Mission

ON THIS DAY...JULY 31,1944

After the devastating number of losses experienced by the 1st and 3rd Divisions over Merseburg on July 29, a stand down for the 8th Air Force had been ordered for the 30th. The loss of so many crews was deeply felt by the 100BG, including twenty-four year-old Lewis Payne who had just lost his entire crew. As one of the two WGs on the Jackson Phelps crew, it had been Lewis’ turn to sit that fateful mission out. His diary entry tells us that after all of his missing crew member’s belongings had been picked up, he returned equipment to Supply and continued to pray for the safety of the missing men.

Awakened for a mission on the 31st, twenty-six crews had been seated in the briefing room when the S-2 Officer unveiled the map. The men followed the red string to its ending point in southern Germany, stopping at Munich. Their Primary target for the day would be the Bayerische Motorenwerke A.G. (BMW) factory, 2.5 miles north of the city while their Secondary and Last Resort targets would be the chemical plant at Ludwigshafen. This would be the 100th’s fourth mission to Munich that month, having lost twenty men the last time there on the July 13.

The 3rd Division’s line would be led by the 45 CBW, with the 13CBW flying two wing formations behind it and the 4CBW flying last.

The 100th would fly in both the 13A and 13B CBW formations. Flying under the command of the Lt Colonel John Kidd, the 13A would be led by the 100BG, with the 390BG to fly as its High and Low groups. Each B17 would carry eleven 500 lb GP bombs. The 13B would be led by the 95BG, with the 96BG from the 45CBW flying as its High group and the 95BG as its Low, including seven of the 100th’s crews flying as the Low’s Low squadron. All ships flying in the 13B would carry eleven M17 incendiaries.

Taking off first between 0830-0836 hours would be those scheduled to fly in the Composite formation followed by the remainder of the 100th’s B17s. At 0930 hours over Leiston, Richard Miller left the lead formation due to engine troubles. Forming up in the 8/10-10/10 cloud coverage, the 13A formation departed the English Coast at Southwald at 1106 and thirty minutes later had crossed the enemy coast. Soon after, a second B17 from the lead group left the formation when James Williams pulled his ship out due to engine problems, jettisoning his bombs before returning to base.

Flying through cloud coverage on the entire route in, the formations headed for Munich where their briefed route had skirted the flak defenses put up at Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, reported to be intense and barrage but off in the distance. At 1305 hours, the 13A made its turn at the IP and at 25000 feet, encountered “intense, barrage, tracking and very accurate flak.”

With the tops of the clouds at 25000 feet and an effective smoke screen coming up from the city, visibility was difficult but the 13A continued through the bomb run’s intense flak, preparing to bomb in wing formation. Pilot Frederick Schaffhausen tells us, “Flak over target heavy. Saw one P-51 explode in mid air. Pilot probably never knew what hit him. Plenty of friendly fighter support P-51 + P-47s. Enemy planes reported over target, but P-51 cleaned up before we hit target. Flak damage to plane average. Few holes on nose, fuselage and stabilizers - oil line + props hit.”

Dropping on Kidd’s lead PFF, bombs were away on the primary target at 1323 hours. Unable to observe any results due to the smoke and clouds, the formation made the briefed left turn and headed for the Rally Point.

Meanwhile, the 13B formation was absorbing the very accurate flak on the bomb run as they continued on to the target. Emmett Schmitt, ROG on James Ransom’s crew tells us, “…Flak was heavy; we got one hole in the nose and one in the narcelle of the #3 engine making the 10th time we were hit. We had a good escort of P-51's and P-47's, no enemy fighters seen but some were reported in the area.” Bombs were successfully away at 1326 hours and they too headed for the Rally Point and then home.

No ships were lost that day but many returned with flak damage. NAV James Wright on Albert Trommer’s ship tells us, “We got 11 holes in our plane. One piece of flak hit the #1 cylinder head on #2 engines. It tore the whole top off of the cylinder. We luckily didn’t even have to feather the engine thank God. We came home escorted by P-51s and P-47s all the way.” And on Paul Jones’ B-17, TG Charles Slaght recorded, “The flak was plenty rough and accurate. We had about a dozen holes and naturally half of them had to be in the tail section. We were lucky enough to miss fighters as they knocked hell out of the boys around us. I only hope this luck can holdout a few more missions.”

On the bomb run, the nose of Harry Bethea’s B17 had been damaged by flak, wounding his BOM, twenty-one year-old Thomas McKenzie. “Though the navigator tried to persuade him to leave his position and receive first aid, he refused. Remaining at his position, determined to perform his duties, he was seriously wounded a second time by another burst of flak. With the navigator (Michael Kobasky)at his side trying to stop the heavy flow of blood from the wounds, LT McKenzie released his bombs accurately on the target. While attempting to close his bomb-bay doors, he lost consciousness and only then he received first aid treatment.” Bleeding from his five flak wounds, McKenzie’s oxygen had also been shot out. “As it was impossible to move the wounded man, the Engineer William Hellen and radio operator Robert Vance, acted quickly and removed the hoses from the spare oxygen bottles and connected them end to end, thus enabling the bombardier to breathe the oxygen from the aft part of the ship.”

With all ships returning to base, so ended July 1944 for the 100BG and the crews were grateful to have another stand down order. After a hospital stay, the young McKenzie would recover from his wounds and eventually be awarded the Silver Star.

Crews scheduled to fly the mission:

Keys, Chamberlain, Tiahrt, Kennedy, Williams, Herres, Trommer, Delaney, Kemp, Streed, Kassebaum, Cumming, Everitt, Geller, Carlton, Bennett, Ransom, Bethea, Miller, Darby, Schaffhausen, Jones, Ricci, Johnson, Lundquist, Dobrogowski