrying 10-500 pounders part of which were incendiaries and we were to bomb from 26,000 ft. We were to be escorted by 700 fighters, with p=5 1's making up the majority. The target had 270 guns which could bear on us at any one time and there were 1300 guns in an area of 40 miles, the target was to be visual which made it worse.
When the briefing was over we returned to the gun shop where we picked up our guns with a G. S. truck then went to the drying, picked up our flight gear and left for the airplane. Once there we installed our guns and I checked for flak suits, oxygen pressure and operation of each station, also checked for number & kind of flares along with a pistol to shoot them in, then I checked for fire extinguishers and put on my heated clothing, may west and 45 followed by my parachute harness, I hung my flak suit around the upper turret and placed my goggles, oxygen mask, helmet and earphones plus heated suit down in my flak helmet beside my parachute at the base of the turret. Everyone checked their guns for plenty of ammunition and for smooth operation.
When Brown came he gave us a few instructions and Swift gave us our escape kits while Borg passed candy. Sid gave me instructions on checking the bomb doors for full open although I never do it. The ball turret man can see thru much more conveniently than I can. When station time arrived, we all got into position after pulling the props thru. Soon after it was start engine time, and Brownie checked everything while Swift called it off Upon completing the check list for starting, Brownie called for prime one and start one and after 15 seconds called mesh one with which Swift meshed the inertia starter to the engine, when she turned over Brownie flipped the mag switch to both position and moved the mixture control from idle cut to auto rich.
When this was done the engine started running, Brown called oil pressure coming up and adjusted the throttle for rpm. of 1200. They followed this procedure until all four engines were running and taxi time arrived and we taxied out of the parking area for the runway.
As we neared the runway, Brownie swung her diagonally across the runway and exercised the propellers, checked the mags at 28 inches of manifold pressure and checked the turbos by this time our turn had arrived to pull onto the runway and we pulled onto the runway, I locked the windows while Johnny turned on the booster pumps and locked the tail wheel I checked every thing for takeoff as Brown went over them.
Then we received the green light from the tower and Brownie shoved the throttles wide open, waited for the engines to roar to full power then kicked the brakes off and we were on our way with roaring engines leaving a blurry slipstream behind as they pulled nearly 50,000 lbs. Off the runway at 110 mph.
As soon as we left the ground Brownie called for wheels up and we went climbing into a morning sky which was a dark blue with stars twinkling here and there. When we reached 500 ft. I put a green flare in the flare pistol and went back to the radio room to check the tokio valves for water which would cause a malfunction at high altitude. As I started to leave the radio room Heap gave me the information flimsies for the pilot and navigator and I stepped our of the radio room into the bomb bay where Sid was removing the safety pins from the 10- 500 pounders
harbored there. As I passed he gave me the grin for which he's famous. I went on forward and after loading my guns and checking the walk around oxygen bottles I readied myself for oxygen and plugged in my heated suit and turned up the rheostat after flipping on the upper turret main switch and heat switch.
I then sat down at the foot on my turret to rest up for the boring standing position in the upper turret. The boys else where were doing the same. By this time we had reached 13,000 ft. and Sid called for everyone to get on oxygen. After we had climbed to 20,000 and taking a couple hours to do it, Borg told us over interphone we were leaving England and were now headed across the Channel for the Belgium Coast. Behind could be seen the district English coast and directly below as well as before us the blue water of the Channel. After nearly on hour over the Channel,
Borg called our the approach of the Belgium coast which was a white irregular line between the
hazy patched earth and the blue water of the Channel far below. We were so high it was difficult to distinguish one thing from another except the darker or lighter objects which might be of a different color.
As we neared the front lines, Borg told us we might encounter flak so I got out of the upper turret which I had been in for a half an hour by now to help the pilots put on their flak suits. A couple puffs of flak came up but was quite inaccurate so we didn't worry to much. After that we flew over Germany for 2 hours during which time we passed thru several flak areas which shot up rockets as well as inaccurate flak. Then as we neared our target, 3 German jet planes went streaking, for the sky leaving a long vapor trail behind. Shortly afterward, Brown received information over the radio that enemy fighters were in the area. The 700 Allied fighters which had been accompanying us were certainly appreciated and they were forever zigzagging everywhere around us, they were forever on the alert even though they had picked us up over France and had to escort us so far.
When we reached the S. P. and turned on the bomb run, Sid opened the bomb doors and received a full open from Pappy while Heap thru out chaff to mess up the radar zeroing flak guns below. As we started our bomb run the fighter pilots lined up in front of us and led us in over the target like a football team. Those boys will stick with you come hell or high water. Many were flying below in front to draw the flak away from us and I hope they realize how awful much a bomber crew appreciated each and every effort put out on their gallant part. When we started our bomb run, I turned my turret to the front and what I saw bewildered me. Thru a sky literally black with black puffs of bursting flak were the bombers forever passing thru, escorted by fighters.
Rockets were coming up here and there-leaving long trails of white vapor toward the ground while where they burst was a long white puff like a small cloud of alto-stratus cloud. In front several bombers were going down lighting the sky up like a torch and leaving a block trail of smoke as they fell toward the earth. I could see no open parachutes so if the airmen did get out they were delaying the opening of the chute to prevent fire from engulfing it.
Here and there out of shooting distance a jet plane was streaking leaving puffs of vapor trail which meant they were only in cruising jet and not full power, P-5 I's were chasing them I seen none shot down. As we passed thru the flak, it started coming up in barrages and it was exploding everywhere, how we escaped it without going down I will never know.
Several exploded so close the sound was very loud when they exploded, others sounded like a dull thud. Then we reached the target and I cleared Sid above and hence Pappy clear him below I felt the jerk of salvoed bombs and Heap called bombs all gone then Heap called, "the bomb doors are still open" my heart stopped for I had to crank them closed.
It was very hard work and it seemed I'd never get them closed, but at last they were closed. When I was once again in my turret, I seen a red flash behind us and then a long torch toward the ground, one of our gallant fighters was going down in flame from a direct hit by flak, I had seen several planes go down but yet every time I see one go down I get sick inside and a cold feeling develops around my heart, Imaginations I guess_
Brownie had started to slow down now as we had passed the rally point and were back in formation, but Heino, our tail gunner was still calling out burning planes and tracking flak behind us. At last we were once again relieved to know we were out of the flak and on our way home. Brownie called over the inter-phone for a check on us all, but luck was with us for no one had been hit although we had been hit by flying flak several times. Most of our escort was dropping
down to strafe and hunt for enemy fighters as well as take pictures of our target which was burning furiously below and behind. After dropping our bombs from 26,000 ft_ we dropped down to 20,000 ft. and after two hours we again past over the lines having escaped the wrath of Nazi Germany_
We flew for ever an hour across Belgium and dropped down to low altitude as we crossed the English Channel for home, hot chocolate and sandwiches plus slum for chow and our good old G. 1. sack (to you, our bunk)_ When we reached the Base, we were the last almost to peel off and land. Upon cutting engines we removed our tired carcasses from the plane to count the holes in our plane.
We had twenty holes throughout our ship and had not gone down as had 49 bombers as well as 12 of our fighters to 30 of the Jennies' fighters. After having hot cocoa we returned to the chow hall where we had slum then we came home on the way checking for the most appreciated mail from our loved ones on the way.
NUMBER 3 HAD BEEN COMPLETED.
(Side note: intense & accurate flak, 20 holes in ship, fighter (P-51) went down behind, 49 bombers shot down 12 Allied & 30 enemy fighters lost.)
RAID # 4, OCT. 3rd ,1944 NURNBURG
We were called out again on Oct. 3`d with the usual call Heap, Fredericksen, Holmes, Heino and Newman eat at 3:30, briefing at 4:30. We followed the usual procedure and at last found ourselves awaiting take off at the end of the runway when our turn to pull onto the runway arrived we taxied up and then waited for the green light from the tower.
It soon came and Brownie kicked off the brakes and we were off down the runway with 4- 9 cylinder Wright Cyclone engines roaring a wicked song. We were carrying 20- 250 pounders
and full Tokyo's (2,780) gals. As the airspeed indicator read 105 we left the runway and we were again off for the Reich, we climbed to 19,000 ft. to form then headed out across the Channel.
It was a beautiful day and the sky was bright and clear. As we passed over the Channel we could see a convoy of ships passing thru of which I counted 40 of the type I couldn't identify. After nearly an hour of flying over the blue Channel filled with white caps we reached the coast of Belgium and headed inland. The white sandy beach made a pretty white line between the land of Belgium and the dark blue sea.
We could see the many small farms and the homes of the farmers looked like small blocks and were of many different colors, some had light colored thatched roofs newly thatched then there were some of a dark color probably of older days.
We could see the geometrically laid out forests which showed up as a yellow area below. We flew over this beautiful area for over an hour then crossed the front lines into Germany.
We crossed near Hunen (?) and the country below seemed very rough. Then as we crossed the Rhine along which runs a very modem highway which was very visible from 20,000 ft. .
After that we flew over level country which was marked every where with smoke from little towns which were much closer together than in most parts of the U. S.. We finally reached the SP. and Sid opened the Bombay doors, the flak was very inaccurate and light, a few rockets came up as we were making our bomb run, one just passed in front of the leading edge of our left wing
and exploded a few hundred feet above us. Our fighter escort of P-5 I's were cruising lazily all around us and no enemy fighters came up to molest them except a couple jet planes which went streaking toward the sky several miles away.
At last Sid called bombs away and I felt the jump upwards of the plane as the bombs were released, the target had been visual and we had hit the oil refinery which we were after. Smoke bellowed up in a black rolling cloud which soon obscured our vision of the town. Then we were leaving the target and again were headed for home.
In an hour and a half, we were again passing back over the lines into Belgium and our escort had left us. Occasionally we saw a plane passing us, they were mostly Limie planes, Lancaster's to be exact. We let down as we passed back over the Channel and some time later we passed over the English coast into England, as we continued on toward our base we flew at 1,000 ft.. From that altitude we could see people out in the fields and cattle and horses grazing in the yellowing pastures of the countryside.
When we arrived at the base we circled for quite sometime as we were about the last to land. Our turn finally arrived and we again touched the precious earth after nearly nine hours in the air. We this time drank our share of the whiskey as well as the cocoa and eating sandwiches. Then came gun cleaning and we were thru until next time we then went to the barracks but of course via the mess hall. We then checked our mail to see if we were lucky, "I was" I received 15 letters many of which were two and three months old.
RAID # 5 OCT. 5th , 1944 MUNSTER
We were awakened by the usual call of Heap, Fredericksen, Holmes, Heino and Newman, it was 2 o'clock in the morning and after we fought the sleep from our eyes, we climbed aboard our bicycles and took off for the mess hall, this was our 5t' mission and we were still kind of nervous. After our usual chow of dehydrated eggs, grapefruit juice and cereal, plus G. I. coffee. which was strong as lye we started for the armament building. We were one of the first crews there and we took special precautions with our guns as we were very sure we weren't to be caught napping by and Kraut.
After this job was done we went over to the briefing building to hear what they had in store for us. We were to bomb an airfield at Munster, we were to bomb from 24,000 ft., and the was a number of enemy fighters in the vicinity estimated at 250 fighters. We were carrying incendiaries of which there were 6 and 6-500 pounders.
The cloud coverage of 4/10 with scattered clouds over the target. After our briefing, I went by the drying room to pick up my flight equipment and guns which were at the armament building. After which I and Pappy Holmes, Newman and Heino preceded on to our ship. We were flying 846 this morn, the worst airplane in the squadron, gas was leaking out from under the right wing dangerously close to the exhaust of number 3 engine. But the operations officer had politely assured us there were plenty more crews when we were gone_
The ground crew was loading the last of the bombs when we arrived, so we didn't have to long to wait, the plane had already been pre-flighted so we started to put our guns in. After my guns were installed, I started my usual checking of the plane which consisted of checking the turret and counting the flak suits, checking of all oxygen positions for pressure as well as the walk around bottles. I checked for the landing gear crank and extension and for ammunition for my gun.
In the meantime, Heap had arrived and he as well as the other enlisted men were checking their guns and oxygen. Soon all the officers arrived and while Brownie and Borg gave us our briefing Swiftie passed out our escape kits and Mandel passed out our candy rations.
Our briefing was short and so we all began the usual procedure of putting on our clothes for high altitude. When the time to start engines arrived we pulled the props thru and got into position. Soon I heard Swift calling out the before starting check and heard Brownie call for start engines. Swift answered with priming one starting one and in 15 seconds Brownie called for mesh one. Swift meshed on, she kicked over and Brownie shoved the mixture control from idle cut off to automatic rich and kicked the throttle up till she was turning over at 1200 rpm, she back fired a couple of times and Swift answered with oil pressure coming up. The remaining engines started with no trouble and after a warm up, taxi time arrived and we left the parking stand. While we waited for our turn to take off we completed the run up and final check of the engines, then we pulled onto the runway, when the fortress ahead of us left the runway, Brownie shoved the throttles wide open, the engines began a roaring and wicked song as the reached full - power and Brownie kicked the brakes off, we were off for Munster.
As we neared the end of the runway, Brownie pulled her off and called for wheels up and we were headed for the still starlit sky with gas still leaking from the wing of old 846.
After an hour of circling around we had assembled and started our climb for bombing altitude as we crossed the Channel which looked very cold this morning, it was light enough to see the whitecaps and they didn't look very appetizing to me. I had already opened the tokios tanks and checked the landing gear for up positions.
After an hour or more of crossing the north Channel we arrived at the Netherlands coast and between clouds we could see the still green pastures (for it was late in the fall) as we passed over. As we neared the target, we reached our bombing altitude and I could see flak coming up thick enough to make me wonder. It was bursting all around us now and it was black looking clouds or puffs as it exploded, occasionally a rocket bursted near us and to me it seemed like we ere in sort of a dream land, then I heard Sid call bomb doors open, check them will you Red. I grabbed the crank at the foot of my turret and after opening the door to the Bombay, I climbed out in the Bombay, I checked the doors with the crank. I could see 24,000 ft. straight below. I answered him when I was again in the turret with Bombay's open all the way.
After a short bomb run I heard him call bombs away and the plane jerked upward as 6,000 pounds of explosives went away. After the Bombay doors were closed and checked, we were nearing our rally point which is where the bombers leave their bombing formation and again assume the best defensive formation. Above we could see the fighter escort here and there
amongst the clouds, they had picked us up as we had crossed the Channel going in and were soon to leave us. As we left the target, Heino our tailgunner called up over the interphone. He said she's really burning back there. I can see three hangers on fire and nearly every plane except a few which are taxiing for the runway, there is one taking off, watch for him fellows, but he never showed up. The bombing had been visual and accurate so with that we headed home with flak still bursting here and there as we let down over the Channel.
On our way home, I removed my oxygen mask which had been on for nearly 5 hours and are my candy ration. I was tired and the rest didn't talk much so I'm sure they were too. As we neared the English coast, Pappy called Brownie for permission to leave the ball turret and with the OK Pappy climbed from his very cramped and uncomfortable position to the waist and stowed the ball turret for landing position.
At last we arrived at the English coast and Borg said we are scheduled to land in 35 minutes which turned out to be over an hour but at last it was our turn to go down and Brownie flipped the landing gear switch in the down position, I checked them with the crank.
By this time no. 3 engine had nearly-ran out of fuel and just after we hit the ground it died. When we neared the end of the runway, Brownie called for flaps up and Swift killed no. 2 and - unlocked the tail wheel.
After we reached the parking lot we found we had three small holes, one in the nose and two in the waist. I've had again been lucky, but if we had known what was to befall us on the next, we would have been very uneasy, we went to interrogation and on the way picked up our cocoa and sandwiches.
When it was over we removed our clothes in the drying room and cleaned our guns, then left for the mess hall where we had slum gallium. After that, we retired to our barracks where we built a fire and shot the breeze with many of our buddies who were to die on the next mission leaving only five men out of thirty in our barracks besides ourselves.
RAID # 6 OCT. 7th 1944 BOHLEN
On the morning of Oct. 7th we were again aroused by the C. Q. at 3 o'clock and over England the sky was clear. We are a usual army breakfast and after checking our flight clothes, we checked our guns for operation and took off for briefing. There we learned we were to bomb Bohlen which was near Merseburg and was therefore a rough target. We could expect 550 fighters in that area and we were to be escorted by nearly 800 Allied fighters which sure sounded good to me. We were to bomb at nearly 27,000 ft.. As time passed on we checked everything at our plane which was 520 this morning and at last we were at the runway for takeoff. This was a good plane except it had the clock in the cockpit missing but out side of that it was nearly all there.
At last we were at the runway and Brownie opened the throttles and as the tower flashed the green light we were off down the runway. As we reached 105 mph brownie called for wheels up and stepped on the brakes to stop the wheels from turning which they did as the went up into the vacelles(?).
After we had reached 500 feet he called for 6 reduction of power from 2500 rpm and 46" of manifold pressure to 2300 and 38" and I went back to the radio room to open the tokio tanks, we were carrying 2700 gals. Of gasoline and 6,000 pounds of G. P and incendiary bombs. After I had checked the tokio tanks and checked the landing gear for full up position, I returned to my turret speaking to Mandell (bombardier) in the Bombay. He was pulling the pins from the bombs thus setting them for explosion on impact. When I reached the cockpit, I reported the wheels -as being full up and tokio's checked for condensation I began arranging my parachute which I couldn't wear in the turret and my gun rags at the bottom of the turret which I used to wipe off excess oil from my turret. I placed these of course away from any oxygen system which was near, as oil and oxygen are very combustible.
It was still somewhat dark and the stars were shining thru a clear sky except for a few small skidding clouds. The plane we were following shot some flares which was the assemble sign and Brownie put our plane into position in formation which was what we called high element tail end charley. We didn't like the position because in case of fighters we might get shot down first. if they came from the rear. At last we were assembled and we headed for the Channel we had
assemblies at 10,000 feet which was a usual assembling altitude and since we were going deep into Germany we hadn't started climbing anymore since assembling but did when we neared the Belgium coast. It was day light now and as we crossed Belgium every thing was coming to life. There was a great deal of smoke from towns and villages, we crossed north of Brussels and entered Germany near Aachen, slightly to the north.
We went on east then after passing between Marburg and Fulda, we turned more to the north toward our target which was up near Mersburg. The Rhine and the mountains to the west were a pretty blue but of a somewhat different darker color, and the high bluffs along the Rhine stood out against the darker color.
There was many villages along the Rhine and the inhabitants had already came to life. After we crossed the Rhine we flew over yellow wheat fields and small forests until we neared our target which was a rougher terrain.
We had been joined by our fighter escort now and we encountered scattered flak most of the way to the target. As we neared the target we could see German jet planes streaking sky ward leaving a thin white trail, then rockets started coming up here and there and the flak became thicker. Our escort fighters had began dog fights with the jet planes here and there above us in the sky and as we turned on the I. P. I could see none of our escort anywhere.
Sid opened the bomb doors but I never checked them for about that time all hell broke loose. From a misty cloud above our tail and about 1300 yds. Away appeared a mass of planes in the mist and it took me only an instant to recognize the German FW 190's, ME 109's, 110's and 210's. They were coming in on our tail in mass formation which we called a company front attack, there was we estimated 50 German fighters, our tailgunner Heino called us in a very clear voice, "themes some odd looking planes back here", and a second later " they are coming in", but James E. Holmes the ball turret gunner and I had already seen them.
I first looked to the planes on our wings for fire support but the upper turret on neither plane had seen them as far as I could tell for the turrets were pointed off at other directions.
So I then looked thru my computing sight of my upper turret framed the planer and held high and pressed the triggers, Heino and Pappy were also firing. At the burst from all three guns, two German planes went down burning fiercely while a 3`h peeled off to the left smoking terribly. A fourth turned on its back and dove to a lower altitude, it was also smoking_ The German planes seemed to hesitate for an instant then the came in to kill.
Heino's guns stopped firing after the first burst and one of Holmes also stopped but we kept firing with what we had. As the came on in Newman started firing from the waist and Heap had left his radio room for the waist but lines and oxygen hose had detained him. The Germans were attempting to shoot-down everyone.
One FW 190 come in at 5:30, I seen him start to turn in, I opened up on him, he then crossed our tail and I fired again, he pulled off under no. 4 engine and exploded like a shell. In the mean time four planes came under the tail passed under Pappy's turret which only had one gun blazing, the first burst into flame, the second exploded behind the cockpit, the 3`' , one wing came off and the last went away smoking. But they kept coming in, they were shooting down everyone around us.
One plane came up by the waist near our wing tip and Newman shot half the cockpit away, he dove away smoking and burning, another came up on our left wingtip so close I could see the pilots face and his oxygen mask partly covering it. He was watching my guns and he was firing at a plane ahead of us. I framed him and held down my triggers, his plane became a sieve and
turned over on its back and gained enough in altitude so he was above me somewhat, bur I never stopped firing. He peeled off on one wing burning and smoking with the wicked black cross on the wings. Then two more attacked a bomber below us and to our left. Its right wing was burning something terrible. Then the whole plane caught fire and its crew started bailing out, two got away safely we thought. The-skin had by this time burned off and we could see two men running for the waist door but they fell thru the plane floor before they reached it. I could see their legs below the bottom of the plane which they had fell half way thru, they lay in a raging inferno flying and burning to death.
Some of the men were jumping without parachutes, some pulled the rip cord to quick and the parachute burned up. Around us B-17's were going down burning something awful and here and there a crewman would bail out but it didn't seem to me as though very many escaped death. Out of 12 bombers we were up there alone, 9 bombers had been shot down and two shot up so bad part of the crew and one bailed out because their plane was on fire, but the fire was put out and it escaped across into Belgium, but was left there as was the other plane because it had been shot up so bad.
The remaining crew members of the two ships returned to England a few days later and were sent on to a rest home for a rest but we kept flying until our turn came, then we got a rest after our 20th mission.
When we found ourselves up there alone we headed for the biggest cloud bank we could see and then circled high over the target awaiting to join another group as they emerged from the target. Sid had salvoed the bombs when we were attacked we had no bombs to drop on the target. He had also sent a German fighter to its fiery grave. As we circled around above the target, 3 German jet planes attacked us, Adamson (Borg) opened fire on one which was making a pursuit curve from 3 o'clock toward the tail but got no results.
Pappy also fired a few rounds, I seen them but had knocked my selector switches in the off position by accident so my guns wouldn't fire, shortly afterwards, I discovered the trouble. The others made passes at us but were farther away so they never hit us either. We escaped with 2 holes in the left stabilizer which we kidded Newman about but which would have been impossible for his gun to make. On the way home everyone was talkative except me and that was because I had an inoperative microphone. Borg made the remark; "I couldn't see anything to shoot at except pieces of planes so I waited for a whole one to come by". We joined a group of bombers as they came out of the flak over the target which was moderate to intense and headed for home.
The sky was quite cloudy and we took a route home north of what we had taken on our way to the target but crossed the Channel in nearly the same place. As we crossed we dropped to a lower altitude, upon arrival at the base we didn't have to wait to land even though we had been tail end charley for there was no one to land ahead of us. They had paid the supreme price in flak filled skies over a bomb wrecked and burning target in Hitlerik Germany.
We were the only plane crew to land that day at our base, every plane we had lost left an empty parking stand. Brownie upon climbing from the ship looked at us and said "you were on the ball, that's all that brought us back". We had removed our guns from the plane and as Swifty gathered up our escape kits, I looked up into his face, and recalled how over the target in the very thickest of the fighting he had said "don't shoot any parachutists fellows". We climbed into the truck which had arrived and when we arrived at the drying room, we were met by our buddies who hadn't flown that day.
Where is the rest?, when will they be home, they landed in Belgium didn't they? We answered "we got hit by fighters", they looked at us with stem faces and said who'd they get, "all but us we said" and they turned away with thick voices "oh".
We were interrogated by our colonel that day and amongst the crew we claimed 7 enemy planes but received credit for 6 planes, 3 destroyed, 2 damaged and one probable. Holmes had received credit for 2 destroyed and one probable, Newman; one damaged, Mandel; one damaged, and I; one destroyed.
When we arrived home the belongings of those shot down had already been or was being removed from our barracks either by the 1st Sergeant or by buddies who wanted their belongings. That evening as we sat almost alone in the barracks, an airman came in and asked for Heino, our tailgunner said "I'm Heino, "what do you want"? The kid hardly out of his teen age said, "my twin brother went down today, he was flying with the crew on your left wing but low. Heino told him his twin brother had escaped from the plane on our left & he was quite sure he had gotten out all right.
We never knew at the time, that this young lad was to die later with another entire crew in a bomber which exploded slightly above but right in front of that same left wing. We ate chow as usual that evening and were grounded the next day. We sat around talking about the fighters of the day before and of how ugly those black crosses were, we had tangled with Georings famous flying circus. That evening some new crews started moving into our barracks, "where's everybody, they asked"?, got shot down we said, one walked over and threw his barracks bag on a dead mans bunk and said, "I'll never last three days".
I don't like to sleep in a dead mans bed and I didn't blame him as I was superstitious myself.
I later seen this gunner and another crew member of his in California after I returned to the states, they had all returned safely. We remained at rest until Oct. 18th when we again bombed Germany hitting Hassel.
(side note: 40-50 enemy fighters came in on our tail (ME-109's, FW- I90's, ME-110's, & ME120's) and shot down the ships on both sides and in front of us. We claimed six enemy fighters 3 FW-190's, 2 ME-210's & I ME-110. We were all that was left of our squadron of 12 plus the bad plane
I visually picked up fighters at tail at approx. 1100 yd., the ball turret did like wise, two fighters went down "then at a 1,000 yd. None injured in our crew and 2 bullet holes in plane. I shot down 2 FW-190's, but received credit for neither, due to officer making up claims wrong.)
RAID #7 OCT. 18th, 1944 KASSEL
On the morning of Oct. 18th , we were again awakened early by the change of quarters and after the few usual gripes we headed for the mess hall to engulf ourselves with the most familiar and most sarcastic food the army has, dehydrated aigs (eggs), coffee, cereal and marmalade. It was sometime after 2 o'clock and the moon shone beautifully and every thing shone like silver. The enlisted men of my crew arose first and beat the rest of the gunners to our mess hall, so we hadn't wasted any time standing in line. We were all in a good mood, upon finishing our breakfast and as we rode thru the moonlit woods on our bicycles, we chatted and joked and hoped for an easy mission.
It was quite warm this morning and I somewhat enjoyed the ride. After passing thru the quarter of a mile wide forest of oak, spruce, maple and elm we crossed the highway which passed
on south to Bury St. Edmonds which is a very historic town of the early days. After getting our equipment ready for our flight, we rode our bikes on to the armament building to check and clean our guns, as sometimes gunners didn't clean their guns to well after a mission, as everyone was usually quite tired.
Upon completion of this task, we caught the first empty gun truck that came by, placed our guns in it and climbed aboard, yelling to the driver to take er' away.
We passed by the drying building and picked up our heavy A-3 bags and went on our to the ship. Heap the radio operator had briefing that morning as he usually did and he wasn't with us, we always took his gun out to the plane anyway to prevent his having to waste his time getting it. We didn't have to wait for the ground crew to pre-flight as all had been finished upon our arrival, so we installed our caliber 50 air cooled machine guns and checked them for operation. Everyone as a result of our close call the mission before checked our ammunition and even though the ground armament man said there was the maximum amount of ammo, we asked for more and got it. After dividing it up, I felt better and went on checking our airplane for flak suits, oxygen pressure in all systems and operation of each, the form 1 was laying near so I filled it out as far as was my duty and dropped our of the navigators hatch to check the air foils and control surfaces, they were all 0. K. as was the landing gear, tires, struts, hydraulic lines, oil lines and the lines to the propeller governors which are often leaking oil.
As I finished, Pappy and Heino began to install the bombardiers' guns as Sid had not yet arrived and they asked me to turn on the battery and main line switch to operate the nose turret. I had already checked all the lights while the put-put (external generator) was running and everything was in fine condition. Finally a truck arrived bringing our officers and as we dressed for the flight, we received our briefing and candy rations also our escape kits.
We were to bomb at 23,000 ft., were carrying 12-500 pound general purpose bombs which we had already seen in the Bombay and could expect at least 250 enemy fighters near the target. We were to have 300 P-5 l's (mustangs) for escort with two groups (60) P-47's in the area of our target for area support.
Soon after Brownie, Swifts, Adamsons, and Sids arrival we all got into position and upon the arrival of start engine time Brownie called to Swift for prime one start one, Swift primed one and flipped the switch to start the inertia starter turning over, as it did so it made a whining noise and after 15 seconds had passed Brownie called for mesh one, Swift flipped the switch to mesh the starter to the engine and Brownie followed quickly with moving the mixture control from idle cut-off to automatic rich, engine no. I which is the out board on the left coughed, sputtered, the engine cowl vibrated and as Brownie pumped the throttle a few short strokes, engine no. I began to roar.
Swift said the oil pressure is coming up. Brownie placed no. 1 at 1,000 rpm for warm up while they repeated the procedure for the remaining 3 engines. No. 4 backfired until Brownie placed the carburetor mixture control in full rich which quickly stopped the backfiring. As we waited for the engines to warm up and taxi time to arrive, we watched the cylinder temperature for the rise in temperature which occurs during proper functioning of the engines. At last taxi time arrived and as we taxied out of the parking stand, we waved a so long to the ground crew and joined the long waiting line of planes waiting to take off. As we waited Brownie, Swift and I checked every thing fore take off to be sure nothing was wrong and upon the final run up check, Brownie followed the plane ahead of us onto the runway and as the fortress ahead cleared the
long runway, he shoved the four throttles to 2500 rpm and 46 inches of manifold pressure.
We didn't have to wait long for the green light from the tower and Brownie kicked the brakes off and we started down the runway under full power with 6,000 pounds of TNT to bury us should Brownie make a mistake on takeoff. As she cleared the ground like a big hind, Brownie asked for wheels up and Swift flipped the electric switch to raise the giant gear. They came up slow but at last were in the wheel well. As we reached 500 ft. Brownie asked for 2300 rpm and 38 inches of manifold pressure which Swift gave him by reducing the Prop. Controls, turbo supercharger, and throttles. It was daylight now and everything below could be plainly seen in the early dawn, the sun was coming up clear with the promise of a beautiful day. As we made our gradual climb we circled and as I returned to the cockpit upon finishing checking the gear for all the way up position and draining the tokio tank valves of condensation, I could see the many planes above us shining here and there in the rays of the rising sun.
It was a beautiful sight. Upon reaching 10,000 ft. we began to assemble into flight formation and after an hour of assembling we headed across the Channel toward Belgium and as we crossed, we gained altitude from the white capped and pretty blue Channel. It seemed to be such a beautiful Autumn day to e out on a mission of death and destruction.
As we passed over the beach along the Belgium coast it reminded me of a wide white line between a field of green and one of blue camas, it was a beautiful sight. We were now about 17,000 ft. and as we passed further in we could see the many small fields and pastures which were every color from rich green to black plowed fields.
There was many cattle grazing in the pastures and fields and they looked like black specs from where we were. The many roads, many of which were hand surfaced were lined on each side by tall trees and occasionally we would pass over a private forest in which the trees were all planted in straight lines and were of every color from green to amber and scarlet.
We flew over beautiful scenery like this for an 11/2 hours or more crossing the Belgium German border south of Aachen and crossing the Rhine where the Sieg river enters the Rhine. From there until we reached the mountains east of the Rhine between Siegen and Giessen, we passed over wheat fields and flat farm land which was a yellow color in which there were yet many tiny specs which I took to be shocks of grain. We crossed the Lahn River a few miles north of Marburg over which flak was bursting and rockets and jet planes were streaking skyward. We were over Kraut land far enough so Sid called us gunners over the interphone and told us to clear ourselves and test fire our guns. After Pappy had cleared my left gun.
Both guns were working fine so I called Sid over the interphone and told him upper turret checks OK too which he answered "Roger", the code word we used for OK. By now we were nearing the target and several members of the crew had already asked Borg how far it was to the target. Borg said it was 50 miles or 15 minutes yet so we started getting ready. I helped Brownie and Swift on with their flak suits and climbed into my turret again to watch for fighters and call out the position of flak bursts. We passed one target going east then did a 180 degree turn to the north and upon reaching the S. P. Sid opened the Bombay doors and then we started entering the blanket of bursting flak and rockets which were everywhere now.
As we continued on toward the target, it became thicker and I could see jet planes streaking for the sky around us. Our area fighter support was up around us now and our escort of fighter planes which had picked us up near Marburg was criss-crossing above, below and were both in front and behind us as we went in on the target. A B-17 ahead of us in another group was peeling off on fire leaving a long black trail of smoke toward the ground but I seen no chutes, Borg had
seen it for he called it out over the interphone_ When we passed over the target I saw the group
lead bomber drop his bombs and felt the jerk of our plane as they went away, but Heap who was watching them go called out there are two on the left out board racks, so Sid salvoed them and Heap yelled over the interphone "all gone".
Everyone was calling out flak now and occasionally flak would burst near enough to jar our plane. We found later we had received 18 holes throughout the plane but had hurt no one more than being scared to death. When we reached the rally point, we left our spread out formation which we had assembled into at the Initial Point and went back to flight formation for fire support and started for home. The flak was still coming up plenty thick and we were climbing, diving and zigzagging for evasive action to fool the Kraut flak gunners.
As we continued to fly west from the target the burst flak became thinner and our fighter support left us to go down on the deck to strafe every thing they could find. Several continued chasing jet planes and dog fighting here and there.
The worst part of our mission was now over and as we continued toward home ( our base in Limie Land), we again passed over inhabitation much as upon our inward flight. When we reached the German border we started to loose altitude somewhat and continued to do so until we reached 20,000 ft. which we remained at as we flew on toward home over the farms and towns of Belgium.
Upon reaching the Channel we began dropping to a lower altitude and when we had dropped to 13,000 ft. we removed our oxygen mask which we had put on over the Channel going over. Everyone was discussing the target which we had left smoking and burning behind, being our bomb racks hadn't worked properly, Sid dropped them in a nearby field to make water holes for cows.
Anyway, we had hit the target which was what we wanted. I was now getting hungry and began noticing I was tired as even eight hours in a turret was a cold and tiresome job. It had been 30 deg. C. below zero that day and I had felt the cold because my electrically heated suit hadn't been functioning properly. As we neared the English coast, Newman called me and asked me how I'd like a big beef steak fried with onions which made my hunger worse. I told him I'd be satisfied with some slum Gulliam or a sandwich and a cup of hot chocolate.
Pappy had received permission to leave the ball from Brownie and also joined the conversation with "goin' on pass Red"?, me and Heino are goin to Tonbridge I answered with I don't know whether to or not. Heap said I'm going down to see a little gal in Bury St. Edmonds this time, then Borg entered the conversation with Sid hasn't gave a report on hisself since last pass and asked "how about that Sid", Sid said he had been a good boy, but Borg said ah now Sid, are we supposed to believe that.
Then the conversation died as we had passed over the English Coast and were peeling off, it seemed like we flew for ever then at last the element ahead of us finished peeling off and Brownie dove, pulled her out then dropped the nose and as we peeled off to the left Newman said, "ahhhhha".
As we circled the base to land, I checked the gear for down position and the ball turret for stowed position and the radio antenna for "in" position when I returned to the cockpit and told Brownie she's OK to land. So as the plane ahead of us reached the end of the runway, Brownie, although he too was tired, he greased her in in a 3 point landing. Upon nearing the end of the long runway, swift flipped the switch to raise the flaps and unlocked the tail wheel when called for, No. 2'& 3 engines had stopped turning over now as they had been shut off while Brownie
was braking her down and Swift shut off the Mag switches for 2 & 3 when we reached the parking area and had parked where the crew chief wanted it.
We climbed from the plane, Brownie, Swift and I being the last to leave as the Form had to be written up and I had to remove my guns after we had landed as there was no other alternative. A gun truck soon arrived and upon piling in we headed for the drying room where we rid ourselves of our excess equipment on the way leaving our guns at the gun shop.
After putting our clothes away, all us gunners cleaned our guns as we had no interrogation and headed for the mess hail. Over the door someone had put a sign, it read; "thru this door pass the poorest damn cooks and the best damn gunners in the E. to.
When we had finished eating, our second meal of the day which consisted of potatoes & roast beef & C rations, we went home to jour barracks somewhat revived after our meal and right off the bat Pappy and Heino started getting ready to go on pass. I went later and caught a 7:35 train for London.
RAID # 8 OCT. 19TH , 1944 MANNHEIM
(raided FW 190 factory)
On the morning of Oct. 19th, we were called out for a raid on an airfield at Mannheim Krautland, it was 4 A. M. in the morn and as usual everyone was sleepy eyed and pretty quiet. After getting our flashlights mounted on our bikes and our 45 automatics slung over our shoulder, we started the short trip to the mess hall.
As we left our camping area with its metal huts we passed the wash room and then the officers bath house and latrine, then the mail room, orderly room and rest of the C. O. then we rode down the narrow 10 ft. wide paved road, which had trees on our left and brush and a Limie fence and field on our right.
After we were 300 yds from our area we passed by another sqdn. Which was made up of only lead flight crews then thru a forest of oak for a short distance then onto one of the roads which went to the mess hall which was a 150 yds down the road on our right_ As we pedaled down this road it was beginning to get light but we all 5 enlisted men had our bikes lit up with a headlight and a red tail light. Newman had converted an engine troubleshooting light which kept flickering on and off as he rode.
I was always behind as I had to build my bike out of parts of others which had been stolen or wrecked, the chain kept coming off the sprocket so I had to cuss at it every few yds. When -I arrived at the mess hall the other four had reached the door and were trying to beat each other to the short line which was now starting to grow. We always took our tail and head lamp off our bicycle to prevent some other sticky fingered guy from coming along and taking them.
Our breakfast this A. M. was a little out of the ordinary as we were having hot cakes and eggs which was a rarity around there, everyone was waiting inline to get their hot cakes so I had to wait a couple minutes also_ When I reached the dining room, I seated myself with the rest of the enlisted men of the crew, and as usual the conversation was about the Limie girls which we called queens.
Pappy and Heino left for the operations building to check off their names which were on the bulletin board to show they were present, but Newman, Heap & I were still eating as our consumption was some what greater or something, but they finished before me so they waited for me to finish mine, then we took up our plates and table wear and cup and dropped each in a
separate pan of water and left to ride our Limie bicycles through the woods which had now became light enough to see without our lights.
There was several big mud holes which would make Heap or me a mud bath when we went thru. After the usual procedure of checking our names off from the bulletin board in operations we checked in our money and personal belongings except for four pounds of English money (which is 16 dollars in ours).
We then discussed our flight position which was element lead in the low section. We preferred the high section because the low usually received a lot of flak. After that we checked our flight clothes and parachutes for safety as near as we could and left to check and clean our guns. We had no gunners briefing more than what Brownie would give us so we caught one of the first gun trucks and picked up our flight equipment to the drying room and took a fast rough ride in a Studebaker of six wheel drive army truck which had a canvas over the back to keep out the wind.
When we arrived at the plane, the bombs had been loaded but the ground crew were giving it a preflight run up. While they finished running it up we gunners except Heap who was getting briefed, climbed into the waist to get out of the wind. After 10 minutes was up they had finished and we placed our flight gear in the rear waist of the plane and went about installing the guns into the receivers which were always left in the gun position whether in a turret or otherwise.
As I was finishing checking the plane for fuel, flak suits, oxygen and proper flight surfaces, the four officers and CPL. Heap arrived and as we dressed for the flight, Brownie gave us our briefing while Swift passed out our escape kits, and Sid passed out our candy rations. At last we were ready to go up again.
Our fighter escort was 200 mustangs, no area support and we were to bomb from 26,000 ft..
It was to be -35 deg. C below zero and we were carrying 6,000 pounds of bombs, 6 being general purpose, the other 6 being incendiary bombs.
We were all ready to go and in our position for start engine time when it arrived and after all four engines were running, the received 10 minutes to warm up before it was time to taxi out, at last the time arrived and Brownie asked for parking brakes off and unlock tail wheel which Swift promptly did. I waved to the crew chief from behind the cockpit and at last we were off for the runway.
As we taxied, Heap was looking for his parachute harness but then remembered he had left it in his locker so Brownie called the tower and the equipment officer met us before we were ready to turn on the runway with Heaps parachute harness, Then it was our turn to turn onto the runway. Our final run-up and check had been completed and Brownie revved up the engines and upon a green light from the tower, kicked off the brakes and we were on our way. Brownie jockeyed first no. I throttle then no. 4 to keep us straight down the runway and then as we neared the end of the long hand surfaced runway, Brownie pulled her off and called for wheels up, Swift responded and as the big gear retracted, we passed over a high voltage power line over a Limies brick house and barn and out over a pasture with trees along the fence line also full of cows and sheep also a house or two and then I lost track of the ground below while I checked the tokio tank valves for condensation and the gear for clear up position.
As I retraced my steps from the tail to the cockpit thru the Bombay, I patted Sid on the "guess what" as I passed him, he was pulling the pins from the bombs setting them for explosion on impact once the vanes had spun the shafts which sets the timing device as it is removed by the air vanes when falling. Upon returning to the cockpit, I reported my check to the pilot and loaded
my guns before reaching altitude to deep them from freezing and in case they should I could loosen them by firing the round in the chamber.
I hooked up my electric suit to see how it worked and then climbed into my upper turret to set the target dimension dial on the computing sight to 33' for correct computing of Kraut fighters.
I was now all set for flight and upon completion of my check found we were at 10,000 ft. and were assembling into formation_ We were assembling over "The Wash" known to us as a gunners advanced training ground before going into the real Macoy. After circling for quite some time we reached a climax and turned in as easterly direction for the North Channel and France and Belgium beyond.
It was nearing seven o'clock and the sun had already risen and was making a promise of a clear day as our bombers reflected sunlight in a clear blue sky. There seemed to be a slight tail wind which whipped the many waves of the Channel now over 10,000 ft. below into a beautiful fury of spray and whitecaps.
As we neared the continental coast of France, we passed directly over Dunkirke, which once was a place of evacuation for trapped and disorganized armies of English, French and Canadian forces. The long, wide beach still bore the marks of dive bombing (pock marks as they are known to airmen) by the Germans during that heroic evacuation by fishermen.
This morning it was clear and peaceful below. As we passed over heading East, many small inland ponds reflected like mirrors is the sun and as we flew inland these were replaced by a French country side which was covered with foliage which looked a different color from the farm land. We had already climbed to 17,000 ft. now and had long since put on our oxygen masks which are such a hindrance to humanity.
South of Lille we passed over some industries which were belching smoke that screened the area for some miles around from sight. As we flew on toward Mannheim, we crossed from France into Belgium and again passed over farm land which continued on East into Eastern Luxembourg where we flew over mountains and mining country until we reached the Rhine. When we were within 30 minutes of Mannheim, we picked p our fighter escort, we had passed thru meager flak near Neunkinchen.
As we neared our S. P. which was slightly north of Heidleberg & East of Mannheim the flak became much thicker and rockets began coming up dangerously close. As we turned on the target at the S. P. three enemy jet planes were streaking for the sky around us but were to far away to shoot at, our escort which was all around us chased then to a high altitude then gave up the chase. Sid had opened our Bombay doors now and we were in bombing formation and as we flew in on the target, the flak filled the sky around us and became dangerously close to our plane. Brownie was moving our plane in every direction in evasive action and as he did so 6 rockets came up and exploded in front of our right wing and above us leaving trails of smoke clear to the ground now 26,000 ft. below as we passed thru this I heard Sid yell bombs away and Heap OK'd him with all gone. As they went away our plane jerked upward as if hit by flak_ Then as the bombs hit the target, Pappy (ball turret gunner below) called Sid to tell him he had hit her square on the head as near as he could tell. Heino said "boy, she's really burning down there, it looks like everything is on fire".
We then left the target thru a pretty blue sky filled with bursting and rattling flak. As I turned my turret around searching and watching for fighters, I could see three holes in the wings, 1 on the left and 2 in the right, one of which was a hole 8 inches one way. I thought several times of how I should have liked to got that piece for a souvenir.
The gunners were calling out fighters and flak being sure of only who the flak belong too. Many of the fighters we weren't sure of until they came closer then they proved to be our escort which we have thanked so many times for their wonderful cooperation on those raids, many never coming home afterwards.
Once we were again rallied into flight formation, Brownie asked if anyone had been hurt but again our luck was with us for none of us had been hurt.
On our return trip we flew south of Luxenburg (city) and continued on a westward route flying over the industrial area north of Gerdun France also passing over Reins slightly to the north all this country was rolling and the ground below looked a hazy blue in the afternoon sun. We flew on west passing Soissons a few miles to the north and nearing the Channel in the vicinity of Calais.
Most of the country east of Calais for some distance appeared to me to be somewhat flat country here and there throughout. There was a lot of small farms and many farm houses and dairy barns here too, but I didn't see to many cows or other stock.
As we flew homeward bound over the Channel, it appeared to me as many of you have pictured it in you minds from folklore, a pretty blue with whitecaps here and there and maybe a fishing boat or sea rescue boat for flyers.
We flew for nearly an hour and a half across the Channel in a north westerly direction, then we crossed the English Coast northeast of Dover and after another half an hour of low flight over the rack fences and hedges of the English countryside we had reached our base and since we were to be one of the last planes to land, we circled for a few minutes then Brownie dropped the nose- of our fortress and pulled her up then dropped the nose again and peeled off to the left.
I always got a thrill our of peeling off no matter how tired I was. As we flew across the base above the traffic pattern, we could see planes landing and trucks and jeeps & gas trucks running in about every direction and being a chow hound, I looked for the chow line at the mess hall and was somewhat discouraged to see a good long one from up there, everything had been checked so we were OK to land and after cutting a couple other planes out we neared the runway and presently felt the jerk and heard the squeal of rubber as Brownie greased our plane in.
Swift shutoff no. 2&3 engines and flipped the mag switches to off position as the props stopped turning he then raised the wing flaps at the end of the runway and unlocked the tail wheel. We turned off the runway and headed back toward our parking stand. After Brownie had parked our plane and shut off the engines, the plane became a scene of cursing, laughing and joking as we removed our guns and belongings from the plane. We returned our escape kits to Swift, and he said who in the hell ain't gimme his escape kit, and Borg says "ah johnnie , I
thought I was going to get to keep that one".
Upon arrival at the gun shack, we all climbed out with our guns and the teddy bear kid made a second trip to get the bolt studs and driving springs which are a part of our machine guns.
After that we went to the drying room and removed from us the heavy flight gear which we had to carry or wear. After that we ate sandwiches and drank cocoa as we were interrogated on the mission, we reported the flak as moderate and also that 846 was leaking gasoline inboard of
no. 3 engine near the exhaust.
Then when they turned us loose, we again grabbed our frames and rode to the gun shack to clean our guns.. This we done in short order and ran a race down thru the woods thru mud holes and all to the mess hail. The line had disappeared by now so we could eat without to much waiting so in we went, again we had slum gulliam (mutton stew) "which ate as tho it was good".
....
back and as it started falling, hit another plane which caught fire and also peeled off, dove a short distance, then went into a spin. No parachutes were seen from either.
When we reached the rally point, flak was still coming up thick and fast and several times Brownie had to use every measure in evasive action t keep us from being shot down.
Our fighter escort was every where now and some had gone down to see what the results were. At last we were headed for home and as we left the target area which was still covered with bursting flak we could see the target smoking and burning until we had nearly reached the north sea again.
Upon reaching the North Sea again, we again flew over the Zeiderzee and again encountered flak, it was bursting awfully close then I felt a terrible explosion and our plane began to dive for the sea 20,000 ft. below, I tried to get out of my turret but couldn't, then I felt the plane level off, Brownie had turned on the automatic pilot which had the only elevator up cable which had not been tore in two.
Newman called me over the interphone, Red, everything is shot all to hell back here "he said", as I neared the waist I could see he was right, his oxygen system was shot out, ammunition chute to his gun shot in two as well as several rounds of ammunition, and cables to the elevators a rudder both trim tabs and main surfaces were hanging in the waist like so much rope, they had also been severed by flak. I remained somewhat uneasy till we turned toward the English shore away from the Belgium shore out from which we had remained while flying at sea.
As we turned toward England we could see our escort fighters which were now returning home also, we were down to 12,000 ft. now so we could remove our oxygen but everyone had been frightened enough to make them quiet.
When we flew across the shore line of England heading inland I was glad to see it, and I don't believe I was the only one either. After flying over the English countryside of small fields, pastures and castles owned by rich lords, we arrived at Bury St. Edmonds, we all could easily tell it because of so much smoke from the railroad yards.
As we turned toward our base, we began to wonder if we could make it down OK, but when it was our turn to go down, Brownie skimmed her in as he had always done and at last we could call ourselves safe. After following our after landing procedure, we arrived at the parking area and after parking, we removed our guns and counted 13 holes in our airplane.
When our gun truck arrived we were quick to pile in our guns and flight equipment and after dropping off our guns at the gun shop, we returned our flight equipment to the drying room and answered the few questions asked by the interrogating officer and ate sandwiches, drank cocoa & also scotch whiskey, those who wanted it. After that we picked up our personal belongings at the operations building,- then gave our guns a cleaning and took off for the mess hall.
We had boiled beef today so we really tanked up then, filled our pockets with bread when no one was looking and climbed aboard our frames and took off for the barracks where we chewed the fat of our narrow escape of the day.
RAID #10 OCT 26th, 1944 HANOVER
The morning of Oct. 26th we were again awakened early, it was a few minutes after 2:00 A.M. when I finally climbed out of my sack. The other crew members were groping around in the dark looking for their gloves and I couldn't find my shoes. Heap was still sawing wood so Pappy shook him and he groaned "did they call us out again"?.
Pappy and Heino were the first to leave for the mess hall as Pappy was an early bird whenever we were flying. After I got my shoes on and Newman found his gloves we again shook Heap to make sure he was awake and left for the mess hall .
As we rode onto the hand surfaced road to the mess hail Tex and I could see tail lights shining up the road and we could tell the way the one was zigzagging that it was Pappy, he always rode with a twitching front wheel. As we rode toward the mail room, Borg and Brown pulled onto the rode ahead of us.
Brownie was cussing his bicycle as some one had borrowed it a few days before and took it up to the theater and left it and in the process had bent the front fender to where it rubbed the tire, with a rattling noise being the result. There was only a few cyclists besides us headed for the mess hall, so after Brownie and Borg turned off for their own mess hall we rode on down the road to ours.
We had link sausages for breakfast this morning and of course the ever present G. I. coffee with bread and grapefruit juice to fill in. The table Heino and Pappy sat at was full so Newman and I hunted up another table back by the stove in the corner partly because it was slightly chilly this morning and partly because the fire in the dining room hadn't been going long enough to warm the place up.
Tex and I were always at the very height of our glory when sitting at a table "whether it had grub on it or stout, the difference was nil".
Tex was a little homesick this morning and he was talking about how he wished he was back in Paris, Texas with his little one. I was kind of dreamin' about it myself but my hopes were far distant.
At last we finished eating and after getting rid of our plates and silverware, we rinsed our coffee cups out at the sink, took a drink of water to rid our mouths of the acid burning of the grapefruit juice threw our cup in the water provided which splashed on a gunners shoes, who was waiting in line and left for the exterior with a line of profane following us.
We had no gunners briefing this morn so after checking our flight hear and receiving flak helmets from the drying room we left for the operations building to check off our names and check our position in the formation as well as turn in our personal belongings at the operations office.
This completed, we walked to the gun shop and there found Pappy and Heino. Upon finding my guns, I laid them on the opposite side of the table from Pappys and began my routine check, which was short this morning because I had used the same guns the day before and knew how they were set.
When I was finally ready to go Heino and Pappy had a gun truck and we began throwing in our guns, Heino was looking for Heaps right waist gun and after a few moments of searching found it and thru it into the truck. We picked up our flight clothes at the drying room and yelled out OK to the driver once we were all set to go.
He responded with a jerk and roar of the engine and we were off. When we arrived at the airplane, the crew chief had all four engines running, so we had to wait a few moments for him to finish pre-flighting. He was soon thru and as the four propellers stopped turning we deposited our A-3 bags in the waist and carried our guns to the respective positions. After putting our guns in, I finished checking over the oxygen, and flak suits, and location, type, and number of fire extinguishers in our plane, there is usually 4 or 5, one or two being co2 bottles for oil or gasoline and CCl4 (carbon tetrachloride) for electrical fires.
After I had finished my check, Pappy called to me from the nose and asked me to turn on the main line and battery switches so he could change the azimuth of the chin turret for installation of Sids guns, Pappy or Heino nearly always put them in because Sid didn't have time. After I had shut off the switches, I returned to the waist to continue dressing. I had just finished dressing when the officers and Heap arrived.
That was the first I had seen of him since we left him at the barracks, but he evidently gathered enough of something from somewhere to bestow his bipedal physique upon the cold cement floor and undertake the journey to the mess hall. He installed his guns as Brownie gave us our briefing. While we all sat listening, Swift passed out our escape kits and Borg passed out the candy rations for flight.
We were to bomb oil refineries again this mission and they were located at Hanover, we were carrying 14-500 pounders, 7 incendiaries and 7 general purpose, our gas load was 2500 gal.. We could expect 250 German fighters at the target and our escort was to pick us up after we had crossed the Continental Coast headed inland. As start engine time arrived, we were all in our places and all four engines started easily after the pre-flight which had ended about an hour before. After a thorough warm up of 12 minutes, it was taxi time and as we left the parking stand, I waved tot he crew chief from my position behind the cockpit.
Everyone seemed t be in good spirits this morn and the radio room must have been a site of joking for several times I heard a chuckle thru the open door behind me which opened to the Bombay on the other side of which was the radio room. I had already placed a red red flare in the vary pistol above my head which was used for signaling purposes so Brownie could fire it when ever he wished. As we lined up on the runway awaiting take-off, Brownie, Swift and I all watched the results of the final runup of. the engines as they all were giving us 2500 rpm and 46 inches of manifold pressure. When the engine check was complete, Brownie returned our plane to the taxi position on the taxi row up from the diagonal position at which the planes are given their full power run up before takeoff.
At last we were next turn onto the runway and as the green light flashed from the tower, the plane ahead of us roared down the runway thru the mist with the propellers heaving away, twisted vapor trails behind each engine. Before he had gone halfway down the runway, Brownie was ready for takeoff and as the plane ahead left the runway and misty surroundings enveloping the ground for a clear sky, the tower flashed the green light, Brownie shoved the throttles all the way forward and kicked off the brakes as the engines roared to full power.
As we went down the runway at full power, we also left a misty and twisted trail in the mist behind us and as Brownie pulled her off the ground at the end of the runway, the pilots cockpit window came open, the latch had been loosened by vibration, so it became my job to hold it shut until we had reached 500 ft. and stopped our steep climb.
When we reached 500 ft., Brownie called for a power reduction which Swift promptly gave him and when I seen the results of the instruments, I left my position to get back to check the tokio tank valves for condensation which would freeze them in the closed position at high altitude resulting in a lack of gasoline for the engines when the main wing tanks were empty. Upon my return to the cockpit, I found we had already nearly reached 5,000 ft_ which was fast climbing and as I reached my position, Sid come back to pull the pins from his bombs.
As we climbed to assembling altitude, I arranged Brownie and Swifts flak suits behind each other on their protective armor plating and placed all my necessities such as candy rations,
goggles, flak helmet, extra throat mic and ear phones using the flak helmet for a container. After this I sat my computing gun sight for accurate firing and hooked up my throat mic and head set.
I then sat down on the gunners platform at the bottom of the turret to wait time to go on oxygen. About the time was settled, Sid came thru on his was from the radio room to the nose giving Brownie his radio log sheet and keeping one for Borg, the navigator in the nose.
As I sat wondering what the target would be like, I heard the flare pistol pop and I looked up in time to see Brownie withdraw his hand from the gun. This told me we were beginning to assemble and that our plane was in formation. Occasionally Heino, who was in the tail flashing the aldis lamp which was carried by the section lead plane would report a wing plane, giving its letter and sometimes the number. As the planes around us assembled into formation, we circled gathering up a few on every circle until the assembling had been completed. The sun was up now and it shone bright and clear promising us a visual target for today's bombing.
Upon reaching 13,000 ft., Sid called us all and told us to go on oxygen and gave us the altitude so everyone put on their muzzle and as Brownie turned our plane nose toward the north Channel and the Netherlands and Germany beyond, us gunners began to get into position.
We could hardly see the English Coast as we passed over it this morning because of the mist, but as we continued on our way we could see the Channel which was rough this morning with many whitecaps whipped to spray by a westerly wind. After an hour and a half over the north Channel, we began our flight over several peninsulas which jut out into the sea from the Netherlands mainland and as we flew over them, much of the land was flooded apparently by the German army. Here and there farms with their big dairy barns and brick houses were half if not all flooded with salt water from the sea.
As we flew inland, the land was no longer flooded but here and there throughout the countryside pock marks from bombing were visible from our ever increasing altitude. Just before we flew over Arnhem where the famous paratrooper stand took place, our fighter escort joined us and I was not in the least regretful.
German rockets and scattered flak came up here and there now and occasionally a enemy jet plane would streak nearly straight up into the sky leaving a white streak of vapor behind, eventually both the plane and vapor trail would disappear causing upper turret gunners to anxiously search the sky and vicinity of the sun for a sneak attack. As we flew on toward our target, the landscape changed from farming and grazing to heavy industry along the Ruhr River. After passing north east of Munster to avoid intense flak defending that city the ground below again changed to grazing & farming land with small forests here and there, then back to industry as we flew on East passing Osnabruck to the south.
After crossing the Weser River flying east, the country seemed to be devoted mostly to industry and oil refineries and a hazy smoke hung over the landscape. We were some 30 minutes from our target now so I climbed from my turret to help Brownie and Swift don their flak suits, after which I again climbed to my turret to scan the pretty blue sky for enemy aircraft, which had been reported in the area. Our fighters escort was excellent today, the P-5 I's (mustangs) were everywhere around us and when we reached the
L P. to turn on to our bomb run, they led us like a football defense line over the target, thru flak and all.
As we turned on to the bomb run, Sid opened the Bombay doors and Heap yelled over the interphone, Bombays wide open. After that we went into a flak filled sky with rockets coming up here and there and our escort fighters flying everywhere to protect us. The flak was coming
up in box barrages and in tracking type, but we must fly straight and level till bombs are dropped. As we flew on thru the flak, it came so close several times that I could feel the jar and hear the explosion. At last I heard Sid yell bombs away and Heap answered "all gone" over the interphone.
Then Brownie went into evasive action as we no longer needed to fly straight and level. Everyone was watching for fighters but so anxious was I to see if we had hit the target, I squatted at the foot of my turret to look out of the Bombays, as I did so flak whizzed up into the Bombay and hit a center support column and fell back out, that was to much, so I jerked my head back inside so quick that I nearly caved my skull in on the side of the turret.
It seemed tome as though we would never get out of that flak_ Then Heino yelled over the interphone, "flak, 6 o'clock level, they're tracking us, flak, 6 o'clock level", then there was a crash behind the tail and Heino yelled "move her to the right Brownie" and that must have did it for it never came so close again. Then Pappy spoke over the interphone, "watch that plane way out at 9 o'clock, he don't look right, he seems to be turning in" but an instant later Newman said "that's a P-51; Pappy".
Then Sid Mandel yelled "3 P-5 I's passing from 1 I o'clock toward 5 over the top", then all was quiet for awhile except for someone calling out the position of a plane.
At last we reached the rally point and assembled back into flight formation from the scattered bombing formation and headed for home. After again passing over the same route nearly as coming in and when nearing Munster we met the R. A. F. going in, it was now about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, their destination was of course unknown to us. They passed us for quite some time, one, two and three at a time, they were not in any specific formation, but were scattered all over the sky with no hurry of either getting too the target or getting back.
We were nearing the sea when the last of them passed us and below us now there seemed to be an awful lot of skidding clouds which appeared at short notice. As we flew on back across the Channel, the clouds became thinner and when we reached the English Coast, there was hardly a cloud in sight ahead of us. We had dropped down to low altitude over the Channel so we had removed our oxygen mask sometime since. The English Coast when we went out had disappeared and the shoreline was plainly visible, the white sandy beach was very outstanding between the dark blue north sea and the yellowing green pastures of the English countryside. As we continued on toward our base, we flew low and there seemed to be a lot of activity on the ground. At last the last plane of the section ahead of us peeled off and we prepared to peel off.
When we were well clear of the plane before us, Brownie dipped her nose once, twice the down we went and to the left, "what a thrill". We circled over the base once and then after checking the radio antennae for all the way in position, ball turret for stowed position and the tail and main gear for down and locked, I reported to Brownie, "O.K. to land", Brownie started the approach then for landing and we were soon gliding in on the base leg of the traffic pattern, the plane ahead was braking down at the end of the runway so we had plenty of room!
Brownie touched the wheels to the ground once then we were down for good and as we continued down the runway, Swift shut off no. 2&3 engines, then as Brownie began braking her down near the end of the runways end, Swift raised the flaps and unlocked the tail wheel. We were soon on our way to the parking stand and as we taxied, our plane kind of bounced over the rough blacktop. When at last we had parked and engines one and four had stopped turning, everybody piled out except Brownie, Swift and I, we were always last because I had to remove
my guns from the turret after we stopped. I was thru in a couple minutes though and Brownie was still writing up the form 1 when I dropped out of the navigators escape hatch.
The truck drivers were really on the ball today and a truck was waiting for us so as soon as all were ready, we piled A-3 bags & 50 caliber machine guns into the truck and were off for the gun shack.
We hadn't test fired, so the gun cleaning job would be easy. After undressing and putting our flight clothes in the lockers provided, we each took a shot of scotch whiskey as we needed it and got a cup of cocoa and a sandwich in our grasp.
We had no interrogation, only the officers, so we picked up our personal belongings at the operations building and after passing on oily rag thru the barrel of our guns at the gun shack, we ran a bicycle race tot he mess hall. We had been lucky today, we hadn't been hit anywhere and didn't even have a hole in our ship.
Newman, Pappy, Heino, Heap, and I must have really downed the grub forever, Heino who ate meagerly got a second helping and all of us usually ate more than he. When we climbed on our bicycles again, we found that scotch on an empty stomach made us silly and all of us went back to the barracks with our bellies full of grub and our eyes sticking out of our heads from the scotch. Some of the boys were still asleep, but we promptly got them up and they began with "a hell of a bunch of gunners, they can't even hold a little scotch without being the loudest mouthed bunch around". Pappy answered with, "you boys ain't even saw a fighter yet, so don't get so smart bud".
RAID #11 30TH OCT., 1944
RECALL TO MERSEBERG
On the morning of Oct. 30th, we were awakened early and as we tumbled out of bed into the cold morning air, we heard the C. Q. finish his calling with "gunners briefing", which finished awakening those who still remained in slumber or in a sleepy stupor.
As all five enlisted crew members of our crew rode to the mess hall, there was little joking, partly because of the gloomy, foggy and miserably cold morning, and partly because of the attempt of self satisfaction by guessing and hoping the target would be an easy one. At the mess hall we were given a breakfast of dehydrated eggs, coffee, cereal and bread & butter. We all ate almost in silence with attempted joking, receiving very few laughs.
Upon finishing breakfast, we all went out to the operations office to mark ourselves present and check our flight position and turn in our personal belongings for safe keeping while we were gone on the mission. The rumors were already flying thick and fast that the target was none other then the hottest spot in Germany, "Merseberg". Nearly all of the gunners seemed to be awfully quiet this morning and after checking our flight equipment for condition at the drying room, we went on our way to be sure our guns were in proper firing order.
Upon finishing examining and cleaning our guns we- went tot he briefing room, had our names checked off from the attendance sheet and took a seat opposite the map of Germany which covered the wall, over the town of Merseberg a white sheet of paper was hanging and when the briefing started, we found the target was the much feared "hot spot", Merseberg. The officer who briefed us told us to expect the worst we could expect, 700 enemy fighters and 500 flak guns with many rockets.
We would be carrying 12-500 pound bombs 6 G.P's and 6 incendiaries and we would bomb from 29,000 ft. and our escort would pick us up near the Rhine and they would number 800 P51 's and would escort us tot he target.
Upon asking us gunners if there was any questions, we were dismissed and we all ran a race to the gun shop to get the first gun trucks, my crew was one of the first there and after throwing our 13-50 calibres aboard, we climbed aboard after telling the driver the number of our parking lot.
We stopped at the drying room and picked up our flight equipment, then proceeded tot he plane. Being later than usual because of the gunners briefing, we found the ship had been preflighted, so went ahead with installing our guns. We all made sure we had plenty of ammunition and the ground armourer gave us an extra box to shut us up. As I was completing my engineers check, John Swift arrived and helped me. And when Brownie, Borg & Mandel arrived, we all gathered in the waist to dress, except the officers who had dressed before coming out to the plane.
As we did so, we received our escape kits and flight rations which were candy. As soon as we finished dressing, we all helped pull the propellers thru, 9 blades apiece, then gathered in the plane in our respective positions to await the arrival of start engine time.
Upon its arrival, we prepared ourselves in the cockpit by each watching the checklist and upon completion of it, Brownie called our prime one start one and Swift responded by priming engine no. 1 at the same time depressing the switch to start the starter motor revolving.
When all engines were going, Brownie set the throttles at 1,000 rpm to let them warm up, then when taxi time arrived, we waved to the crew chief and taxied out of the parking stand for the runway. As we waited in line to take off, Brownie gave our plane the final check to be sure she would take us off and when the plane ahead of us pulled on to the runway, we followed by taxiing on behind him but to the other side. As Swift locked the tail wheel, the plane on our left started down the runway thru the morning mist with the propellers making away and twisted trails as they went. Brownie now shoved open the throttles and when the green light flashed, kicked the brakes off and we were on our way.
The runway we were using this morning went up over a rise and then down, as we neared the end of the runway, we again left for the sky above, thru several thousand feet of mist which enveloped our base and also the entire British countryside now below us.
After a reduction in power had been made from maximum power on take off to 2300 rpm & 38 inches manifold pressure for gradual climb, I loaded the flare pistol and my machine guns then went back to the radio room to check the landing gear for up and also check the tokio tank valves. Meanwhile, Sid was pulling the pins from his bombs. On my return to the cockpit, I passed to Brownie his radio log sheet and did like wise with Bangs. As we neared ten thousand feet, we began to assemble into formation and after an hour or more, Brownie turned our bombers nose toward the Channel which was entirely obscured from sight by heavy fleecy clouds when Borg announced our beginning to fly over it.
After we began our flight over northern France, we continued to climb toward our bombing altitude but the higher we climbed, the higher we found the clouds and mist and after not once seeing the ground below and not being able to get above the mist and clouds at 30,000 ft. near the target, our group commander gave the order to turn back for England with a full Bombay. Our fighter escort also turned back and upon nearing friendly territory left us.
We never saw a single enemy fighter, rocket or flak this day and not until we had again let
down thru solid fog 9,000 ft thick at our base did we again see the ground which was only 300 ft.
below us. We were all very much on the alert for German fighters which might follow us home in the fog but were relieved when Brownie once again greased our plane in on the runway with a full load of bombs. That's what I call a real pilot but I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
The ground crew was now somewhat discussed as the bombs would now have to be removed from the planes, but I can hardly blame them. After our guns had all been removed from the plane and all our equipment was in the truck, Brownie finished writing up the form 1, we climbed aboard the truck to return to the drying room with the flight equipment and gun shop with the guns.
After that, we all had cocoa and sandwiches and when all that was eaten, we climbed aboard our bicycles and ran a race to the mess hail. The main topic of discussion being whether we would get a mission for that flight or not. Upon returning to the barracks, we found a nice warm fire, for the boys who hadn't flew had cut some trees out of Sir Johns forest and they were crackling merrily as they burned.
RAID #12 NOV. 1st, 1944 RUDESHEIM
Early on the morning of Nov. 1st, we were awakened at 3 a.m.. After answering to the usual call, we enlisted men who made up crew No. 4 arose and wiped the sleep from our eyes and as we did so crew 20 across the aisle began to groan and Baxter says, "did they call me". As we filed out into the foggy morning, we could see flashlights flashing here and there and cussing as they fell out into the cold. It was impossible to see any distance around or above due to the thick fog for which England is famous.
As we of crew No. 4 rode away from the barracks, there was a splashing of water as we rode our bikes thru the mud hole beside our barracks and then the continued sound of tires rubbing on the muddy fenders as we pedaled by the washroom.
We rode onto the pavement and passed by the mail room where 2 trucks were parked waiting to haul some of the men to the mess hall. As we started down the straight and somewhat up hill stretch of road, red tail lights of bikes ahead would disappear and then flick on again as they continued thru the fog toward the mess hail.
Somewhat ahead and off to the right could be heard the roar of B-17's as the crew chiefs gave them the pre-flight run up. The breakfast consisted of link sausages, bread for a once, tomato juice and the always present marmalade, and GI coffee. The K.P.'s who served us dished out our food with a sleepy look and farther back in the kitchen a cook yelled, "give em two sausages a piece and let them come back for seconds. There wasn't much said this morning as everyone was more or less tired.
Here and there throughout the mess hall some on would say better be ready for Merseburg and from someone would come the answer of too late a start to go there. After finishing our meal in almost complete silence, we began our trip thru the woods to the operations building where we followed the usual procedure of an airmans duty then to the drying room to prepare our flight bags & gather our parachute from the parachute room. We had no briefing this morning, so we were soon ready to catch a gun truck for our parking area.
The fog was beginning to lift somewhat by now but it still hung pretty low. When we arrived at our plane, No. 820, the crew chief was running it up so we went to his tent to wait his finishing which was only 5 or 6 minutes. We all groaned and those who had laid down in his bed now arose and sallied forth to do his job on the big plane. I finished my job quite soon this morning
and when the officers and Heap arrived, I was dressing into flight clothes from my A-3 flight bag in the waist.
After their arrival they called us all tot he waist to receive the briefing which only they of the crew had received, our target is a bridge across the Rhine at Rudesheim they said, which is 20 miles almost straight west of Mainz on the Rhine. There should only be about ten guns there and probably a few rockets will come up. This should be an easy mission, our fighter escort will be 100 P-5 I's and there will be a few P-38's in the area to take pictures of the results. As to German fighters, there is a possibility of 150 from around there, especially Coblenz to the North and Frankfurt to the East, then Brownie ended with saying be a good idea to be on the watch though I think you guys know what to watch for.
We were carrying 6 one thousand pounders and only 2500 gal. Of gas, so we were loaded light. It seemed to me as though everything was going fine this morning and as taxi time arrived, Brownie opened the throttles and we taxied out too the runway. After giving her the final check before takeoff, Brownie taxied crew No. 4 and plane 820 onto the runway, then came the roar of engines, a flash of the green light from the portable tower and then a jerk of our plane as the brakes were released.
We sped down the runway through the misted morn and as we reached the nearing end of the runway, Brownie pulled her off. As we left the runway, Swift raised the landing gear and when we had risen to 500 ft. which was nearly above the mist which covered the English countryside, Brownie called for a reduction in power from 46 inches manifold pressure to 38 and from 2500 rpm to 2300. 1 had no gas in the tokio tanks so I checked the gear for up position and checked the engines for fire as I returned back toward the cockpit from the tail wheel. Heino was already in the tail but Pappy and Newman still remained in the radio room and Heap sat in his comfortable radio chair listening to code.
As I passed thru the radio room, he gave me the radio log sheets for Brownie and Borg and as I passed thru the Bombay, Sid was there checking and pulling the safety pins from the bombs. When we reached 10,000 ft., we began to form amongst the scattered white clouds but otherwise clear blue sky. As we assembled into a seven plane formation, we climbed and upon our assembly, our leader pointed the nose toward the Channel and Belgium and our target, Germany.
Between the scattered clouds below the white capped but otherwise blue Channel was plainly visible and neat the English coast many boats of all different sizes were also visible. We passed over the Belgium Coast slightly north of Dunkirk and as we flew inland, continued to gain altitude.
The country of Belgium looked cold this morning and frost covered the higher hills, outside of that it was the same terrain we were used to seeing as we flew over. As we reached the Eastern part, the highland and low mountains were white with a skiff of snow and then as we neared the rolling land south east of Coblenz, the snow disappeared.
After we crossed the Moselle, we began to run into a few rockets and occasionally a few burst of flak but other than that we continued on toward our target without being molested. We flew East until we were even with our target and about 7 miles north. There we made our turn in toward the target and began our bomb run. As we passed over the bridge, flak guns began pounding us from below and rockets began coming up dangerously close.
The plane on our left wing was seriously damaged by flak but we avoided it by calling out the position of the bursting flak. As the lead bombardier dropped his bombs, we also did and as the bombs started exploding below after their 7,300 ft. fall, they destroyed rocket launchers and flak
guns on the small island at both ends of the bridge and underneath the span, but the bridge remained so we turned for home with our 7 plane formation and results a complete failure.
Our escort fighters had dropped down and were strafing the bridge and flak gunners and that was the last we saw of our escort. We returned home a failure but our crew had not been hit so we shouldn't feel slighted I don't think. When we landed at our base again, we had only been gone 7 hours and outside of the one plane being shot up had had no one hurt.
It was a little after I o'clock p.m.. when we finished cleaning our guns and cycled tot he mess hall where we had lamb stew. After downing all we could hold, we swiped all the-cheese at our table and filled our pockets with it and bread and cycled back to the barracks where we again ate what we had swiped then we all went out to repair our bicycles which was common. Our barracks looked like a bicycle repair shop, we had wheels and parts of every description.
RAID # 13 NOV. 2ND , 1944 MERSEBURG
This morning we were again awakened early with the C. Q's usual call; Heap, Fredericksen, Holmes, Heino & Newman. Breakfast at 2:00 a.m., briefing at 4:00, the word briefing at 4:00 always put a cold chill up my back, as it usually means a rough target. - We all jumped our of bed and hurriedly put our clothes on as it was rather brisk this a.m. & we had no fire, a few of us made a dash for the wash house where we washed in ice cold water while the rest rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and let it go at that.
Once we were ready to leave for the mess hall, we all jumped aboard our bicycles and rode thru a mud hole by the barracks then our on to the narrow paved strip for the mess hall. We had dehydrated eggs this a.m., oatmeal (horse feed) & also the always present marmalade & coffee, we sleepily gulped down the grub & no one saying hardly a word. When we had finished we left our plate and silverware on the way out and headed thru the forest to the equipment drying room.
This morning there was a gust of wind occasionally and the trees made a swishing sound. We went thru the usual procedure this morning and went to the briefing room. As I passed thru the door my heart stopped I think, for again it was the Merseburg area that the sheet of paper covered. I dread that awful place and I looked toward the door where that always present military police stood even armed. No one said much, I thought to myself, will we ever be thru with these raids?
Soon the briefing officer came in and asked for our attention, then yanked the sheet of paper off the target area of the map, and said "your target is Merseburg".
Those of you who have been there before know what to expect, the flak will be intense, the expected enemy fighters to come up, 350. You will have approximately 250 escort & support in the area which sounded good to me.
After briefing, we went to the gun shop, picked up our guns, then to the drying room where we picked up our parachute and A-3 bag which contained our high altitude equipment. Once at the plane, we installed our guns and after I had checked my oxygen for pressure, I went back & _checked all the positions for flak suits & proper oxygen pressure, then checked the fuel tanks for topping off & wiped off my turret glass from the outside.
As I was finishing doing that, Heap & the officers arrived and as Brownie gave us a few more details on the target, Swift handed out the escape kits and Mandel passed out the candy rations. Start engine time was arriving so we all helped in pulling the props thru to clear them for oil in the lower cylinders and climbed aboard.
As engine time arrived, Brown called for prime one start one and Swift obliged After the starter had gained 15 sec. of inertia, Brown said "mesh one" and Swift meshed one, the engine coughed and vibrated then started. Swift answered with oil pressure coming up. The process was repeated until all of the engines were running and we were sitting at our positions for takeoff awaiting taxi time.
At last it came and we waved to our crew chief and taxied our onto the taxi ramp. As we neared the runway, planes ahead of us were taking off. We turned our plane diagonally across the runway and made our last run-up before takeoff. After the plane ahead of us was leaving the runway, Brownie shoved the throttles all the way forward, then when the four engines responded we were off down the runway.
We assembled in the dark this morning and as we assembled, the planes around us filled the sky with twinkling lights. After we completed assembly, we headed for the Channel, it was rather misty this morning and only occasionally did we see the Channel below. As we neared the mainland of Northern France, it began to clear and below we could see the cities smoking and the beginning of what we hoped would be a clear day.
As we flew on inland, we passed over Luxembourg then into Germany proper. We zigzagged our course so the Germans would not know exactly where we would strike, we were carrying 500 pounders general purpose and incendiary bombs as we were to bomb oil refineries.
As we arrived at the Initial Point, we spread out for bombing formation and opened our bomb doors. As I looked forward toward the target, my heart seemed to beat till Hitler could hear it and I believe I ceased to breathe, my stomach drew up into a knot and I felt my nerves would break in two if I couldn't hide from what I saw. It was terrible, the sky was black with bursting flak.
As we went in a leading plane received a direct hit by flak and went down belching fire, we now were in the middle of it all. I uttered a prayer to my Lord and Heino spoke aver the interphone, "flak six o'clock", then he cried "move it over, they are tracking us". Then I felt a terrific explosion and looked out toward the right wing where a big jagged hole had appeared and further out a smaller one had made its appearance.
Rockets were coming up and German fighters attacked now. A group of B-I7's behind us received their terrible onslaught. A B-17 was hit and it collided with another, both caught fire and went down. The Germans were attacking with their famed mercilessness, then a German fighter went down, hit by our gunners then six B-I7's went down burning fiercely, we were not sure any of our boys escaped. Then two more German fighters went down, and the flak was coming up in box barrages of a dozen explosions in one.
Two of our neighboring planes were hit by flak and went down amid smoke, flak, rockets, & tracer bullets lighting their path by burning fiercely, then far below we saw 3 parachutes appear as white puffs in the flak filled skies, the remainder of 2 bomber crews totaling 16 men. I could still see planes passing over the target and below the whole country for miles was burning &
flashing with exploding bombs and the burning planes going down appeared as burning crosses leaving a long trail of smoke.
As we left the target, the flak became thinner and I began to breathe again. At the rally point we again assembled into flight formation then started back for home. I was relieved and rather surprised to still be alive, Brown called us over the interphone and asked us if we were all ok.
We answered we were except for being hungry. We used a different route going home and dodged all the big towns and received flak from only the small towns.
The sky had began to cloud up now and as we flew toward home, we passed over a thick cloud bank which remained intact until we prepared to land. After leaving the enemy territory, we gradually descended until we reached 13,000 ft. then removed our oxygen mask and I began eating up my candy rations.
Brownie said; "be on the alert as enemy fighters may follow us so everyone remained in his position until we were ready to land and Pappy received the ok to get out of his ball turret and Heino left the tail, I remained in the upper turret until we were on the ground to be sure no one followed us and shot us down on the approach.
Once we had landed, we climbed from our ship, dropped off our equipment at the drying room, cleaned our guns and had hot chocolate & sandwiches, then climbed aboard our speedy bikes and passed thru the woods on the way to the mess hall. There we all sat down and ate spam, bread, dehydrated potatoes, C rations & coffee.
Upon finishing that, we climbed aboard our bikes and rode on the left hand side of the road back to the barracks. Once there the rest went to bed & I went to shave. We had spent 9 hours in the air, half of that on oxygen.
(side note: Intense flak- a leading plane exploded after direct hit by flak, two planes went down in collision, 6 were shot down by fighters and all went down in flames, 2 neighboring planes went down after hit by flak. 3 men believed bailed out of planes hit by flak- saw 3 enemy fighters shot down by gunners.)
RAID # 14 NOV. 4TH, 1944 HAMBURG
NO ENTRY FOUND OTHER THAN SIDE NOTE
(Side note: Intense flak, over 50 holes in our plane and tail gunner was wounded, also flak missed me by inches.)
RAID # 15 NOV. 5", 1944 LUDWIGSHAFEN
NO ENTRY FOUND OTHER THAN SIDE NOTE
(Side note: Moderate flak, 3 jet planes were sighted.)
RAID # 16 NOV. 6th 1) 1944 DUISBERG
NO ENTRY FOUND OTHER THAN SIDE NOTE (Side note: Moderate flak, no enemy planes sighted.)
RAID # 17 NOV. 30th, 1944 LUDZKENDORF
On the 30th of Nov. we woke up at the call of the change of quarters yelling our the names of a crew in the same barracks as we live, then came the usual call for a raid Heap, Fredericksen, Holmes, Heino & Newman eat at 3:45 & briefing at 4:45 (gunners briefing).
After several minutes of disgust, I finally managed to collect enough nerve to climb out of my bed and of course after the others had already preceded on their way, I too got aboard my British made bicycle, "mostly France" and started for the mess hall.
After standing in a small chow line, I grabbed a plate but had to go without a cup because there was none clean at the moment, and dished out myself a very small and "I do mean small" spoon full of those almost unbearable dehydrated eggs and a couple of canned frankfurters and some good wholesome germade, as I sat down to eat the rest of my crew were leaving for operations, I had soon eaten and followed up to operations, we were flying for our ship, No. 830.
I then collected my heated suit and put my may west & oxygen mask in my A-3 bag along with my other flying equipment and thru my parachute harness over my shoulder and grabbed my chest pack chute and started to move my equipment nearer the door to avoid a bungle when I wanted to leave. I then went to the armament building to clean my guns and found they were very much in need of cleaning as I found they had gathered rust in the barrel.
As soon as I had checked them, I returned to our briefing room which meant a gunners briefing and also a rough target. After a speech by our colonel Dougher, on the wall was a map of Germany and covering the Leipzig area was a large white sheet of paper covering our destination.
Our gunnery officer removed the paper and we all started at the name of our target, it was Lutzkendorf, 7 miles from Mersebergh, we were to hit an oil refinery there. Mersebergh has from 375 to 400 flak guns which means its the hottest spot in Germany, more than twice as bad as Berlin as far as anti-aircraft is concerned. The gunners were very quiet because we are all so afraid of that target.
After we were told 800 allied fighters, P-5 I's holding superiority in numbers, were to accompany us, we felt somewhat better. By this time, I had found the rest of the crew and we continued to the gun shack after we had been dismissed from our briefing. We loaded our guns on the truck which was waiting and gave the order, "ok take her away Leone" which was our call to the driver to take us to the plane.
Upon arriving, we put our A-3's in the waist and started the task of putting in our guns. After I had put in my guns, I preceded to put on my heated suit which involves a lot of curses. The waist and ball gunner came thru the waist also preparing to put on their heated clothing, and then Heap came thru and insisted we throw the chaff up to him so we obliged him. I then checked all oxygen hoses operation and pressure of the oxygen systems and counted the flak suits to find someone had removed 5 % flak suits from our plane.
The copilot arrived and called the tower for more flak suits. This day we had another passenger, a photo man and camera man as one might prefer to call him_ He was S/Sgt. D. Bleich, we also had a different bombardier as Sid was sick, his name was Wye. He seemed like a swell guy.
Our pilot arrived and soon after they brought out our rations of Limie candy and flak suits which we had ordered, then as the pilot was climbing up from the navigators hatch to his position, I happened to move my foot there behind the cockpit and a driving spring can full of urine, some other crew had left fell down in Brownies face, spilling some ones high powered urine all over him, he cut loose with some profane language and cussed the damned goons who left it there and finished climbing into his position.
It was time to start engines so we pulled the props thru and Brownie and Swift started the engines, in the mean time Borg had arrived. Taxiing instructions had come from the tower and we started again on our way to bomb the Reich, as we taxied out to the runway, my 45 automatic
cartridge holder was giving me uncomfortable feelings when I snapped my chute harness on so I had to remove part of my clothes and change it_
We soon left the ground and were on the way_ As we climbed to altitude, we all adjusted our equipment and after about 2 hours of circling, we formed into our group and headed over the Channel there was an overcast of about 3 tenths coverage.
After we hit the coast of France, we all started preparing for the Reich. Soon after Borg told us we were over Belgium and I knew we were getting close. 10 minutes before we were scheduled to cross the front lines, Borg again called out our position and told us when we would hit the first flak. I helped the pilot and copilot put on their flak suits and then put on my flak helmet and goggles to protect me from flash burn and climbed into the turret.
I swung her around several times and then I received the order she's ok to test fire and I swung her over to 9 o'clock high and kicked out a few rounds, I love to hear those cal. 50's crack, I can't help but think they are life savers sometimes.
We were now at high altitude and moving close to the target, below we could see the Reich for she was prettier over there and forever clouds. Our fighter escort was now moving in to keep off enemy fighters and were zigzagging over and under us. Then came the announcement of the I. P. and the bombardier opened our bomb doors, I at this point could see awful heavy flak ahead and several B-17's were going down in flame over the target. In several minutes we were moving thru the flak and it was awful thick bursting everywhere, a couple more B-17's were going down in front.
We soon heard the bombardier holler bombs away and the ball turret (Pappy) called from the ball only two went, then I heard the radio man holler, "all gone" soon after the whole area below was smoking from both bombs and a smoke screen. We had hit something and it wasn't cabbage either.
We still had one bomb left which we couldn't drop so we started for home after a couple more hours we were again passing over the Channel and we dropped out of formation to drop the bomb, the bombardier was having trouble so our ball turret man (Pappy) helped him release it and she hit the water with a splash.
We had been hit by. flak over the target and gas was running our of No. 3 engine, so we had to land out of turn to prevent running out of gas, "they don't stay up long that way", so we say her down again. The ground crew had to change a gas tank and vertical fin as she was tore all to hell! From flak!
Then we went in to the briefing room and ate sandwiches and hot chocolate, soon after we cleaned our guns and came home with number 17 behind us.
RAID # 18 DEC. 6TH, 1944 MERSEBERG
On the 6th of December, we arose at 3 o'clock and again come the call, eat at 3:45 and briefing at 4:45, gunners briefing, those last words kind of- bothered us. After eating the usual breakfast, we reported to the armament building to clean and check our guns_ We had no more than finished that then it was time for gunners briefing, so we walked back to the briefing room which is only a hundred yards from the armament shop.
After toll had been called and the door locked, there came the words from the briefing officer, today will be the synthetic oil plant at Merseberg, and everyone shivered. We all have a lot of respect for that place, it has 385 flak guns, in fact nearly twice as many as Berlin.
After the briefing, we got our heated suits from the drying room and prepared ourselves for flight, then got a truck and went to the gun shop where we loaded on our 12- 50 CAL. Machine guns and also our flying equipment, then to the ship.
We as usual were very busy for the next hour getting our guns installed and flight equipment checked. After we had installed the guns and checked them thoroughly, we put on our flying equipment and wiped off our turrets for good vision as Meresberg usually means fighters. After we had everything checked, pilot Swift, Brownie and Borg(navigator) and Sid (bombardier) came out to the ship and we were ready to go.
At station time everyone got into his position and on the start engine time we prepared to start engine. Then the usual "clear right" and "clear left came from the copilot and pilot and the order from Brownie to prime one and start one. Soon all four engines were going and after a short warm up we taxied out for takeoff. Upon the ok from the tower we started down the runway and as we left the ground, pilot Brownie called for wheels up and 2300 rpm and 38 inches. We then were on our way for the brilliant blue sky high above the clouds and fog of the landscape of England.
After we had formed which took a couple hours, we headed out over the North Sea. After about an hours travel we hit the coast of France and started inland for the Reich. At the German border we picked up our fighter escort and after a couple hours we were closing in on the target. As we approached the target, we made a steep turn to the right then to the left and then I, the upper turret and Pappy (ball turret man) gave clear above and clear below and Sid sat ready to drop our bombs.
As we went in for the bomb run, I could see the flak ahead and several bombers going down in flame leaving a long trail of black ghostly looking smoke behind them.
The flak was coming up in barrages of 20 to 30 bursts at a time and the sky high, low and level was black with it. Soon the Jennies thru up rockets which left long twisting trails of smoke behind them and what looked like a mushroom where they exploded.
As we entered the heaviest flak there came the order "bombs away", and the jump upward of the plane as the bombs went away. We then roared off the target banking, diving and climbing as we tried to miss the flak called out by the tail gunner the bombardier and myself in the upper turret. As we left the target, a German jet (ME 163) literally shot up beside us and peeled off and dropped off away from us into the flak filled area and disappeared.
We were again on our way home and after a couple more hours of intense searching the skies for enemy fighters, we retired from our position to try and rest a little. Another hour and we were over the Channel and roaring home. Upon arriving at the field, we again landed and removed our equipment from the plane, climbed in the truck and started for the gunnery shop as we neared it a fire truck came by with a screaming siren, two Forts(fortresses) had collided at the end of the runway while landing and after one plane cut off the others tail and killing the entire crew out right excluding the tail gunner and crash landing in a field itself, we finished the day with a day badly ended.
We returned to our barracks after cleaning our guns and as usual went to bed as we were awful tired.
RAID # 19 DEC. 18 TH. , 1944 MEINZ
As usual we were up early and followed the usual procedure until we were again leaving the runway, we circled and then headed out over the Channel for the coast of France_ It was clear over many parts of France and as we made up the formation, we could see the many small fields far below, many fields were black after their recent plowing, some were getting green with fall crops which had been planted while in some areas the spruce stood out against the lighter colored foliage of other growth.
After we had circled for a couple hours, we set a constant heading for the Reich and passed over the front lines near Metz and flew inland; All of us gunners were in our positions as we crossed the German border and as we neared several flak areas farther inland. Brownie called me out f my turret to help him put on the copilots and his. own flak suit. After flying for nearly an hour we were nearing our target and below could be seen the scattered villages and towns as well as plains and foliage which make up the German Reich.
As we swung in on the target, we could see a few puffs of flak and several rockets which had bursted in the sky at 8 o'clock. After cleaning the bombardier above and below, I felt the jerk and jump of the bomber and again we had bombed the Reich and used instruments. If we hadn't missed our cue, we had hit the Marshalling yards at Meinz.
The flak was meager so we were not worried but fighters were a constant menace as we had only I group of P-5 I's plus several groups operating in that area. We were now on our way home and had no more than left our target when a ME 163 come by us thru the dense fog thru . which we were flying. He came from the front and went under us like a streak weaving thru the planes behind us.
From there on home we flew thru dense fog which made visibility very bad, we let down over France to about 3,000 ft. and after another 1 and %2 hours we were again coming in on our base leg at the home base.
After we had lowered the landing gear, we came down thru fog so thick we could not see the end of the runway. Only for flares which the ground personnel were shooting up. We had not fired a single shot again that day, so we cleaned and oiled our guns and drank some of the warm cocoa which was waiting when we came down! Then to the chow hall and the barracks and to bed.
RAID # 20 DEC. 30TH,1944 MANNHEIM
On the morning of Dec. 30th, we awoke to the usual call and made a dash for the mess hall to try to beat some of the rest there, we succeeded and proceeded to eat a hasty G. I. breakfast which is nearly always the same except once in a while they would feed us pancakes. We were soon preparing for the mission and in an other hour were installing our guns out at the ship.
After checking for flares, oxygen pressure and No. of flak suits, I checked the plane for flight condition and she was OK. After we had been briefed by our pilot, we got in station position. We were carrying 20-250 pounders and were supposed to bomb the railway yards at Mannheim. After we took off we circled for quite some time before we were at last formed and headed for the 20th time across the Channel, this day the Channel was very rough for we could see white caps from 17,000 ft. as we passed over a few openings in the clouds.
Up where we were however, it was very clear and the sun was shining down brightly. It was 42 Deg. Below zero up there but I had my rheostat turned up to 10 and I was very warm, I still could raise the heat by turning it up to 25. As I looked back and down from the upper turret, I could plainly see the puffy looking clouds below us, which everyone was watching for enemy fighters, the enemy usually drops out of clouds from above or comes up from below.
Behind us as far as I could see was the huge 8th Airforce, the sky was almost black with planes behind us while farther back one could only see the flashing of silver in the sun. As we flew in over France and Luxembourg, we could get an occasional good look at the rough terrain below and Borg told us we were flying parallel up the center of the wedge Von Runsted lead made in the first armies lines. This terrain is very rough but from the air it didn't appear as rough as the terrain around Metz.
As we flew inland, the terrain changed to valleys and after some time we could plainly see the towering Alps on our right. The Alps are very beautiful and some of the roughest mountains I have ever seen. This time of the year they were covered with snow with rocks jutting out everywhere. After an hour or so we were nearing the I. P. and we opened our Bombay again on the lead ship and after a few minute bomb run, I seen the bombs drop from the lead ship and felt the jerk upward of the plane as our bombs went away. The flak amounted to about ten bursts and were inaccurate.
We had some trouble on our starboard bomb racks, they wouldn't release the bombs. However, after the radio man yelled over the interphone that some were still there, Sid salvoed them, this time they went away. We had so far on this mission seen no enemy fighters and the P51 escort lined up like a football line and led us over the target, every way we looked there were fighters, escort of course. They were zigzagging forth and back above and below and they were also flying forth and back across our tail.
Those which were high left vapor trails which appeared tows as white streaks. We couldn't see the target, so we couldn't see the bombs exploding. We turned away from the target and again started for home. It was necessary for us all to be on the alert as we had been told 300 enemy fighters might be up but we saw none and after passing the Alps again we crossed over Luxembourg, the front lines and France.
After we started out over the Channel again, I removed my oxygen mask as we had dropped to 13,000 ft.. I remained out of my turret as I was very tired, the ball turret man had also gotten our of his ball turret. After another hour we were again circling the field and soon after we landed and taxied over to our parking area.
We hadn't had a single burst of flak near enough that day to make a hole. We were sure glad too. We followed the usual routine and returned to the barracks, we had certainly completed a milk run which made us 20 missions.
RAID # 21 DEC. 31ST 1944 HAMBURG
On December the 31 S`, we were awakened at 2:00 o'clock in the morning and I don't mind saying I was feeling pretty rough. I had a very bad cold and that is quite unpleasant when you wear an oxygen mask. There was the usual call, "Heap, Fredericksen, Holmes, Heino & Newman. All of us answered except Newman, who was yet dead to the world_ The C. Q. whose name I shall not mention wasn't liked in our barracks very well and this morning after he had
called Newman several times, Pappy Holmes told him is a sleepy way that we would awaken him.
The C. Q. was determined to awaken him but he never found him. Pappy was irritated and after telling the C. Q. "he didn't have to be so damn smart" Pappy felt somewhat better.
We all clamored out of bed determined to beat them all to the mess hall. After attaching our Limie head lamps to our bicycles (we had to keep them in the barracks to keep people from stealing them) and beating hell out of the tail lights with our fist we got started.
The tail lights were flickering and doing everything but going out. Great mechanical geniuses these Englishmen. We arrived at the mess hall in a pretty good mood and again we had dehydrated eggs, horse feed and sausage for breakfast, "I have eaten so many dehydrated eggs I look like one." As soon as we had eaten, we again climbed aboard our "good bent-up mechanized equipment "and went bicycling over the cinder strewn icy trail thru the woods to the operations building where we disposed of our purses, "mine was flat and the rest didn't look to well fed".
They at last were all in the crew 4 personal belonging sack, so we checked our flight position and also checked our names on the bulletin board to show that we were present, then left for the drying room. We knew our usual equipment and went to clean, check and pick up our guns. Everyone was hoping it wasn't Merseberg we were to bomb.
After we placed our guns in the truck, we returned to the drying room and picked up our flight equipment. From there we went to the ship, we unloaded our equipment, gave the truck driver the OK and started to install our guns. The ground crew (armament) were still loading in the bombs which were 250 pounders again. They loaded twenty.
We were all somewhat uneasy as to what our target was. I had an awful time with my upper turret guns and I finally called for an armourer to put them in. Pappy is an old field artillery man and upon hearing of my troubles he -came to help me. He soon found the trouble, I had the oil buffer bodies switched, the right one in the left gun and vice versa. After he had found my trouble I finished putting my guns in and checked them for feed and firing.
When the armourer came, my guns had already been installed so he went back to the rest, their guns were OK. By this time John Q. had arrived and he was checking for flares, gun, flak suits and oxygen pressure and fire extinguishers sufficient to put out a fire in any part of the ship. After the guns were installed, I made another check on our equipment and then filled out the form by writing down the name of every member of our crew.
Brownie, Sid and Borg arrived then and we climbed for the 21st time into the waist for a briefing by the pilot and navigator. We then found out we were headed for Hamburg, second largest city in the Reich. There was a possibility of 700 enemy fighters, we would be on oxygen for 5 hours and in the air for eight hours which turned out to be better than nine.
After our briefing, all of us gunners put on our clothes for high altitudes, she was 48 Deg. Below zero up there that day so there was great necessity of electrical heated clothing. Upon finishing this, Pappy and I wiped off our turrets so we could see out and helped pull the props thru, which removes the oil from the lower cylinder eliminating any chance of blowing out a cylinder. We then climbed into the plane and waited at our stations during which time we checked the operation of our heated cord and electrical functioning. Then we received information from the tower, we were to be delayed an hour, we then made ourselves as comfortable as possible and part of us slept until time to start engines, when that time came, John Q. called out the check lists and upon its completion Brownie gave the order to prime one and
start one, on this ship #820, the engines all back fire quite a lot on starting so I told him to put it in full rich after which the backfiring stopped.
The oil pressure on No. 2 engine was 60 lbs. Per square inch at 1200 rpm, but as soon as he kicked her up to 1500 she was ok. Upon the order to taxi, we moved out on to the runway and followed a very long line of planes which were all lit up, it was yet very early and day light was quite some time away.
After checking everything and exercising the props we had to wait for the planes in front of us to take off. After the plane in front of us had left the runway, we pulled onto the runway for takeoff.
The portable tower flashed the green light at us, Brownie told John Q. to lock the tail wheel then he shoved the throttles forward, waited till the engines reacted and roared to full power then kicked off the brakes and we roared down the runway under full power with a deafening roar caused by 4800 horsepower produced by 4 Wright Cyclone radial air cooled engines.
As we reached the end of the runway and 120 airspeed, I could see Brownie was using all the strength he had it looked like as he pulled her off. Then Swift acting like lightening tried to pick up the right wing which had dropped, it finally came up and we roared over a house missing it and out over trees and a pasture full of cows, horses and sheep. We climbed for several seconds under full power then she was cut to 2300 & 38 inches and we started in a gradual climb toward the start lit sky above.
We climbed up for quite some time and several times we fired red red flares as we moved into position. I went back to open and drain our tokio tank valves of water to prevent them from freezing up. We were in formation before the sun came up and the formation was beautiful with its red, green & white & blue lights in the starlit sky.
The sun finally peaked above the eastern horizon and sent its pink rays out over a war torn Europe. We were on the way to tear it some more. We remained at 15,000 ft. until we headed out over the North Sea then we gradually climbed up and up as we climbed to bombing altitude.
For more than an hour, we flew over the North Sea and then ahead and to our right, I could see flak from my upper turret, we were arriving at Helligoland. The enemy gunners there are geniuses if I ever seen any, they are deadly even tho they only have a half dozen guns. We flew to the left around them and our of their range, then swung right again as we moved inland toward our target, Hamburg oil refineries and railway yards.
At the Initial Point, l could see the sky black with flak over our target and rockets were exploding, leaving small thunderheads with a twisting trail which extended all the way to the ground. As Sid opened the bomb doors, I seen a German jet plane shoot up like a rocket without the thunderhead, it left a trail of vapor as he streaked skyward at the rate of 10,000 ft. a minute. I then looked out around us and felt grateful toward the P-51 pilots who had picked us up over the North Sea and were to escort us over the target and back toward our base & England.
We made a ten minute bomb run then I seen the bombs go away as the lead bombardier in front of us dropped his bombs. Then came the usual jerk upward of our plane as Sid dropped Hitler our 21St present. As we went thru the flak, Sid, I and Heino (tail gunner) called out the position of the flak and Brownie skidded, dove, slipped, & climbed the big plane to miss the flak.
At six o'clock, I could see flak bursting twenty shells at a time at least and then a roar and the jump of the plane, I knew they had hit us. Newman spoke over the interphone, "they have hit our oxygen system in the left waist", Heino switch to your right tail oxygen outlet.
I could see several large holes in number four nacelle behind the engine and several in the wing. But no one was hit although the flak had hardly missed Newman tearing out the oxygen line above his head and continuing on out thru the top.
As we turned toward home, I could see the target, it had received a direct hit and bombs were still exploding all over the target and one area was a fire and black smoke was bellowing skyward, we had hit our target, oil storage plants.
The Germans had used a smoke screen but not in time, the smoke was also drifting to our side of the target. We were satisfied so we turned again for home. On the way our over the North Sea, we again stayed clear of Helligo Land and as we crossed the North Sea, we dropped down to 13,000 ft. and we relieved ourselves by removing our muzzle like oxygen masks.
The going was very slow as we had to fly upwind all the way home, we were again very glad when we were back over land. As we called in for landing instructions, we were told we would have to stay up until 9 B-17's could be removed from the runway as one crew had had a blowout when they landed. We circled for what seemed like all eternity to me and I kept watching the liquidometer which read zero on 1&3&40, on 2&4, 40 Gals. Of gas ain't to much gas per engine when it takes 2700 Gals. To last eight or nine hours depending of the power setting.
They finally ok'd our landing and Brownie peeled her off and we circled and landed. As we landed and rolled down the runway, I seen the misfortunate crew by their seventeen on a grass covered area with ground maintenance men changing a tire. We soon climbed out of our plane at the parking area and we found we had about 20 holes in our ship thru the right wing nacelle and waist. We had completed No. 21. We cleaned our guns and those who were yet hungry after drinking a glass of scotch and a cup of cocoa plus 3 or 4 sandwiches went to the mess hall, the others returned to the barracks.
RAID # 22 JAN. 6TH, 1945 KAISERSLOUTERN
On January the 6h, we were awakened at 3:30 & the usual call of breakfast at 4:00 and briefing at five registered in a sleepy number of combat shrouded minds. It was very cold on this morning as we went to eat breakfast, the moon was so bright I could see for-quite some distance, it reminded me of harvest days at home. We had pancakes for breakfast along with the dehydrated eggs and sausage, also some prepared cereal which tasted like it was sawdust and the powdered milk didn't make it much better.
After we had finished our army breakfast, we again passed thru the woods which separated our mess hall from our operations buildings. After we had gathered up our flight equipment, checked the board for our plane and flight position and deposited our purses in our personal
equipment bag along with watches which some of the rest of the boys had. We then went to the gun shop, cleaned our guns and then went to gunners briefing, we were to encounter 700 enemy fighters if they came up.
We were to have 4 groups of P-5 I's which were to pick us up over France and escort us over the target which was a railroad underpass at Kaisersloutern, we were to carry six- 1,000 pounders which made us three ton of bombs, after we had been briefed, we returned to the gun shop to pick up our guns. After getting a truck to carry our equipment out to the plane, we soon had checked our guns and had thrown our equipment into the truck.
I told the driver the parking lot number and we were on the way. Upon arriving, we removed our equipment from the truck and proceeded to put our equipment in the waist of the plane and
arrange our parachutes in the proper place. Then came the usual job of installing our guns. I had no trouble this morning except I had a worn firing solenoid on the right gun. No one else had any trouble.
I made the usual check on the oxygen pressure and flak suits, position of fire extinguishers, type and number of flares as well as flare pistol. Swift arrived about this time and helped me check over the equipment. Soon after the turret man and as armourer came around t see if we had any malfunctions in our guns or turrets. All was ok, so we all met in the waist to receive our Limie ration of hard candy and gum as well as our escape kits.
Brownie, Borg & Mandel had arrived by this time as it was only twenty minutes to station time. After a very short and to the point briefing by the pilot & navigator, we put on our heated suits and other flight clothes and plugged in our heated suit to check its operation. As I was dressing, Pappy come around to see if I still had his shammy skin which we used to wipe off our turrets. The lower ball is very hard to keep clean as oily smoke from No. 2 & 3 engines are constantly blowing back over it. Then to where we taxi, dirty water blows all over it.
I was going to wipe off the upper turret this morning but decided better as the ground crew was wiping off the wings which was slick as ice. Once we were in our plane at our stations, the big engines roared at 1200 rpm. During warm up, we all arranged our equipment for an eight hour flight. When the cylinder head temperature had reached 150 Deg. C. and we received the ok from the tower, Brownie gave the order for brakes off and we started rolling our onto the taxi runup.
As we neared the runway, we had to stop behind a long line of Fortresses which were going thru the final run up before taxiing onto the runway for takeoff. Already the first to be off had received the green light from the tower and was moving down the runway. As we watched, he failed to leave the runway properly and in a few seconds later we seen a flash of fire as he crashed beyond the runways end after striking a power line. We were all wondering why the 61,000 pound bombs had not exploded when there came a terrible blast of air which jarred our ship and where the plane had crashed smoke and fire along with the small pieces of the plane flew several hundred feet in the air. Four airmen had escaped before the bombs exploded but the pilot who attempted to run was cut in two as he was blown by the blast thru a fence. As yet 3 are still alive.
After a short delay, the rest of us continued to take off until it was we who sat on the runway waiting for the go signal, at last it came and Brownie shoved the throttles wide open, held the brakes until she roared into full power, then kicked them off.
We roared down the runway and as the end of the runway approached, Swift pressed the flap switch into the down position and as the flaps took effect, we went up which seemed to be straight up which in reality was forward. Brownie was taking no chances.
As we climbed up to 15,000 ft. which was our assembling altitude, we could plainly see the country below which had started to show life as another day came to being.
After circling for what seemed an awful long time, we finished assembling and started out toward the Channel. Below by now a morning haze hung low over the English countryside. In a few minutes, we had reached the English Channel and for 43rd time started for the continent of Europe over the white capped Channel. As we neared the French Coast, I and the ball turret man
climbed into our turrets.
Below as over the English countryside a haze hung low over France which seemed to pass
ever so slowly below. Just before we reached the German border, our fighter escort picked us up
and we moved into the Reich. After 25 minutes, we were nearing the I. P. and just after Sid had opened our bomb doors, I seen two German jet planes streaking up, one at 3 o'clock and the other at I 1 o'clock.
After I had called it over the interphone, Newman said "Red, be sure and watch into the sun". We were now at 25,000 ft. and vapor trails were constantly a menace to us as fighters could approach without us knowing it. After a ten minute bomb run, I and the ball turret man cleared the bombardier and shortly there after, I felt the usual jerk upward as the 3 ton of bombs went away.
We couldn't see the target very well for low haze and clouds so it was by radar. The flak was very meager but there were quite a few rockets which came quite close. As we swung off the target, another German jet plane shot skyward at 2 o'clock and our fighter escort moved over in that direction for which we were quite thankful.
As we flew toward home out of Germany, we seen two more jet planes but they remained too far away to shoot at. Once we were again over France, we let down to 13,000 ft. and I removed my oxygen mask but I was getting so tired it didn't make much difference. After several hours over France, we again reached the Channel which looked quite rough from above.
In another 43 minutes we had reached the base and were peeling off for a landing. I was glad as 7 hours in a turret on your feet is along time up there. We left our guns in to fight off enemy planes should they have followed us home. After we had landed, I removed my guns on the way to the dispersion and after removing our equipment from the plane, we drank our cocoa and ate sandwiches and cleaned our guns.
Again we had had a milk run which made 22 missions, after eating chow, we returned to our barracks and practically fell into bed.
RAID # 23 JAN. 15TH,1945 AUGSBURG
Again this morning, we were awakened by the same old routine "yell" by the C. Q. , Heap, Heino, Fredericksen, Holmes and Newman. We all jumped quickly out of bed to beat the rush to the mass hall, the morning was very clear and quite warm. One of the boys says "well, were going to hit Hitler's hole again", and someone made the remark, "I hope he don't hit us back".
At the mess hail again we were confronted with dehydrated eggs and some horse feed. After we had engulfed some of the strong coffee along with the dehydrated eggs and horse feed, we again went thru the woods and up to the operations room.
There we checked the plane number and dispersion area and also deposited our purses into the crew 4 personal belongings bag. We then followed the usual procedure of putting our flight equipment in our flight bag and thru the chest type chute and harness on top for recognition. We then went to the armament shop and checked and wiped the excess oil from our guns, wrapped them in rags from the rag can to keep sand and dirt from the working parts and thru them in the truck.
As we flashed a light into the truck and counted the guns, Pappy came up and I seen he had
the balstuds driving spring in his hand. We then climbed into the truck after I had told the driver the dispersion area No. and we started by first going to pick up our flight equipment. After we had picked up our equipment, we prodded onto our airplane. Once there, we went thru the usual procedure of installing our guns and counting flak suits, fire extinguishers, flares for type as well as number, the same as the oxygen pressure.
We had been awakened an hour early by mistake, so when the pilot, copilot, navigator and bombardier arrived and we had checked the plane and Form one and I had written up the names of the crew, we all crawled back in the waist and laid down to rest a while and discuss the target.
Our target was Augburg and we were briefed by the navigator and pilot on 52 flak batteries and also on recognition of Swiss planes as we would be very near Switzerland. 7:15 was station time and as that time approached, we all got into our stations. At 7:30 A.M., we started engines and 7:45 we taxied our to the runway and at 8:00 o'clock we received_ the green light for takeoff from the portable tower.
I the Engineer flipped the locks on the window and Brownie shoved open the throttles and when the four 1200 horsepower Wright Cyclone radial air-cooled engines roared to their full power, Brownie released the brakes and we roared down the runway with 38 100 pounders for Augsburg's air base in Hitler's Reich.
After we cleared the ground, Brownie gave the order for wheels up and John Q. flipped the landing gear switch in the up position. After we had climbed to 3,000 ft. Brownie called for 2300 rpm and 38 inches of manifold pressure. After we had started our normal climb, I opened the tokio tank valves for a few seconds to prevent freezing in case of water in the valves, then closed them and then as I climbed back out of the radio room into the Bombay, I met Sid (bombardier) crawling back toward me thru the upper turret to the Bombay to pull the safety pins from the many bombs. One consolation was they only had tail fuses.
As we climbed to 13,000 ft. we picked up the 487th group which we were to fly with and after circling for a couple hours, we started across the Channel. We remained at 13,000 ft. until we were well inside France. As we neared the French Coast, the ball turret and I climbed into our positions, Heino always got into the tail much earlier, in fact, right after takeoff to inform Brownie of the planes behind as he is now squadron lead and leads five planes.
As we passed over the French Coast, we could plainly see the snow, covered fields below and everything seemed to be awful quiet. We flew inland over snow covered fields for quite some time, then as we became closer to Germany, we neared Metz. Below us was some very rough territory which finally ended in a range of low mountains, on the other side of which was level terrain thru which the Rhine flowed then another range of low mountains on the other side.
On our right about 30 miles away were the towering and rocky clad Alps of Switzerland. We flew near these until we had reached Augsburg. All the country below was covered with snow. There were many small towns below, so many we could count 15 at one time from 19,000 ft.
After entering Germany, we had climbed from 13,000 up to 26,000 ft. as we neared the target. On this trip we saw no jet planes but as we neared the target, rockets started coming up in barrages of several at a time. As we turned on the I. P., we could see someone else had also bombed our target. We didn't bomb our intended target and after Pappy and I had cleared Sid and the lead bombardier dropped his bombs, we again felt the familiar jerk of our plane as the bombs went away.
Our bombs strung out for what looked like a quarter of a mile as the 38 100 pounders fell for the earth. Our bombs landed in the middle of the town so I guess we scared a few Kraut. Our P51 escort which had picked us up over France were zigzagging everywhere as they searched the skies for Hitler's Air Force.
As we left the target only a few bursts of flak came up but there were many rockets which were very inaccurate. After we reached the rally point, we again assembled into formation and started on the long long way home. John Q. asked the his usual question, "is everybody ok" the
answer was ok from is all so we remained satisfied and on our way home. We flew for what seemed ever to me before we finally passed again over Metz and France.
We were all so tired; it had been a long mission as we passed over the white capped Channel, we continued to let down and after quite some time, we could see the good old English Coast and soon there after we could see our base ahead: Brownie peeled off after our lead group and circled the field before entering the traffic pattern after which I checked the landing gear.
We then landed and taxied over to the parking space. Soon we were back at the briefing room after which we came home to a cold barrack but a warm bed with No. 23 behind another milk run.
RAID # 24 JAN. 29TH 1945 KASSEL
On the morning of the 29th, we were up early again preparing for another raid. After the usual procedure, we arrived at the ship and proceeded to install our guns. After everything had been checked for takeoff, we all gathered in the waist dressing and waiting for Brownie_ to come out and give us the briefing.
Sid and Johnny were already there and it wasn't long before Brownie came and Borg also arrived shortly afterwards. We were to bomb the railway yards and we wee carrying 12-500 pounders. After we had been briefed, Brownie & Johnny got into the cockpit as station time had arrived, Borg was in the nose while Sid took his usual place for takeoff in the radio room.
When start engine time arrived, Lt. Brown and Lt. Swift started the engines while I watched the instruments. When the engines had reached 150 Deg_ Centigrade, we taxied out toward the runway and after the usual ground run up we pulled into position on the runway and when the green lights flashed, we again shot down the runway.
As we left the ground, Brown called for wheels up and as soon as we had reached 500 ft. he called for 2300 rpm & 38 inches. As we climbed to altitude, I checked the tokio and put a red red flare in the flare pistol and when we reached 13,000 ft. I put on my muzzle (oxygen mask) and sat down to wait for the time to get into the turret.
We formed at seventeen thousand feet and when we headed out over the Channel, I changed the red red flare to a green green for the signal in case of any fighters attacked. It was very cloudy upstairs and we could see practically nothing below. We crossed the Channel and as we reached the front lines we received a few bursts of flak, but no one was hit. We picked up the fighters escort at the lines, we had 4 groups of P-5 I's & support in the area. After over an hour in Germany, we approached the target and opened our Bombay doors after the lead ship.
The target was covered with clouds, so it was bomb again by instruments which I certainly dislike as we can't see the damage we do. As we were all watching for fighters, I heard Sid call bombs away and felt the upward jerk as 12 five hundred pounders went away, we were at 24,000 feet.
The flak was coming up now, but was meager and inaccurate. As we moved away from the target, smoke came up thru the clouds telling us we had again scored, so we placed our attention on the cloudy skies around us in which no doubt enemy fighters were hiding. After an hour and 30 minutes, we again crossed the front lines on the way home but this time received no flak.
We could still see nothing below and the cloud coverage remained when we reached our base. We let down thru the clouds and after checking the landing gear, we again sat down with no holes. This had been an easy mission and so we put away our guns and flight equipment then
had some hot cocoa & sandwiches, also scotch whiskey for those who wanted it. I cleaned my guns after I had finished my cocoa, and headed for the barracks via the mess hail.
RAID # 25 FEB. 3RD, 1945 BERLIN
On the morning of Feb. the 3rd we arose early and again it was gunners briefing, as we rode our bikes toward the mess hail, the sky still harbored the many twinkling stars as well as a bright moon. We had fresh eggs for breakfast with cooked germade which was better than usual. From there we went to the drying room and drew our usual clothing as well as our chest type parachutes, then to the armament shop where we checked our guns. From there we went to our usual briefing room and as soon as all gunners had checked in Lt. Bob gave us the briefing to Berlin_
It was supposed to be clear weather as far as Moscow Russia. We were briefed on possibilities of 700 fighters so everyone was very much awake, we were to bomb the railway station as refugees from the Russian front were pouring into Berlin as well as getting out. After our briefing, we went back to the armament building and loaded the guns into a truck and took off for the ship after we had loaded our flying equipment. After the usual procedure of installing guns, we checked the plane and also checked the amount of ammunition very well.
After all this had been done, we gathered in the waist to put on our flying clothes and as we were changing Brownie, Borg & Sid arrived, Swift had came out just before. As we were changing, Brownie gave us another briefing hitting only the high points, then Johnny gave out the escape kits during which time the gun checkers arrived and also our candy rations.
Our guns all checked ok, so we all sat down in the waist as it was yet 20 minutes till station time. When station time arrived we all helped pull the props thru and everyone took his place at their station.
We were soon starting up the engines and Brownie taxied our bomber out of the parking area toward the runway. As we taxied, I closed the door behind the cockpit to the Bombay which harbored 10-500 pounders. As we neared the runway, Brownie again ran up the engines for the last ground check before takeoff. Everything checked ok, so we pulled onto the runway. After a few seconds, the green light flashed from the tower.
Brownie shoved the throttles wide open and when she came to a deafening roar, kicked the brakes off and we again shot down the runway, this time of Berlin. After the usual procedure following takeoff, we climbed to 12,000 ft- to form and did so on our way over. As we crossed the Channel, we could see the rippling sea below and as we neared the Belgium Coast, it was plainly visible as we flew east over Belgium. We climbed to higher altitude and as we passed over our front lines, the houses & fields below became a misty blue, it was a beautiful day, perfect for visual bombing.
As we flew east across Germany, it seemed as though we were on a pleasure flight except for the reality of the close formation flying and the many guns searching ever skyward. Our P-51 escort had picked us up at the lines and were zigzagging everywhere in echelon formation of 4's ever on the alert and closely watching the sun and any clouds that were in the sky.
As we continued on our way, the clear sky turned cloudy and again we called the weather man a liar which is always the guy we blamed. We had a 40 mile an hour tail wind but still it seemed as though we would never get there, after nearly 3 hours, we reached the 1. P. and the formation spread out for bombing, everyone was alert and watching for fighters.
As we moved on to the bomb run, all Bombay doors were open. After a short bomb run, Sid called out bombs away and once more I felt the familiar upward jerk as our bombs went away. As we roared off the target, I could see planes as far as I could see, both in front and behind us. I had never seen so many planes before in my life, but although the numbers were great, I never saw a single one go down over the target. Soon after we left the target, smoke came up in clouds up to 24,000 ft. from which we had bombed.
Everyone was expecting fighters and as we left Berlin smoking and turned for home, a German jet propelled plane shot toward the sky at 8 o'clock. The flak was moderate which surprised us all as Berlin was always noted for heavy flak. As we flew on toward home, we dropped down to 19 thousand feet and flew for ever it seemed.
As we had now a head wind to slow us down but at last we crossed the Rhine which was a pretty blue so far below. As we crossed the front lines another jet plane streaked toward the sky off at 4 o'clock. As we flew back across Belgium, we dropped down to 13,000 ft. and we removed that muzzle like oxygen mask, my was I relieved.
We flew for a couple hours across Belgium then finally passed over the white beach to the North Sea. The sea looked calm to us but was to the contrary more than likely. As we flew on home, we encountered no difficulties and when we neared the Coast of England, I got out of my turret, the ball turret gunner, Luftwaffe Pappy had gotten out before.
We were all plenty tired after 5 '/2 hours over Germany & six hours on oxygen.. At last we passed over the English Coast and in 15 minutes reached the fields, at last the Sqdn. Lead peeled off and soon after we followed them.
After we landed, we taxied back to our parking area and emerged from No. 820, a beleaguered looking lot with a black ring around our nose and mouth from the oxygen mask. We didn't have much to say so we removed our guns and equipment and returned tot he armament shop and put away our guns then left our flying equipment in the drying room.
There was a long line at the whiskey counter an one likewise for sandwiches, so I forgot about it and went to clean my guns from there I went chow, then to barracks a tired man. The Germans claimed we killed 25,000, mostly refugees, we had done our job.
(side note: Moderate to intense flak, jet jobs were sighted but none attacked. Huge clouds of black smoke engulfed target and rose to vicinity of twenty thousand feet. Air ministry & railway station destroyed.)
RAID # 26 FEB. 15TH, 1945 COTTBUS PRIMARY HEADING FOR RUHLAND
This morning we were again awakened early and the usual call for eat at 3:15 & 4:15 is briefing. We were all anxious to finish her off as we then would only have 7 more to go. We went thru the usual starting procedure and then reported to the briefing room for gunners briefing. We were to go deep in on this raid to bomb synthetic oil plants at Ruhland, which is only 60 miles from the front Russian lines.
We were dented for enemy fighters of any because we were to cross the Leipzig area which is full of enemy fighter plane bases also across the front lines where there are always enemy fighters supporting the ground forces. We were to have fighter escort made up of mostly P-5 I's with a few P-47's thrown in.
After our briefing was over, we returned to the armament building and picked up our guns and truck and headed for our own ship 820 which is our own ship. Upon arriving there, our crew chief (Ritchie) was warming up the engines and going thru the usual run up checking procedure which would bring us safely back as far as his engineering was concerned.
All of us enlisted men went over to the crew chief tent and waited for the sound of dying engines se we could install our guns and check her for necessities such as oxygen, heat for our suits, flak suits and many other smaller items. At last Ritchie was thru with the run up and the Wright engines come to a choking halt and we all tramped our of the tent to get our guns installed.
This was soon done as by this time we were all very capable of installing our guns quickly and correctly. As I was checking the flares, Johnny Swift arrived and we went thru the remainder of checking together.
I then filled out the form with the crews names and we all then gathered in the waist to put in and check our heated clothes. Swift passed out our escape kits and Brownie, who had just arrived once again went over our briefing skipping the minor parts because we had already been briefed once.
Our Borgie soon arrived with the Bombardier and candy rations following close. As we say waiting for station time, I wiped off my turret glass and installed my turret stool which was little more than a wooden ammunition box with part of it chopped away.
A jeep soon after drove up with the emergency bag and our rations which we all greeted whether we had the mission scrubbed or not. As we sat in the waist eating our Hershey- bars, Borg says, " I believe in eating and enjoying mine so in case we do go down, I'll have profited", we all joked and laughed about it.
At last station time arrived and then start engines and as the first engines kicked over I was busy putting on my may west life vest and parachute harness therefore I didn't see the oil pressure raise on No. 1, the rest all started ok and after the cylinder head temp. had risen to 150 Deg. Centigrade, we waved to Ritchie and Brownie called for brakes off, Johnny kicked off the brakes and Flying Fortress 820 rolled our of the parking space for the taxi ramp.
As we neared the plane ahead of us near the takeoff runway, Brownie swung her diagonally across the runway and started the engine run up procedure. Crew Chief Ritchie who had ridden to the runway to-be sure she was ok to the last before we took off jumped out after she checked ok and we then rolled out onto the runway behind and to the left of the plane already there and just then starting to roar under full power down the runway.
Brownie made a last check to be sure everything was ok which I also always did, and then the green light flashed giving us the go signal. Brownie moved the throttles to the full power forward position, kicked the brakes off and we roared down the runway with trails streaming back from the propellers. As John called off the air speed, at ninety five we left the runway and Brownie called for wheels up as we roared out over a haystack and farm yard at the end of the runway.
Brownie soon called for 2300 & 38 inches and we were again headed for the sky which was
turning to a blue but which in many twinkling stars still brightly shone. As we started the climb to assembling altitude, I went back to the radio room which the boys were now evacuating but had inhabited always on takeoff to do away with tail heaviness on takeoff thus cutting our immediate leaving of the runway, Heap was sitting in his comfortable padded and much gloated
over radio chair grinning when I looked up after I had flipped the tokio tank valves open for
drainage of water. After leaving them open for a few seconds, I again flipped them closed and returned thru the Bombay to my position behind the copilot and pilot.
As I passed thru the Bombay, I winked at Sid who was removing the pins and checking the 10 five hundred pound G. P.'s which made up our bomb load. We began assembling at 4,700 ft. therefore doing away with the oxygen breathing from a mask which every airman dislikes. After assembling for an hour or so, we headed out for the open Channel toward Belgium.
As we neared the coast, I changed the red, red flare in the flare pistol to a green, green which is the signal for enemy fighters after which I heard Pappy saying over the interphone he was getting into the ball turret to test fire as the ok came from Sid to test fire, I climbed into my upper turret, swung my guns to an open spot in the blue sky at seven o'clock, pulled the trigger, heard the musical chatter and watched the big shells jump into the feed way from which the were extracted by the bolt for firing.
From the tail waist and ball also chin and cheek guns, I could feel the vibration and chattering which meant all gun positions were firing. Soon Heino's voice, clearest one on interphones when he has a good mic. sounded off. "Tail guns O. K." then Newman gave the O.K. from the left waist the Heap in the right waist, Pappy in the ball, I in the upper turret then Borg & Sid in the nose after which Johnny Swift, our morale officer said, "now let the Bastards come".
As we neared the Belgium Coast, we could see absolutely nothing below because of the clouds below, but after we started inland it cleared now and then. As we neared the German boundary, a jet plane (enemy of course) streaked toward the heavens leaving a white vapor trail which gradually waned to a zigzag line like trail. We were all at our positions now watching anything that looked like a fighter, we were soon relieved of tension when our most capable enemy destroying P-51 pilots came up from the rear to escort us and zigzag forth & back from one side to the other of our formation both above and below and I might say everywhere else.
They are the best friend any bomber airman ever had or ever will have. They have been known to attack enemy fighters when the odds were 30 enemy planes to our one, that takes skill as an airman and guts as a man. As we flew on toward our target, we could see nothing below but clouds and as we neared our target, the cloud coverage still remained at nine tenths.
As we reached the I. P. and turned on the bomb run, the order came over the radio from the group lead that if we had to bomb by radar, we would proceed on to Kottsbus which was our secondary. We never bombed our primary, so we flew on with open Bombays to Kottsbus to bomb the marshaling yards which rate second only to Berlin. As we neared our target, I cleared Sid above and Pappy cleared him below. Soon Sid called bombs away and for the twenty-sixth time I felt bombs jerk away for the Reich below.
Heap soon gave bombs all gone and Sid flipped the switch to start the electric motor closing the bomb doors. At this point, we were only 70 miles from the advanced Russian lines. We now started the long and tiresome way back. We had had a tail wind of 40 mile per hour coming in but going out it was against us and it cut our speed to 125 miles per hour which is awfully slow.
As we proceeded on our way back, we could get an occasional glimpse of the Reich below from which the snow looked as though it was melting. Outside of that, I could see relatively nothing because of a haze. Since this mission was the longest I have made, I never became so tired of standing in my turret in all my tour and when we did again cross the German boundary on the way out I felt as though I was going to collapse, I was so tired_ Oxygen isn't enough, to stand at altitude that which you can easily stand on the ground.
As we neared the boundary on the way out, the clouds were separated over the Rhine and we could see the river with its high banks on either side. From altitude it is a beautiful scene, with houses all along its edges emerging into a town wherever the gorge is wide enough.
After passing the Rhine, we again remained over a solid cloud bank until we reached home seeing nothing to break the monotonous drone of engines except an enemy 109 over the lines (American & German). Our escort had dropped to a low altitude therefore he had no one to fight with except us and he stayed out of range diving and climbing and finally ending his observing by heading back for the German side of the lines.
We finished No. 26 without seeing anything more and not until we reached our base did we see the ground and then only when we dropped down low. After the usual procedure, we landed and once more taxied to our parking area where we removed our guns and equipment from our plane. We then finished it up by cleaning our guns and heading for the barracks but of course via the chow hall which then fed us slum as we call it.
RAID # 27 FEB. 19, 1945 WESEL
On the morning of the 19th which happened to be Monday, we were awakened very late and we were afraid we had been one of the chosen few to fly slow time but our C. Q. told us it was a mission we would brief at nine o'clock then eat lunch and takeoff at 12:48 P.M..
At nine o'clock we were all up at operations and we went thru the usual procedure. We took our guns & equipment out to the plane, installed our guns, then went to chow. After which we returned to our ship and prepared ourselves for the mission. We all were at the ship at 12 o'clock waiting for start engine time.
The officers were there early this day because the briefing had been before lunch. At last it was time to start engines and everyone was anxious to get going as it was terribly hot on the ground because of the warm sunny day and all our heavy flight equipment including wool long handles.
Swift was soon reading off the check list which was being executed by Brown. Soon I heard Brownie say prime one start one then I knew we would soon be on our way. Soon all four engines were roaring and after the cylinder head temp. had reached 150 Deg. Centigrade, we taxied out of the parking lot on our way to the runway.
As we neared the runway, Brownie swung the plane diagonally across the taxi ramp and started to go thru the last ground run up. The left mag on number 2 was dropping 300 or more rpm, but after throwing the engine in automatic lean and kicking her up to 1700, she cleaned out ok. As we taxied on to the end of the runway, I locked the windows and we watched the tower for the green light, soon the signal was given and Brownie shoved the four throttles to full open position and when the 4 engines roared to full power, kicked the brakes off and we started rolling down the runway.
As we neared the end of the runway, Swift called out, "95,100,105" and Brownie pulled our big bomber off. He immediately called for wheels up. When we had reached 500 ft. he called for 2300 rpm and 38 inches of manifold pressure and after taking a good look at our instrument readings, I went back to the radio room to open our tokio valves to allow for drainage of any water which might cause them to freeze closed at high altitude.
After this I put a red flare in the flare in the flare pistol for signaling. We formed at 16,000 ft. and after approximately 2 hours we turned our nose for the Channel and started for our destination.
As we neared the coast, I changed the flare from red red to green green which is the enemy fighter signal and adjusted my oxygen mask as it always bothered me, one might describe it as a bothersome muzzle. But it is still your like at high altitude.
As we flew out over the Channel, the clouds below prevented us from seeing anything so Borg told us when we had left England. When we had reached the middle of the Channel, we received the order to test fire and all of our guns checked O. K., we then flew on in over France. As we neared Germany, we could still see nothing below except clouds and occasionally a P-51 which would come up from below the clouds looking for the enemy. We opened our bomb doors in friendly territory-as we were supporting the Canadian troops.
After a short bomb run, I heard Sid call bombs away over the interphone and felt the familiar jerk as 10-500 pounders went away. We missed the bridge which was the target,
2 /z miles we found out later so the lead Bombardier caught hell. There was still plenty of clouds and after we dropped our bombs, we flew north toward the Zeiderzee and after nearly an hour we turned back west for England, all of the trip so fat had been over a cloud coverage and on the ground there was a heavy fog.
We received a few bursts of flak over the Zeiderzee one of which was very close. We continued on home with nothing to cause excitement the rest of the mission. We were supposed to land as the 7h plane but one Squadron didn't drop its bombs, so we had to fly around about an hour to let them land first, then after checking the gear we landed with the use of the landing lights because of the bad fog.
It was seven o'clock when we finished cleaning our guns and eating chow. We then returned to the barracks on the way checking our mail, we had none, so I didn't write any either but retired for the evening instead even though it was early, we had finished No. 27.
6 more. to go.
RAID # 28 FEB. 22ND, 1945 ANSBACH
This morning, we got called early again with breakfast at 3:15 & gunners briefing which wasn't too good we didn't think. Our target was a small town which contained a large marshaling yard and connecting both the Russian front & the Western front. We were to bomb it. We were carrying 12-500 pound G. P.'s.
After gunners briefing, we all thru our flight equipment in the truck and headed for the ship. Our crew chief had already pre-flighted the ship because we were late. After installing our guns, we all gathered in the waist to change into our flight gear. Brownie, Swift & our Bombardier and Navigator showed up short about that time, Brownie didn't need to brief us this morning so we all laid in the waist waiting for what seemed to be the slow approach of station time, at last it was near se the rest of the crew climbed out of the waist in the pulling thru of the props.
As they went under the wing, gasoline from the gas tank over flow trickled on them, in investigating, they found it had covered the wing near the turbine wheel and exhaust. So because of the high explosive qualities of 135 octane gasoline, we were afraid to takeoff with the plane. We then had to fly the spare ship and once we had all our equipment once more back in the truck,
we were on our way to the other ship.
When we reached the other ship, we all bailed out and as I jumped out I broke the Heated cord on my heated clothes so I had to put on the spare suit which is always carried along. It was baggy and way to large for me and I had nothing but trouble putting it on.
There was no guns installed, so the ground armourers had to do that and one of my upper turret guns wouldn't even work. After a lot of sweat and work, I finally got into position but not until after we had started taxiing out to the runway.
As we neared the runway, Brownie started the run up procedure and she checked out O. K. at last we were pulling onto the runway, then the green light flashed, I locked the cockpit windows, Brownie shoved the throttles to full open position and we were off down the runway.
We left the runway and as usual, Brownie called for wheels up after that we climbed to 500 ft. then I went back to open the tokio valves for drainage of water then I put a red red flare in the flare pistol, arrange the equipment and carefully placed my parachute at the floor of my turret and sat down to rest for a while before I had to climb up into the turret for my usual 5 or 6 hour of standing which I must say grows very tiresome.
At last we had formed and we were on our way, it was very clear this day and being we formed at 6,000 ft. it didn't take near as long, we were to bomb at low altitude, the first raid of this type the Eighth had ever pulled. As we started across the Channel, I changed the red red flare to green green and a few minutes later, climbed into the turret to watch for enemy planes as we went inland. We flew into fog & clouds and as we flew over the lines, we had to climb to 16,000 ft. to be above the flak or at least cut down on the accuracy of the flak gunners.
After we crossed the front lines, we dropped down to 12,000 ft. and over Germany again we found heavy clouds sometimes so thick we could hardly see our wing men 50 ft. away. As we neared the target, we had to drop down because of the poor visibility as we reached the I. P., we ran out of clouds to our surprise and below us 8,400 ft. was the target, and what a target at least 200 box cars in the yards.
As we passed over the target, I heard the Bombardier call bombs away and did we plaster that place "WOW". It seemed as though the whole town which was small as well as the marshaling yards exploded, those 500 pounders did a real job. Then as we peeled off the target, smoke billowed up right around us.
That was really satisfying to know we had bombed so low. Many of the wing men opened up with all the guns who could successfully strafe the ground but of course the upper turret men were out as shooting would only mean wasting ammunition as far as they are concerned because the guns will only go to a minus 5 Deg.
After our bomb run, we again started to climb up to avoid any flak we might encounter on our return, we again flew into dense clouds and we never emerged from the clouds and mist until we had climbed to 16,000 ft. which meant 7,600 ft. had been thru cloud and dense fog. We had a tail wind on our way home and after another hour & 35 minutes, we were again crossing the lines and we could now see the ground but still we could see no troop activity on the terrain below.
We were now flying over northern France which is a beautiful country and below, plowed fields, green pastures and many small forests were open to our view, it was very thickly populated somewhat like our eastern states. Many of the buildings such as England also displays were of the two story thatch roof type which is certainly a rare if not non-existent type in our country, the U. S _ .
The traffic on the roads were moving on the right side which is opposite from England. Soon after we had passed over Northern France, we flew over Belgium which is like France as far as
we could tell. After flying over Belgium, including Brussels, we reached the Channel Coast which stood out very plainly with it's white sandy beaches against the pretty blue of the sea.
We flew over the water for nearly an hour as we now had a change of wind to a head wind from a tail wind. This made the 560' time we had crossed the Channel or North Sea. I had grown tired of standing in the upper turret and now considered it safe to hook up the seat and sit down.
The seat is very dangerous in enemy territory because of the length of time it takes to release it letting you out of the turret. I sat there nearly asleep until we neared the field. Then I clambered out to check the landing gear for down position after which we landed.
I was awfully tired after nearly six hours standing up and five on oxygen. (we seen our escort very seldom on this flight.). I didn't even clean my guns but left them uncleaned although .1 only was able to test fire and thus dirty one. It was a spare ship and I thought armament took care of them.
There was a big line for cocoa so I left it and got on my Limy Luke and left for the mess hall where they fed us pork chops. Then home to my sack, a G. l.'s best friend. P. S. I mean bunk.
RAID # 29 FEB. 28th, 1945 KASSEL
On this morning, we arose at 6:00 with breakfast at 6:30, briefing 7:30. After the usual procedure, we were waiting for takeoff time which was 10:30. We were briefed by our pilot while waiting for takeoff time. After takeoff, we assembled at 8,500 ft. then after we had been airborne for a couple hours, we headed out across the Channel.
Again we had 8/10 cloud coverage so we could see little besides our bombers ahead and behind. We crossed the Continental Coast on our way inland south of the France & Belgium border in France and flew East passing near Reims near the lines, we had been climbing up till now so we were all on oxygen.
As we flew on, we climbed to bombing altitude and flew on into deeper Germany. After flying for an hour and a half inland, we approached our target and I could see rockets and flak coming up at the target ahead. The sky was black with flak and it kept coming up in box barrages. As we flew into the flak after passing over the I. P. the Bombardier called out flak at 12:30 low then high then at twelve o'clock, flak was soon bursting everywhere around us and it was dangerously close. How we escaped without a hole I don't know but at last we were again safe as far as the flak was concerned and we tamed once more for home.
Our escort was zooming up our of the cloud bank below occasionally and we rested with the feeling that they were there whether we could see then or not. We continued on thru a cloudy sky which obscured our view as far as the ground was concerned.
We crossed the Channel without seeing even the water and after a check of the landing gear, we came down. We were all pretty tired after going to bombing altitude and spending 8 'h hrs. in the air.
We cleaned our guns and again since we were next to last down we got no cocoa so being it was chow time, we went to the chow hail then on to the barracks for a good nights sleep. I needed it.
RAID # 30 MAR. 1st 1945 DRESDEN
On this morning, we were awakened with the usual call of eat at 3:00 and briefing at four. After which we followed the usual procedure and since we were to have a gunner briefing, we didn't have quite as much time to clean and check our guns.
We were to bomb Dresden Marshaling yards as a secondary should Lanneitz, our primary target consisting of a jet plane air field be overcast and such was the case. We took off at six o'clock A. M. and climbed to 7,000 ft. for assembly after an hour and a half of assembling, we headed out across the North Sea, the cloud coverage was 7 to 8/10 so as usual our vision was obscured by white fleecy clouds mostly Alto Stratus.
As we crossed the German held Dutch Coast, the sky was somewhat cleaner and we could occasionally see the ground now 20,000 ft. below and a mist on the ground making it look a dark blue.
We traveled toward our target very fast this morning because of the fast tail wind and we arrived at the target at 10 o'clock, our primary target was off so we made our bomb run on the secondary target which was Dresden Marshaling Yards.
We dropped 4 incendiaries and 10, 500 lb. General Purpose bombs and after passing over the target, smoke appeared thru the clouds. The bomb doors wouldn't close so I had to crank them closed. There was-many very difficult as they were frozen. Rockets and the flak was meager and inaccurate but came up in barrages so far we had met none of the 400 enemy fighters due much to the reason, 5 groups of P-5 I's were escorting us.(300)
We bombed from 20,000 ft., we remained at that altitude for six hours while' over enemy territory. On our way home we passed over a German air base which showed a -great deal of activity thru our glasses, FW 190's were taking off and taxiing as were several other makes, mostly ME 109 & ME210's. Some of the ball turret gunners strafed from 20,000 ft. however, their ammunition was wasted.
On our way home, many planes were dropping back and loosing altitude due to lack of gas & oxygen and as we passed over Brussels Belgium, many aborted to refuel. We were short when we arrived, but made it O. K..
We had hot cocoa this time, then to the barracks and sack.
RAID # 31 MAR. 2ND, 1945 ENGLOSTADT
Enemy aircraft bombed the nearby fields and strafed our field coming right in over my barracks. There was the sound of a peculiar and unfamiliar aircraft. In a few seconds, the night was broken by the loud rattle of machine guns and the area shook with exploding bombs. We shot down six of them, but the remainder escaped back to their bases in Holland.
After that, everyone was very restless and I returned to my bed of which half was strung ruthlessly across the floor to the door some 15 ft. away. I had no more than got in bed than the C. Q. woke the others up, I was already awake, Heap had just came in from town, he was accompanied by Johnny Swift our copilot who was feeling his oats.
'ire-went thru the usual procedure, we had breakfast at 2:00 o'clock & briefing at 2:30, after eating we checked our guns and picked up our flight gear and left for the ship. Upon arriving, we installed our guns and checked everything thoroughly as we are now very particular because we want to finish up without an unfortunate mishaps.
When our officers arrived, Brownie briefed us on the target and we were all quite anxious to know it too. We were raiding the Marshaling yards at Ingolstadt, which is between Munich and Augsburg and slightly north. We were to have 300 fighters (P-51 's) for escort and one group (60) in the area of the target_
We were to bomb from 20,000 ft. and we were carrying 8 General Purpose 500 pounders and 4 incendiaries and there was to be no flak. We took off at 4:30 A.M. and flew directly over to France gaining altitude as we went, everyone was on the alert because of the strafing and bombing the night before. At this time of morning a 3/4 moon was still shining when we finally got above the clouds which were at ten thousand feet.
We assembled into our formation and started the long climb to 20,000 ft. which was our bombing altitude, it was light enough by now to see the ground thru some of the clouds which covered the ground in most part. For almost 2 hours, we flew inland at times flying thru fog so thick we couldn't even see the sun which had risen not to long before.
We were to hold rendezvous with our fighters at 10:15 near the front lines along the Rhine, but we never saw them until later because of the fog. When we reached the target, we had to bomb by PFF again and for the 31 " time, I felt the bombs go away but not with the jerk which occurs when they are salvoed. This time they went away in train, they seemed to string out in a line a mile long.
We never seen the results, because of the overcast for which we were thankful because it was so thick the Germans only sent up two rockets and absolutely no flak. After we had finished our bomb run, we again turned for home. After sweating out another 2 hours of flying in fog, we passed over the lines on our way home where we received a couple bursts of very inaccurate flak.
After that, we flew for another three hours thru overcast and when we finally let down to our base, we ran into rain and fog which made it rather hazardous for landing. After we were finally down, we again returned too our barracks via the chow hall.
We had been on a 9 hour 45 minute milk run.
RAID # ? MAR. 3rd, 1945 ABORTED
On Mar. 3rd, we were awakened and were to bomb Uln Marshaling Yards near Augsburg. After we had prepared ourselves for takeoff and received the briefing from Brownie, we pulled the props thru to get ready to start engines.
Takeoff was at 6:30, we were carrying 10 General Purpose (500 pounders) and 4 incendiaries. Our bombs were navy bombs which nearly cost us our lives. After takeoff, we climbed to assemble but our Bombardier had trouble with the bombs, all the vanes came off and the bombs were ready to explode should the vane shaft turn tot he right position.
We called the tower and Brownie received the instructions immediately we were to go to the Channel and drop them. Pappy & Newman had both snapped on their chutes and were sitting by the waist door while Heap watched the shafts for turning and called M. F. T. emergency station, they said they would keep track of us should we need them in case we had to jump_
At last we had flew out over the Channel far enough to drop the bombs, Sid dropped all the G. P.'s which left us with the incendiaries which were O.K. Our commander told us to join the formation and finish the mission, but we were ordered back by the group C. 0., we had all been hoping we could go on the mission with the bombs we had left as this would be our first time to ever turn back in 35 missions because of trouble of a nature different from weather.
We returned to our base a dejected lot but gave it up as a bad job well done. The group C.O. met us at the parking area and what I expected to be a chewing, was quite a number of questions; how, why, and when by the colonel.
RAID # 32 MAR 4TH, 1945 GIESSEN
NO ENTRY FOUND OTHER THAN SIDE NOTE
(side note: intense flak, received two holes, bombed from 24,000 ft. no planes lost. Bombed Marshaling Yards.)
RAID # 33 MAR. 8TH, 1945 FRANFURT
NO ENTRY FOUND OTHER THAN SIDE NOTE
(side note: intense flak, barrage type, bombed jet plant)
