by Jim "Twitch" Tittle

  An unnamed plane the crew called "741" lost one engine but stayed in the box. But when the squadron climbed out she could not. Soon she was alone in the big sky with 190s and 109s attacking wounding ball turret gunner Sargent Walter Molzon.

The continued onslaught let daylight into the sieve-like rear compartment. Tail gunner, Sargent James Sweely said that all the armor around him was cut or dented but his wounds were minor. Finally the plane lumbered into the gray bliss of the clouds.

They had three choices:

• Bail out over Germany
• Head for internment in Switzerland
• Steer for England.

The vote was to head for home. Diving to tree-top level 741 began her race for the French coast. Lt. Harold Christensen, piloting the Fort, collapsed from wounds. He died the next day.

The co-pilot, Lt. Stuart Mendelsohn recovered the big bomber but it smashed the nose into a tree as a crewman called out a burning engine. The radio operator had the only ammo left and picked off several enemy gunners on a sea wall as 741 staggered out over the water. Fuel exhausted to where the engines began coughing, Mendelsohn brought the Fortress into a British airfield.

Windy City Avenger had the elevator shredded and the crew bailed out at 1,000 feet over England. Others bellied in and some landed on their wheels with chewed up metal as a souvenir of the day.

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EPILOGUE

Three Thunderbolts were lost defending the Big Friends. Fifty nine B-17s went down over the Reich's airspace. Six others were destroyed near of over England from ditching or bail-outs. Another seventeen were damaged so badly that they would never fly again. Only fifty planes received no damage of the 257 that made it over Germany's airspace.

In the space of a few days eighty eight bombers were lost on mission leading up to the big Schweinfurt raid. While the Germans acknowledged the accuracy of the bombing, the 8th A.F. could not sustain the percentage of losses needed to keep the pressure on the German war machine.

The attack forced 80% of ball bearing production to be dispersed buy October 1944, but that was much to German advantage. But by March 1944, with P-51s capable of to and from target escort, the tide began turn ever so slowly. Never again would the Big Friends be mauled as bad as they were that bloody Thursday.

Between the hours of 1439-1457 the 228 B-17s dropped 450 1,000 lb. high explosive bombs, 663 500 lb. HE bombs 1,751 100 lb. incendiary bombs and expended 697,828 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition.

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