Mission

ON THIS DAY...MAY 8, 1944 - Two mission day

AM Mission

Two mission plans were received into the early morning of May 8. Plan ‘A’ with Quakenbrück as the Primary target and then at 0135 hours, ‘Plan B’ was received with the Primary target of the Friedrichstrasse Station in Berlin. The 100th’s duty officer’s check sheet noted, “This was another goofy deal with 2 field orders and two plans plus 2 complete briefings - Groups will be notified later as to which plan will be used.”

With the first briefing held at 0245 hours, by 0450, Plan ‘A’ had been cancelled and John Bowers was briefing thirty-one crews for the second time that morning for Berlin with Brunswick as the Secondary target.

Orders called for the 4CBW to lead the 3rd Division, with the 45CBW following at a three minute interval, followed by the 13CBW, echeloned to the left of the 45th’s formation. The 1st Division would also be attacking Berlin and following the same route in as the 3rd.

Leading the 13CBW would be the 390BG, with twenty-one crews from the 100BG flying as its High Group and a Composite Low Group made up of B17s from the 95th, seven from the 100BG and seven ships from the 390th. The 95th BG would fly its own ‘A’ Group formation of twenty-one ships with the 4CBW.

Twenty-five year-old Jack Swartout would fly as Command Pilot with Richard Helmick. Flying as his wing men would be Lindley Williamson and Henry Rosine while the Second Lead Element flown by Gibbons would have James Noble and Julian Rogers as his wing men. The crews of Evans, Lischer, Ryan, Schwank, Ferbrache, Rumley and Williams would fly in the composite with the 95th.

Taking off between 0545 and 0604 hours, the 100th’s ships formed up as a group, while the others in the composite headed to their assembly point. Flying in 10/10 cloud coverage, the 13CBW was unable to meet the 45CBW at the briefed time due to the 13th’s lateness from slowing up to wait for straggling ships so it flew with the 4CBW instead.

Ultimately fourteen ships would abort the mission before attacking Berlin, including the 100th’s command ship flown by Swartout, who had turned back at 0830 hours. Baker would abort five minutes after the lead and the entire 2nd Lead Element of Gibbons, Noble and Rogers aborted after Gibbons flying as the second element lead had failed to take off. Rosine, Giles and Shelly all ended up tacking on to fly with the 390th when their Lead Squadron fell apart. Townsend and Schomp in the 100th’s High Squadron plus two spare B17s flown by Rupert and Hunter also aborted early. Additionally, four out of the seven 100th’s ships flying with the 95th Composite would abort the mission: Schwank, Ferbrache, Rumley and Williams.

Flak was encountered over the Dummer Lake area and again in the vicinity of Wittenberg. At 1041, the formation began its turn at the IP where the flak was considered intense from barrage fire below. Henry Rosine, now leading the element that had tacked onto the 390th recorded the flak as “intense, all over - very accurate.” And Elmer Ferbrache’s ship, #090, had taken a hit in his left elevator on top of a number of holes throughout the ship, forcing him out of formation.

A damaged ship flown by Donald Riggle had been lagging behind the advancing formation starting at 0931 hours. “He was observed to drop further & further back until last from view near 5306-1340E at 1050 hours. When last seen all 4 engines were going and the ship seemed under control. There was neither flak nor fighters near where he was last seen.”

Although fighter support that day was considered excellent, enemy attacks were made on the wing with the 390th taking the brunt of the attacks. Riggle, lagging behind in the 10/10 cloud coverage tells us, “After about twenty minutes we ran out of cloud cover and were immediately attacked by a flock of ME-109s. We were pretty well shot up - out of ammunition and on fire in the right wing. The control column went limp after a hit in the tail - with no control there was nothing to do but bail the crew out.” Both Waist Gunners, Robert Marbach and Gilbert Sandoval had been killed and the remainder of the crew bailed out, becoming POWs.

Originally flying as Low Squadron lead, Charles Mylius found himself leading the 100th’s formation of twelve remaining ships over the target, each dropping their ten 500 lb bombs at 1118 hours. His ROG Vincent Wood wrote, “… It was much like yesterday, no fighters, ample flak. We were leading the low group but so many aborted we wound up leading what was left of the group. Hit in oil line at #2 engine & lost quite a bit of oil but everything else OK.”

Not out of the woods when making the rally point, additional flak was encountered as the 100th flew the briefed route home.

At 1415 hours, all ships but one landed after an eight hour mission. Ten men however, did not return and William Ryan, flying in ‘Andy’s Dandy’s’, landed with a wounded man aboard. Ultimately, the 13th CBW would lose four ships and crews on this mission, three from the 390th and one from the 100th.

Crews flying this mission: Main formation - Bethea, Dille, Giles, Greiner, Herres, Mylius, Rake, Riggle, Rosine, Ruppert, Scott, Shelly, Siewert, Simmons, Stout, Townsend, Williamson, Helmick-Swartout, Noble, Rogers, Gibbons, Lunsford, Schomp, Hunter

Composite formation with 95BG: Evans, Lischer, Ryan, Schwank, Ferbrache, Rumley, Williams B