Mission

ON THIS DAY...May 10, 1944

Thirty-eight crews had checked in with the attendance man for the 0245 briefing. As the S-2 Officer from Alabama, Charles W. Terry pulled the curtain back that morning, the seated crews saw that the red string stopped just NE of Brunswick, Germany.

The 100th would be targeting the Fallerslesen Volkswagenwerk factory which in addition to producing cars and jeeps, had converted some of its capacity to manufacturing aircraft components. In April, ninety JU 88 wings had been viewed stacked in front of the factory and it was thought possible that ME 110 components were also being produced there. The designated Secondary target would be the Osnabruck marshaling yards where two main railway lines intersected.

The 45CBW would lead the 3rd Division to Brunswick, followed by the 13A, 13B, 4A and 4B CBWs.

Leading the 13A formation would be the 100BG, flying under Command Pilot Lt Colonel Ollen Turner who would fly with Stanley Clark and his lead team. Nineteen of the 100th’s crews and B17s would fly in this formation in addition to two PFF crews and aircraft. The 95 BG would fly twenty-one B17s as the High Group with its Low Group made up of fourteen ships from the 95th and seven additional from the 100th flying as its High Squadron.

The 13B formation would be led by the 390BG with nineteen ships and two PFF aircraft. It would also fly fourteen ships as its Low Group with another seven ships from the 100BG flying as its Low.

Terry warned the crews of the flak defenses located at Ostend, Dunkirk, Charleroi, Le Culot and Liege. The route halfway between Bonn and Koblenz was to be followed closely if they were to miss their guns and Kassel should be carefully avoided.

Loaded with five 1000 lb bombs, the B17s took off starting at 0555 hours. Wegrzynek turned his ship back at 0700 at 8000 feet altitude where he noted on his abortion report “Sucking gas from No 2 and 3 tanks. The top wasn’t on tight.”

However due to the deteriorating weather, all of the formations were recalled when they were over the channel. On the Group's return, the “Miss Carriage” B-17 that was flown as a Spare, was badly damaged as it attempted to land due to the collapse of its landing gear.

That evening, at 2000 hours, the 100th was alerted again. After the mission details to Munich were prepared for a briefing by Headquarters, the mission was scrubbed at 2345 hours but the Group would remain under a Standby order until 0800 hours the next morning.

Crews flying the mission:100th’s main formation: Turner/Clark, Dille, Rosenthal, Lacy, Scott, Woldt, Zpaf, Pierson, Rupert, Williamson, Shelley, Rosine, Wrzynek, Giles, Ferbrache, Williams, Haralson, Schwank, Ryan, Bethea, Major

Low with 390BG: Evans, Roth, Rumley, Greiner, Hunter, Schomp Siewert

High with 95BG: Stout, Roeder, Horne, Lunsford, Mullen, Herres, Rogers