Mission

ON THIS DAY...MAY 20-21, 1944

Through the night, orders for a Plan ‘A’ and a Plan ‘B’ came in from Wing headquarters with the final decision of which plan would be implemented made prior to Plan ‘A’s’ takeoff time.

That morning at the 0400 briefing, the twenty-two crews in attendance listened as they were briefed on the details of both plans with ‘A’ taking them to Belgium and ‘B’ to Germany.

The Division line would be led by the 4CBW, followed by the 45th, 13th and 92nd CBWs. The 13CBW would be led by the 95BG, with the 390th flying as its High group and the 100th as its Low.

Flying as Command Pilot for the 100th would be M.J. Fitzgerald, flying with Captain Joseph Zeller and Monrad. Geary and Massol would lead the High and Stout the Low.

With the ships loaded with twelve 500 lb bombs and 1700 gallons of fuel, the decision was made to put ‘Plan A’ into effect, with a locomotive depot in the marshaling yards at Brussels as the 100th’s Primary target. The Secondary target would be a repair depot for single engine aircraft at Antwerp where an unusually high number of A/C had been sighted on the field.

Under 8/10 cloud coverage, the Group’s assembly was slow and wing assembly not much easier. Poor weather continued as the formations crossed into the continent.

At 1016, the 100th made their turn at the IP for their run over Brussels and from where seventy-five guns were expected to be aiming at them. Fortunately, there was no flak on the bomb run and no flak encountered as the Group passed over the target although “10 black, yellow and white puffs” were seen in the rear of the formation in the distance.

The 100BG passed over the target without releasing their bombs due to the explicit directions given in Field Order 235A (Plan A) - “Bombs will not be released in occupied countries if accurate sighting is impossible due to clouds, smoke or haze.” Due to the 10/10 undercast, no bombing was completed by the 3rd Division that day and all of the 100th’s ships returned safely to Thorpe Abbotts.

At Interrogation, other than the usual complaints from the enlisted men about dirty and rusty silverware, some pilots had something to say. Pilot Gerald Brewer commented,”Suggest we wait for better conditions for take-off; more frequent flares.” Pilot James Schwank commented, “No beneficial results could be noted from running mission in this kind of weather,” while pilot Robert Roeder commented, “Keep English trucks off perimeter; #4 prop struck rear of truck, damaged prop and underside of right wing.“

That evening, a welcome Stand Down order came through.

Crews flying that day: Bethea, Brewer, Chadwick, Eichen, Zeller, Jesperson, Major, Massol, Monrad, Noble, Noordyk, Roeder, Roth, Ryan, Schwank, Scott, Siewert, Simmons, Stout, Townsend, Williams, Williamson