Mission

ON THIS DAY...JUNE 6, 1944

Third Mission:

The S-2 Officers, now up for more than 24 hours themselves, prepared for their 3rd mission briefing of the day to be held at 1415 hours. For fourteen out of the twenty-four crews in attendance, they would be flying their second mission of the day. Keith Lamb tells us, “When we returned to the base at 10:30 in the morning, we found the mess hall had prepared a hot lunch for us which was waiting at our parking stall. After our lunch, Ransom, Tex, and Waldeman, the navigator went into Briefing…I stayed with the rest of the crew and saw that the plane was gassed, guns oiled and checked again, and that everything else was ready for a return trip.”

Briefed for Falaise, France by S-2 Officer Mackesey, the 100th’s MPI was to be the middle of town which had not been bombed in the morning mission and was an important target designed to hold up the German armored forces located northwest of the town. Again, the crews were told that no second runs were to be made on the Primary and that bombs were not to be dropped north of the specified bomb line.

The 13CBW would fly an ‘A’ and ‘B’ wing, followed by the 4CBW, 92nd, 93rd, and then the 45th. The 13A formation would be led by the 95BG with the 100BG flying as its High and Low squadrons. The 100th's High would be led by Robert Rosenthal flying with James Noble while the Low would be led by Stanley Clark flying with Joseph Zeller.

Mackesey also read the message that General LeMay had passed on from General Doolittle, which was to be read to all crews at briefing: “The Eighth Air Force is currently charged with a most solemn obligation in support of the most vital operation ever undertaken by our armed forces. It will be necessary during certain stages to attack with tremendous intensity the area immediately in front of our advancing troops. Because of the intensity required, no other agency except the eight air force can undertake this task. The required materials and skill are ours, yet it must be recognized that bombardment accuracy has never faced a more severe test. Every individual keenness, every refinement of technique and every aid to accuracy must be exploited so that the pattern of our attack is exactly as ordered, and that there are no gross or avoidable errors to bring disaster to our troops on the ground. The necessary hazards have been accepted. They can be minimized only through exalted performance on the part of our air leaders and bombardiers. I have every confidence in you. Doolittle”

With the High squadron’s B17s loaded with two 1000 pounders and the Low carrying sixteen 300 lb GP bombs and all aircraft carrying one thousand nine hundred gallons of fuel, take-off at 1700 hours was uneventful and assembly was without issues.

Flak was reported as meager and fairly accurate at Granville which used “seen continuous pointed fire with good altitude and too close for comfort but not close enough to hit the planes.” CP Lamb on Ransom's ship continued, “This time there were fewer clouds and we could see the beaches lined with landing barges. Nearby towns were burning. We were to drop our bombs on crossroads to prevent enemy tanks from approaching our troops. Again there was a solid wave of heavy bombers as far as we could see, in front and behind - about 80 miles wide, we figured. A Group off to our right was hitting Caen and we could see them getting very accurate flak;I saw three go down.”

All of the 100th’s bombers attacked the target from an altitude of 13400-14000 for the Low and 16500-17000 for the High with bombs away at 2019 hours.

By 2049, the formation had crossed the enemy coast and they were headed home. Lamb added, “When we started back to our base it was already starting to get dark. It takes a capable, alert pilot to fly a bomber in formation at night, and both Ransom and I had been 40 hours without sleep. It’s a wonder we ever got back. We came across England very low under the usual overcast and I would watch the ground when Ransom flew. As we were Low Man in the Low Squadron, whenever we came close to a tree or a hill we would have to pull up over it, being careful not to run into the guy above us. On the way back we met the RAF who were just going out as we returned to our base…”

Landing at 2330 hours, the men who had flown both missions were happy to be finally down and were exhausted. TG Robert Statchel in Edgar Wolf’s crew, happy to be back in his hut recorded into his diary, “…Second trip - what a sight of gliders going in. Late arrivals at base in darkness and rain, thank God for the uppers that kept us going - flew 7:00 hours - a total of 13:15 hours today. Howard had a younger brother making the beaches in one of the first waves with the engineers. Kennedy remarked ‘What a display of ships off the coast of France.’ He felt that we were really part of something! Impossible to sleep after we got back. Always bragged that the area we bombed was the best operation Ike had going during the initial period.”

And Emmett Schmitt, TOG on James Ransom’s crew completing his #3 and #4 combat missions that day recorded, “…Took off for our second mission of the day about 5pm, flew the same route as the first mission but went further into France, the town of Falaise. Ran into flack and rockets, came back to England by the same route. Landed about 11:30pm and got to bed at 1:30am. About 46 hours after we got up Monday night. 3 straight missions without sleep…”

The 100BG ended D-Day with no loss of ships or crews. There would be minimal rest for the base as Headquarters had been alerted for another mission on for the next day.

Crews flying #3 mission of day:

High Squadron: Rosenthal/Noble, Tiahrt, McEwen, Gibbons, Brewer, Dunlap, (Lead SQ) Rake, Woodall, McKeague,(Low Element) Lunsford, Gustafson, Terminello, (High Element)Ground Spare A/C 220

Low Squadron: Clark/Zeller, Wolf, Woldt, Schomp, Simmons, Ransom (Lead SQ), Evans, Lischer, Anderson (Low), Forsythe, Schwank, Fory, ( High)Spare A/C 2090