Mission

ON THIS DAY...AUGUST 3,1944

Thirty-one crews had been awakened across Station 139 for the 100BG’s next mission. At the morning briefing, they learned that they would fly another tactical mission with their primary target of the gas and oil dump at Pacy-sur-Armançon, located in north central France, along the Canal du Bourgogne and the Armançon tributary. Their secondary target would be the bridge and marshalling yards at Troyes, forty-five miles directly north.

The 3rd Division was scheduled to fly two combat wings; the 13CBW and the 92CBW which had now commenced flying Fortresses rather than Liberators. Leading the Division line of one hundred fifty-five B17s would be the 13A CBW, with the 390BG flying as Lead and Low groups and the 95BG flying as its High.

In the briefing, the crews learned that they all would be flying under the leadership of their own Group Commander, LT Colonel Thomas Jeffrey, who would lead the 13B Combat Wing. With the 100th flying as its Lead and High groups, a composite Low group led by the 95BG would be made up of an additional six crews from the 100th and seven crews from the 95BG. LT Col Frederick Eugene Price, who had just come down from 3rd Division to the 100th would be flying in Major Sam Barr and Merle Ehorn’s lead bomber, leading the High group.

Loaded up with twenty 250 lb bombs, take-off started at 1150 hours and soon all thirty-one of the 100th’s Fortresses were airborne and formed up as the 13B wing.

After a maneuver off of the briefed route to avoid a collision with the 13A’s formation, the 13B wing departed the English coast at Selsey Bill, in good position in the Division line. Crossing the French coast thirty-five minutes later, a let down to 15000 feet to get under the weather began, again requiring evasive action to avoid flak.

At the briefed IP at 1559 hours, the primary target was obscured by cumulous clouds. Unable to synchronize on the target, Jeffrey had the formation hold their bombs, making a 360 degree turn and another run from the North. Again, the bombs were held. With only a few seconds of visibility between the clouds, for fear of hitting the town, Jeffrey decided that the “B” target would be bombed at Troyes instead. With an arbitrary IP decided, the bomb bay doors were opened and bombs were away at 1645 hours from the Lead group, plastering the MPI. Making the turn to the left, the lead formation “s’d” to allow time to pick up the other groups “until 1717 hours at which time 100B was back in good position in wing.”

With the 13B back in good formation, mild evasive action was again taken to the enemy coast, departing it forty minutes later than briefed at 1806 hours. Arriving safely at the English coast, all Fortresses were landed by 1917 hours.

Reporting a good escort from the P-51’s, the crews were happy to once again not encounter enemy fighters or much flak. When the results were in, out of the one hundred fifty-five B-17s despatched that afternoon by the 3rd Division, only the thirty-six B-17s from the 487BG had hit the bridge at Joigny and the thirty-eight Fortresses under Thomas Jeffrey had hit the Troyes bridge and marshalling yard. The 13A CBW had abandoned the mission due to the weather, with the 390th and 95th bombers returning with their bombs back to base.

That August 3, Harvey Dickert and crew had just completed their #17 combat mission. It was also Dickert’s twenty-second birthday and his fellow Officers from the B-17 “Mason and Dixon” were set to enjoy Harvey’s special day, relieved to have had a “milk run.” Dickert and his copilot Vernon Kielholtz had been fellow Pennsylvanians from towns just ten miles apart. Having met in flight school, upon graduation, they asked to be assigned together in a crew when at Salt Lake City. At that time, Dickert’s high school buddy from Gettysburg, Raymond Spahr, had graduated as a Navigator, so Dickert “pulled strings” to get Spahr assigned to his Fortress crew. That evening however, the mission light indicated a mission was on for the next day and Dickert's celebration required some degree of temperance as the crew were on the board once more.

Crews scheduled to fly:

Ehorn, Everitt, Geller, Carlton, BL Scott, Chamberlain, Tiahrt, Delaney, Roediger, Gallagher, Riegel, Cumming, Ricker, Streed, Elbel, Dickert, Bennett, McEwen, Johnson, Aske, Ransom, Schaffhauen, Hempy, Lundquist, WB Kennedy, W Ryan, Seamans, Dobrogowski, Ricci, Rowland, Armstrong