Mission

ON THIS DAY July 28, 1943

After a one-day break from flying, at 0330 hours on Wednesday, July 28, twenty-one crews at Thorpe Abbotts including a spare were alerted for the 100th’s next mission.

The men had been seated in the secured briefing room and the whistles commenced when the airmen learned that their primary objective would be a Nazi Focke-Wulf assembly plant at Oschersleben, located SE of Magdeburg and within eighty miles of Berlin and the deepest penetration into Germany yet. Their designated secondary target would be Braunschweig with a last resort target at Hannover.

Twenty-one year-old pilot Robert Wolff was seated for his first combat briefing. Before his own crew went up for their #1 mission, Wolff would fly as the copilot with a veteran pilot, twenty-seven year old Robert Knox and as Wolff tells us, “To see what combat was like and get some experience. There was, within me, a lot of tension…”

The S-2 Intelligence Officer indicated that the men would not be flying within their own combat wing.The planners at VIII Bomber Command had called for the 401st Combat Wing to lead the 3rd Air Division, with the 95BG attached as its low group while the 94BG would lead and the 385BG would fly as its high group.

Scheduled to fly behind at a two-minute interval and slightly escheloned to the right, would be the 403rd Combat Wing, led by the 388BG. The 100BG would fly as its low group, with the 96BG flying as its high group with five aircraft from the 385BG filling in the rear of the high squadron. Flying as command pilot for the 100th’s formation would be Magee Fuller flying with Sam Barr.

The reviewed route out to Germany would include a diversion in the North Sea and entry into enemy territory west of Emden.

With take-off and assembly as planned at 4000 feet, the 100BG continued their climb out and across the water. Ten minutes after leaving the English coast, pilots from the 96BG, flying in the high group above the 100BG, reported a B-17 with no markings leaving the formation, making a 180 degree turn and heading for Germany. “Many complaints were made by pilots of this ship flying in formation and weaving in and out and forcing ships out.”

Four of the 100th’s Fortresses would pull their aircraft out of formation early, aborting the mission early and without credit: ‘Mugwump’ due to an inoperative top turret gun, Ernest Kiessling in ‘Stymie’ lost the formation at 5000 feet in the overcast and was unable to locate the group, Hollenbeck’s ‘Flak Happy’ experienced a failed fuel boosted pump at 15000 feet, and in ‘Bastard’s Bungalow,’ a parachute in the nose had been accidentally opened.

In the lead aircraft of the 100BG’s formation, Barr’s waist gunner, Bill Ohl, tells us, “…We took off at 5:30. A.M. We were the lead ship of the 100th group. We flew through heavy overcast all the way over the North Atlantic…” 

As the water was crossed, the unexpected cloud layers extending from 5000 to 25000 feet over the North Sea to the coast of entry, caused the pilots difficulty in maintaining their formations. Requiring the use of instruments by the group leaders, the restricted visibility caused aircrafts from all of the groups to become separated and widely scattered in the clouds, while also allowing the unobserved German enemy aircraft to lay in wait for the bombers as they emerged from the cloud coverage.

From their hiding points “at a point halfway in on the diversion,” attacks on the formations from a reported one hundred and fifty German enemy aircraft commenced: 75 FW 190s, 45 ME109s, 15 ME110s, 16 JU88s and 1 ME210. Many of the single engine enemy aircraft had been painted to resemble P-47s. Official records tell us, “As many as 40 would attack a Group at the same time, coming in on our individual AC in trail and abreast, in groups of 4 to 7. The attacks were from all angles but the majority were from 5 to 7 o'clock and from 11 to 1 o'clock, from below. 

Air to air bombing was reported and it was also reported that ME 110s and JU 88s were armed with large caliber cannon in the wing. These EA would stay out of range of our guns, raise their wing and lob their shells into the formation. As many as five would line up abreast, fire a salvo and break off. One report described an ME 110 with this type of gun mounted in a top turret and an FW 190 with one mounted under the fuselage.” 

This first phase of fighter attacks lasted approximately an hour, from 0850 to 0950 hours. The clouds were so thick and the fighters so aggressive that out of the 120 aircraft dispatched that morning by the 4th Bombardment Wing, only 26 aircraft in total from the 96BG, 95BG, 388BG and 94BG would continue on to bomb the primary target. While the 95BG dropped on a target of opportunity thought to be the primary, the remaining aircraft, including the 100BG and 385BG’s heavy bombers had all been widely scattered and returned to base without dropping its bombs, either singly or in small formations.

Bill Ohl in Sam Barr’s lead Fortress tells us, “The 96th group lost three ships in the first sweep of the fighters. I was firing away and holding my own when the Sear in my gun broke and my gun would not fire. I got the Sear from the radio gun and was soon ready for action again. We could not drop our bombs even if we had reached the target due to over cast. That is the fault of the weatherman and S-2 and it isn’t the first time they have done that on us…”

The 100BG’s gunners had successfully fought off the enemy attacks with no losses and claims made for the destruction of one FW190 and one ME110, one ME110 as a probable destroyed and two FW190s and two ME109s damaged. The 4th Bombardment Wing’s other groups would loose a total of fifteen bombers on this mission.

This mission would deal a deal a severe blow to the Luftwaffe from the 4th Bombardment Wing which was credited with: Destroyed: thirty-two FW190s, seventeen ME109s, two JU88s and five ME110s Probables: twelve FW190s, three ME109s, three JU88s and one ME110 Damaged: twenty-five FW190s, fifteen ME109s, two JU88s and 2 ME210s

That day, the 100th’s S-2 Officer, Red Bowman would record into his diary, “Ochersleben was the target today – weather closed in and Group was hampered. Fighter opposition was terrific (150 to 200 reported) and the enemy made clever use of cloud cover to make hit and run attacks. This same cloud cover served a useful purpose for some 100th crew, noticeably Lt. Helstromm who with an engine out dived into the clouds two jumps ahead of a JU-88 who plainly meant him no good. Crews reported the enemy’s use of 37mm cannons in this encounter, JU-88′ remaining out of range and lobbing 37mm shells at the Toyko tanks on our planes. They reported three Fortresses in an accompanying group downed in one fighter pass, all going down in flames….”

Crews flying: Barr, MacCarter, Reed, Carnell, DeMarco, Braley, Helstrom, Hummel, Murphy, Turner, Dye, King, Henington, Kiessling, Brady, Woodward, Knox, Moreno, Flesh, Hollenbeck (missing names)