Mission

ON THIS DAY... JULY 30, 1943

Since 1600 hours on July 29, the 100BG had been on alert with HQ receiving the official orders at 2200 hours and working through the night to prepare for the 0330 briefing on Friday, July 30.

After checking in with the attendance man at the briefing room door, seventeen crews plus spares watched as the large map was unveiled and they were told of their target for the day. The 8th Air Force’s heavy bombers would be targeting Kassel, Germany, where the Fiesesler Flugzeugbau G.m.b.H factories were in high production, reportedly turning out “500 engines monthly for Messerschmitts and Focke Wulf fighters and other vital plane parts.”

The 4th Bombardment Wing, would supply a one wing formation made up of composite group formations and would be led by the 100BG, which would contribute the lead and high aircraft while the 95BG would furnish its low made up of six aircraft. The second group would be a composite of the 96BG in the lead, and low while the 388B would supply the high and second element of the low. The last formation would be led by the 94BG which would fly a composite with the 94BG.

Leading the 8th AF, the 1st Bombardment Wing would target the Fiesesler factory at Bettendorf, while the 4th Bombardment Wing, flying at a five minute-interval behind, would attack the Fiesesler Werk III, the aircraft components factory located at the airport Kassel-Waldau, five miles south of Kassel  and only three miles away from the 1st Division’s target. The secondary target would be in Hamm to the Northwest while last resort targets were designated as any industrial target of opportunity in this area.

With the 1st and 4th Bombardment Wings in the same area, the routes in and back from the targets had been specified by VIII Bomber Command. The route into the target would have the formations entering at the Belgian coast, through France and into Germany. Turning north at Remagen, south of Cologne, the formation would head to Ziegenhain, south of Kassel, then to the target. Making a right turn after the target, they would make a sharp left at the rally point so the three groups could regain combat wing formation, then head north and exit enemy territory south of Rotterdam in Holland.

Visibility at the target was projected to be fair and bombs were to be dropped on the group leaders.  There was to be no fighter support on the inbound route. However, three squadrons of P-47s would provide withdrawal support at Haldern at the edge of Germany to the coast of England.

S-2 also warned the men of the expected AA guns at Knocke and around any of the airdromes. Rotterdam was reported to have 35 heavy guns and another forty were to be expected between Nordwalde and Rotterdam so taking evasive action was suggested in the entire area.

With take-off commencing at 0615, the 100th’s aircraft assembled without incident and at 0627, the 95BG joined the 100BG over Thorpe Abbotts, forming the 402nd combat wing of twenty-three aircraft. Heading to the assembly point with the 403rd and 401st, the 100BG’s formation failed to make good the first and second control points, thereby creating a delay in wing assembly by several minutes.

Departing the English coast at Felixstowe at 0740, the formation flew up the channel, continuing the climb as it readied to cross the coast at Holland. Three of the 100BG’s aircraft would abort and return to base early, two of which carried ill crew members: in ‘Our Baby’ flown by Thomas Hummel, BTG Lorenzo Bishoff was ill. In ‘Forever Yours, thought to have been flown by Henry Henington, his TG had become ill. William MacCarter in ‘Torchy II’ experienced a run away propeller on his #1 engine and forcing an early return. And in the 95BG’s low formation, two of its aircraft aborted early.

At 0805, the 100BG’s group, flying under the call name ‘Franklin’ had crossed over into Belgium at Knocke, but was reportedly off course by twelve miles near Antwerp where the AA gunners took aim on the approaching heavy-bellied bomber formation. The AA fire was reported as “accurate, continuous and following.” Here, a B-17 from the 95BG’s low formation had an engine hit by flak. Pulling out of formation, it descended toward the sea while a second 95th Fortress pulled out and returned due to run away superchargers. The wing’s low formation was now down to one element.

The accurate flak had hit John Brady’s Fortress, ‘Paddlefoot’s Proxy’. Brady, awaiting a replacement for Harry Crosby after his transfer to Blakely’s lead crew, was flying with Frank Murphy as his navigator for this mission and Frank tells us, “…we were immediately enveloped by intense, accurate flak. Suddenly, amid the usual deafening noise and my praying and hanging on for dear life, I heard a crackling sound like gravel being thrown against a tin roof. The airplane lurched violently, wobbled a bit, and appeared to founder. With that we peeled off sharply to the left, away from the formation and began a steep descent towards the sea.” *

Shortly after coming out of the intense flak, a reported twenty-five to seventy-five enemy fighters made up of mostly Me109s and some FW190s began their attacks on the formations. Reported as “exceptionally weak and not pressing their attacks” the fighters would continue their attacks on the formations for over an hour, all the way to the target. The aircraft were reported as coming in from high out of the sun in rotations of 4-6 fighters. The first attacks were made on the 100BG and then were concentrated on the back groups.

Nearing the IP at the Rorshain airdrome, there was a failure of the 100BG’s interphone and the lead aircraft overshot the IP, forcing it to “do considerable irregular maneuvering before a bombing run was established. As a result, all groups approached the target at an angle which subjected them to a larger amount of AA gun fire than would have been encountered on the planned axis of attack.” At the target, the AA gun fire was reported “as intense and accurate” for altitude with the predicted barrage described as “terrific,” “a wall,” and “heavier than at Kiel” but was fortunately to the left of the formation.

At 23700 feet, although clear as predicted, the target had been obscured by smoke resulting from the 1st Division’s bombing in the area. Although the 100BG’s lead bombardier could not see the target, one of the lead’s wingmen sighted for range and dropped, with the remaining aircraft dropping their bombs at 0925. Unable to observe any results due to the smoke, the 100BG’s formation made its turn off the bomb run and headed to the rally point.

Attacks by the enemy fighters started up again just after the target area, with the fighters “coming in from right out of the sun in formation of from 4 to 6. EA armed with a heavy caliber cannon were again reported staying out of range of our guns and firing on the formation. These guns threw a flame about 5 to 6 feet in length.”

On Richard King’s Fortress ‘Little Mike,’ his twenty-six year old BTG Rudolph Harms on his #4 mission, tells us, “two FW 190’s sneaked up from under a formation. I got two shots at them at 500 yards. There was a big red flash and one went out of control, burning fiercely.”

Scheduled to pick up three squadrons of P-47s at Haldern at the edge of the German border on the route out, the 100BG arrived two minutes later than planned and the rendezvous was not accomplished. Heading out over the Dutch coast, the remaining 100BG’s Fortresses crossed the channel, recrossed the English coast at Lowestoft and returned safely to base.  Five from the 100BG would return with battle damage.

Brady, returning earlier and highly concerned for the safety of the crew due to the smell of aviation gasoline in the cockpit and the fear of a potential explosion in an aircraft still loaded with bombs, had ignored all normal landing protocol and once his Fortress came to a complete stop, ordered the crew to evacuate immediately, With the crew getting out of the B-17 as fast as they could through any opening they could and as Brady described, “running like hell into the woods,” the mission ended safely for his men and ‘Paddlefoot’s Proxy’ never blew.

While the 100BG suffered no losses and was credited with one FW190 probable destroyed and one Me109 damaged, the 95BG had one B-17 ditch into the channel and was also credited with one FW 190 destroyed and two ME109s destroyed and one damaged.

That day, S-2 Intelligence Officer Red Bowman recorded into the Group’s history, “This was one the boys had not been looking ahead to. Kassel, Germany, is a long way there, and the crews had been briefed on this target previously only to be scrubbed. Today they took off early - about 6 a.m. and did the job. Oddly enough, fighter opposition was light, not that anyone minded - but flak was severe. One plane was hit immediately going over Antwerp and came home alone on three engines - nice going. Bombing results were reported good, and several fighters were claimed by our explorers. They say they won’t have to go back. Hope not.”

The 4th Bombardment Wing, had a total of twenty-seven pilots abort the mission and lost an additional six aircraft and crews. General LeMay’s remarks were easy on the men with no comments about the abortions and dealt more with the bombing efforts. He wrote, “The lack of success on this mission was chiefly the result of the dense smoke which covered the target. This again emphasizes the fact that when two efforts attack the same target within a short time of each other, the second effort is almost always severely handicapped in the sighting operation.”

The 100BG would be ‘stood down’ for July 31st and so ended the month and what was later referred to as 8th Air Force’s ‘Blitz Week’ as part of Operation Gommorah.

Crews identified as flying this mission (with spares): MacCarter in ‘Torchy II’, Reeder in ‘Squawkin’ Hawk’, Scott, Demarco, Helstrom, Hummel in ‘Our Baby’, Fienup, Murphy, Floyd in ‘Barker’s Burdens, Dye in ‘Janie’, King in ‘Little Mike’, Justice?, Kiessling in ‘Stymie’, Flesh?, Cruikshank, Brady in ‘Paddlefoot’s Proxy’, Woodward in ‘Escape Kit’, Knox in ‘Picklepuss’, Moreno in ‘Mugwump’, ‘Henington in ‘Forever Yours’(?)

* As told in his book “Luck of the Draw” by Frank D. Murphy