Navigator's Diary: 487th Bombardment Group, B17 by Norman K. Andrew
	NOTES FROM ANDY'S DIARY 8/9/44 Mission #1 Flew our 1st mission today, 34 to go. They woke us at 1:50 am. Briefing time 3:00 am. So we knew it was pretty sure to be a long one. Had pineapple juice, fresh egg, hotcakes, sausage, cold cereal, coffee. Target Schmitt ball bearing works, Nurnberg. Took off 0715 - left England 0856. Over enemy coast 0921. Ran into overcast and cloudy weather. Turned back approx. 50 miles southeast of Aachen. Picked a target of opportunity - dropped on lead ship and leveled the town of St. Vith - in Belgium. Encountered flak at Liege - moderate. Landed 1220. Logged 5-1/4 hrs. 8/13/44 Mission #2 Woke us up at 5:45 am for mission #2. On the way to breakfast we piled out of the truck and saw a buzz bomb. It was really moving along - stringing out flames behind it. It sounded a bit louder then an outboard motor. What a gliding angle! It hit about a mile and a half from the field. The briefing for the mission was the real Army stuff. Gave us series #3 charts and the "Gee" signals were series #2. Mission was three-ship element bombing behind the German lines - about 25 miles west of Paris 1 mile south of the Seine. We went into France between Cherbourg and Bayeaux. We skirted the lines (on the Allied side). We were lead ship of our element - I was really careful that we stayed on course. Between St. Lo and Uire there was a 12-ship formation flying on our left about 8 miles. They plowed right over a flak battery at Falaise. I was looking right at them when one of the ships got a direct hit in the right wing. The wing broke off between #3 and #4. Wing fell in flames - the ship fell in flames, tight spin to the right. No parachutes observed. Three minutes later another one took a direct hit. All I could see was shiny bits of aluminum - just a ball of fire. No one had a chance. The formation did not try evasive action. As near as I could spot the flak it was close to Falaise. We turned on the I.P. and made a 15-minute bomb run. Hit a road - purpose of raid was to interrupt Jerry's supply lines. We dropped 36 100-lb general purpose bombs. About 20 miles SW of Rouen there were about 12 rocket bombs. They really leave a trail of smoke. Jack called out 4 planes down in flames before I saw what he meant. Van Nostrand called 5 parachutes - it was a high formation that the sun just hit at the right angle. After the rally point I called Jack to tack onto a formation. As usual Jack said, "Hell, Andy, let's go home by ourselves - get there quicker." So we drug into England with a formation on our tail. I can still see that B-17 in a tight right spin. I knew they couldn't get out - it was spinning too tight. I'd rather get a direct hit. 8/24/44 Mission #3 Was awakened at 1:45 this morning by Dick Giles. They were on their way to briefing. I thought to myself, "Missed us this time." -- but, the CQ woke me at 2:00 am for 2:30 briefing. So--after a breakfast of canned grapefruit - 2 eggs over easy - bologna (ugh!) - and cereal - and fresh oranges and coffee.. I was well prepared for the shock of the rising curtain (on the mission route). Holy Smokes! Whoever planned this one should have given it to the Russians - it was sure a lot closer to them. Anyway - take-off was 7:45 - departed Splasher #7 at 9:08, left England and headed for Heligoland at 9:32. Just before Heligoland Dick lost his oxygen and aborted so the deputy lead took over. Target was a synthetic oil plant at Dresden - secondary, an airplane assembly plant; last resort an airfield. It had rained off and on until take-off. The apron to my flak suit was wet (really frozen stiff at 25,000 ( 25 deg.C). Saw a hell of a lot of flak all along the route but the nearest to us (except at the target) was approx. 300 yds - they used rockets - not even close and saw one burst of red flak - the rest was black. Every town we went by was smoke screened - but Bremen was getting quite a pasting. They were putting flak all the way up to 30,000 but I observed no hits. Click to continue		Ball Turret We made a very fancy bomb run - evasive action for all but about 3 minutes - then the bomb bay doors would not open electrically. So Rector cranked them open. Then - on bombs away only 1/2 the load dropped, 5 500-lb GPS so Chuck hit both the salvo and the toggle switches. That did it, but it threw the other 5 500-lb bombs about 3 sec over the target - approx. 1000 ft. Then Rector had to hand crank the doors shut while we were making just about a 180 and diving. There were 51 sure guns at the target. The ride home was just a ride. Some flak but all of it wild. Back at the base when we landed we darn near ground-looped. The pin in the tail wheel sheared and we took off across the infield. To top it off it started raining like the devil and everybody got wet. There was one ship (B-17-G) that landed at Lavenham that made it all the way back from Dresden on 2 motors. They had thrown everything they could out, including the parachutes. Logged 8-1/2 hours - 5:05 on oxygen and traveled 1204 nautical miles not counting evasive action. On that oxygen - I had to move to the Bomb-Copilot line so Jack would have enough to get home - landed with the red light on and 75 pounds on the gauge. So it ends - hope we didn't kill any women or children with those wild bombs. 8/25/44 Mission #4 Rudely awakened at 4:30 for 5:00 briefing. Looked like a short one - but - it was sure longer than yesterday's. Left Great Yarmouth at 9:32 and headed over the North Sea. Right through a stationary front. It really scattered the formation. We were reforming for 100 miles. Came over Germany at the Denmark peninsula about 5 miles left of course. Everything was smooth - solid undercast - when, with no warning the Flensberg flak batteries opened up. They must have tracked us for 10 minutes because the first bursts were right off our left wing in the formation. The plane would jump up about six inches every time a burst would let go underneath and there were several. One of the ships got his, jettisoned his bombs and headed home. We got the hell out of there. From Flensberg we cut across Kiel Bay to Nykobing on one of Denmark's islands. Angled across the Baltic Sea and hit Germany again near Stettine Haff. Two flak batteries took shots at us going by but we were just out of range. We flew west of Stettine where the flak forced us to fly 4 miles off course - that flak wasn't very well figured out. Turned on a 6-minute bomb run and hit an experimental airfield (Recklin Field, the Wright Field of Germany) on the SE shores of the Muritz Sea. Had about 15 flak guns at the target and they were good. One of the boys went down in flames - the stories vary, from 3 to 9 chutes came out. It was the deputy lead - 6 officers and 5 enlisted men. We had 7i holes from flak. Went north to Nykobing and home the same route as we flew out. Plane out for 4 days. Logged 9-3/4 hours but only 2-1/4 hours on oxygen. I'll dream of that bomb run - there were 3 bursts of 3 right across the nose. If that gunner had loaded just a little slower, he would have had us. Well, four down and 31 to go. Wasn't quite as scared today as yesterday - but that's not saying much. Better get some sleep - we're alerted for tomorrow - if we do it'll be rough - day 3 in a row is rough. Go to Part III
Copyright © 1997 - 2000 COMBATSIM.COM, INC. All Rights Reserved. Last Updated July 27th, 1999