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Navigator's Diary: 487th Bombardment Group, B17
by Norman K. Andrew |
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1/14/45 Mission #21 Up at 2:45 for pre-briefing. What a target! Magdeburg - on the route in we feinted at Berlin, cut back between Berlin and Brandenburg - over Magdeburg synthetic oil refinery - by Hanover, Dummer Lake, Zuider Zee, and out over the Hook of Holland. We were leading the low. Went over the North Sea route, in west of Neumunster, north of Hamburg, and aimed at Berlin. About 50 miles past Hamburg I saw 4 P-51s drop their tanks and peel off. One strafed a railroad, couldn't see the other 3. About a minute after they went down the Luftwaffe jumped the 390th flying 2 minutes ahead of us. They got all nine of the low squadron in about a 3 minute fight. Not 15 minutes after that scramble was over about 30 FW-190s queued up about a half mile off our right wing. Before they could start in the P-51s hit them. Just before we turned north of Brandenburg they hit the 590th high squadron. I could see the 20 mm shells bursting throughout the formation. Four B-17s went down. In the two attacks I saw about 12 fighters go down, couldn't tell whether they were 51s or 190s. Our high lead lagged behind just before Brandenburg. He never came back - it is supposed that the fighters got him. When last seen he was behind us at about 18,000 ft. and in the target area. At the IP our lead bombardier lost himself and took off toward Leipzig instead of Magdeburg. I thought the Air Leader had decided to bomb the secondary - but, after making a 180 we lined out on about a nine mile bomb run. Our group bombardier, Al Fillipane - riding with us - took the course as okay and killed his rate on the terrain. Result - we dropped east of the Elbe River. The high hit part of the target. The smoke screen was heavy. Meanwhile the high squadron, with the #3 man leading, hadn't caught up. So they avoided the flak and joined us at the RP. The flak was intense and accurate - hit our #2 engine, right outside my window. We also had 6 hits in the wings and tail. We had to feather #2 on the bomb run. About 15 minutes after, #4 started running rough and smoking. Our Air Leader thought it was about to catch on fire. Jack opened the cowl flaps and cut it back. We held the lead - otherwise we never would have kept up. I kept a course to Brussels available in case we needed it. The high squadron dropped on the marshalling yard at Osmabruck. At the Dutch coast we headed for home and had to feather #4. 1/16/45 Mission #22 The CQ came in at 3:00 - but I was awake. Target: Dessau, Germany. What a Cook's Tour it was. In over Holland and the Zuider Zee - north of Hanover and Magdeburg. Target: East of Leipzig - Schweinfurt. Over the Rhine River at Strasbourg. At this point we had our only flak - it was one gun (?) at the front lines. The bomber stream was about 5 miles wide and he had so many targets he couldn't make up his mind. Finally hit a ship, wounded two men. Returned to base - but was diverted to a RAF field at Fenningway 120 miles north. We started running out of gas at Peterborough so we came down. Landed at Glatton. Led the group today. Off the ground 9:05. Traveled over 1400 miles over 5 countries. |
1/18/45 Mission #23 Was I surprised this morning! The CQ woke me at 2:45 for target study. I had him check his list 3 times to be sure he was right. Target: Kaiserslautern, Germany. There were 3 groups of us in the 4th wing going. They scrubbed the 1st, 2nd, and all of the 3rd divisions but us. At briefing they told us we would probably be diverted. At the target we (the low) and the high dropped first run. It was supposed to be cat and mouse - but the cat beacon did not have the code sheet delay. We dropped PFF and I had a Gee fix just 2-1/2 miles short of the marshalling yards. The Air Leader with us wanted to circle the RP while the lead squadron made a second run. Bandits had been reported in the area and there was no flak at the target - so I said, Hell no - make a 2nd run with the high and lead. Then he told me the high had dropped so we went back over France and waited for them. On the way back we were diverted to Laon Couvron Airfield, France. The soup was from 11,000 down to the ground. We made individual letdowns. What a nightmare! Couvron was full so we landed at Laon Ataise A/F. The ground pounders were betting even money that at least one B-17 would crash - but no one did. 1/21/45 Mission #24 Here we go again! Target: Primary, Micro-H on an armored vehicle works. Secondary, PFF on the marshalling yards - both in Mannheim, Germany. The 487th did not put up a group of our own. We led a squadron with Rattlesden (low). Formed at 12,000 and the weather caught us. Couldn't climb fast enough to keep out of it. So we took off on our own to avoid any planes in the clouds. Six of our wing men went home when they became separated from us. We left England on our own and headed across France for Strassbourg. The contrails were dense, persistent - really hard to even see our own squadron. Our Air Leader really got worried about us being by ourselves. Jack and I had to argue like the devil before he saw the light on the bomb run. He wanted to bomb in group formation with just anyone. We wanted to take our 7 plane squadron in by ourselves on account of Whitt is really an expert on PFF (couldn't bomb Micro-H - too far from the beacons). Then - on the bomb run the bombsight froze up, due to lack of precautions by our visiting bombardier, and Whitt dropped the bombs, aimed PFF at the center of Mannheim. Temperature at 27,000 was -65F and my left boot went out. Stamped my foot for 5 hours to keep it warm. Go to Page 7
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