|
Navigator's Diary: 487th Bombardment Group, B17
by Norman K. Andrew |
||||
|
2/24/45 Mission #29 Up at 1:30 am. Target: Sub pens at Bremen, Germany. Supposedly about as rough as Hamburg. We were leading the group with an Air Leader aboard. Take off was 6:00 - but was delayed 2 hours. I laid down on the cement floor at Engineering and really slept. Last night I "sweated" this one out - only slept about a half hour. Instead of a wing assembly line - we all hit Buncher 23 and on to Southwold. I hit B.23 30 seconds early but there were two task forces ganged up and we could not find the "C" group that we were flying "D" on. So I hit Southwold 30 seconds early - still Eberhart was frantically calling with no results. On across the North Sea to the hook of Holland. I made it minute late. Finally, over the Zuider Zee, the Air Leader called that he had picked up Charlie - so we swung in the bomber stream. It turned out that it wasn't even our wing - but Task Force #2. By the time I convinced the Air Leader - we had overshot the pre-IP about 5 miles. So we cut across to the IP and hit it on the head. Made a PFF bomb run. Metro was 90 deg. off on their wind. Instead of 264 knots ground speed we went over Bremen at 190 kts at 26,000 ft. I only saw 2 bursts of flak just after bombs away. The flak was moderate to intense and accurate. It was bursting under and behind us. On the way home one ship from another group toggled on Quakenbruck. His 500-lb GPs fell short- only one hit the marshalling yards and his IBs lit in a field. Major Eberhart complimented me twice. Once in front of the Colonel, and once at the critique, while I was reviewing the mission. I didn't say a word about his end of it. Jack and Whitt finished up today so we buzzed the field shooting every kind of flare we had, except red-red. Darn near put one in the 72,000 gallon gasoline dump. 2/25/45 Mission #30 Graduation Day!! Almost ashamed to finish up on this one. Except that our primary was visual only. Munich - PFF and the weather was briefed to be 6/10ths plus. Also we were given a diversion base in France. What a trip! I rode the bomb aimer's seat. Clouds were 9/10th to Strasbourg. Then 3/10 to 5/10. Had some light accurate front line flak. Twelve o'clock, close in at Riegel. Had clouds over the bomb run - but I picked up the target about 15 miles out. Finally Rusty saw it. All 3 squadrons put their bombs right on the MPI. Results - good to excellent. The target was an underground oil depot on the south banks of the Danube - just west of Neuburg. On the way in we wandered off course and nipped Switzerland and Austria. I really had an easy day today. |
Note on the last mission flown by the 487th bombardment group. For further information see 487th. Quote: "From the last mission on 10-Apr-1945 noted above, I'd like to share an extraordinary photograph." "On that mission with the bomb drop made, the group had turned back towards England. They were attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft, and specifically "Forever Amber" was attacked from 6 or 7 o'clock low by an ME-262. For those unfamiliar with that aircraft it was the worlds first operational jet, which could speed through a formation of the slower bombers with deadly results." "The result of the attack was the fatal wounding of "Forever Amber". The tail gunner, Ed DeLachica was killed in this attack but the remainder of the crew bailed out. Another plane in the formation snapped this picture and a few others of the dying plane." "My Dad discovered this and other photos while looking through declassified photos at the end of the war. Evidently base personnel were invited to look through the photos before they were scrapped. What a find!" Click HERE to see the photograph. "Please consider joining the 487th Bomb Group Auxiliary. We're a group of people interested in the 487th. We try to get out 2 newsletters per year, in which a variety of information is shared by 487th crew, their families and friends. Stories are also shared on how the restoration of the tower at Lavenham is going. The family who owned and still owns the land on which the group was based is serious about keeping the memory of this era alive and with the help of several organizations is working to restore the tower, and turn it into a museum." Send $10 for the annual dues to:
487 BG Auxiliary
For more military history related articles see our Military History Index. For more on the coming B17 simulation from Microprose/Wayward design see our Air Combat Previews Index. Join a discussion forum on this article by clicking HERE.
|
|||
|
Copyright © 1997 - 2000 COMBATSIM.COM, INC. All Rights Reserved. Last Updated July 27th, 1999 |
||||
