Mission

ON THIS DAY...SEPTEMBER 9,1944

Across the Squadron areas at Thorpe Abbotts, the awakened forty-four crews would make their way to the combat mess to eat what would be their last meal for the next twelve plus hours. For the Donald A. Jones crew, their hunger belied the queasiness felt in the pit of their stomachs as they stood in line for fresh eggs. This was it…their #1 combat mission. Feeling off as they sat down to eat, Joseph Ricker’s enlisted men were already played out. Their BTG William Crozier tells us, “We were scheduled to go on one week flak leave this morning so we didn't go to bed until about 1:30 AM. At 2:00 AM, Miner came in and told us we were flying, briefing in one hour. Therefore we had no sleep.”

As the men were called to ‘Attention’ at the 0300 briefing, the S-2 Officer got right down to business. ‘Men, your target for today is Düsseldorf’ and the unveiled map showed the string stopping at the confluence of the Rhine River and the Düssel tributary, in the Ruhr Valley of NW Germany.

Briefed to expect heavy flak and possible fighters, the men were told that bombing would occur in wing formation for added protection. For many seated, this would be their first time to the ‘Happy Valley,’ a name given by bomber crews and attributed to the frazzled nerves (‘flak happy) after encountering the numerous guns protecting the area’s rich resources and industrial plants. Rumors of the Ruhr’s flak had already circulated amongst the crews and Glenn Smiley from Thomas Anderson’s crew tells us, “Rumored that it’s 47 miles of flak. This Ruhr is full of towns and every town has factories and where there are flak guns there are factories. Supposedly 120 to 150 guns over the target.”

The 3rd Division would be sending ten combat wings to attack Düsseldorf with the 13CBW to fly three: the 95BG as the ‘13A,’ the 390BG as the ‘13B’ and the 100BG as the ‘13C,’ flying sixth in the Division line. All would target the Rheinmetall-Borsig armament plant at Düsseldorf as the Primary target.

The 100BG would fly thirty-six B-17s plus two Pathfinder crews as the 13C. William Terminello’s PFF crew would lead with Major Joseph Zeller, while Leslie Roediger would fly the second Pathfinder with Lt Colonel Frederick Price and Major Wallace. The 100BG would also provide an additional six crews to fly in the 13A Wing, in a composite Low group with four B-17s from the 390BG and two from the 95BG.

Although, the weather over the base required the use of their instruments, all of the 100th's pilots successfully took-off. Assembly, at altitudes higher than normal due to the weather, was also accomplished without incident and the 100BG as the 13C soon folded into the Division’s line.

After departing the English Coast, a continual climb was made to 24,560 feet before crossing the enemy coast and where just after crossing, Walter Bailey pulled his ship out of the Low formation due to mechanical troubles. His ROG Calvin Dollar tells us, “Aborted, lost boost on No 1 engine while we were climbing. While I was changing the amplifier we lost the oil pressure on No 3. Lt Bailey tried to feather No 3 and it wouldn’t feather so we kept about ¼ power on it to try to prevent it from catching on fire. We pulled out of formation and headed for home. We salvoed our bombs over the Channel.”

As the wings neared the IP, the tension within the Fortresses was palpable. Scanning the skies for enemy fighters, a dog fight was observed between several P-51s and German aircraft. BTG Anthony DeMarco on Thomas Anderson’s B-17 saw the “ME-210 shoot a P-51 down and in turn the 51’s wingman nailed the 210” and the men were grateful for the excellent fighter support keeping the enemy fighters away from them.

From above, the men could see the smoke filling the skies from the factories below, providing a natural smoke screen to hide the plants from the bomber stream. Ahead of them, they could see the intense flak that they would soon be flying through. Unnerved, James Ransom’s copilot Keith Lamb wrote, “On the 9th, we finally went to the Ruhr; at last we'd see what "Happy Valley" was like. We could see the flak for about thirty minutes before we reached our target… it was as bad as we expected.”

As the 13A wing formation made its turn at the IP, it reportedly flew through twenty minutes of intense flak. Having already lost six Fortresses from early aborts, the remaining wing made it to the target, where bombs were away via PFF but with poor results.

Forced left after bombs away to avoid a collision with another group making a bomb run on the secondary target, evasive action was immediately taken to get out of the heavy flak. The six 100th’s B-17s flying in the Low group reportedly bombed the Rhenania Ossag oil refinery at Reisholz, a suburb of Dusseldorf before heading for home.

The 390BG was the next of the 13CBW’s formations to turn onto the bomb run and the crews in the 100th’s B-17s flying behind observed the 390th being pounded by the exploding flak and exploding projectiles which threw oil over the B-17s, causing them to burn. Immediately, two of its ships took direct flak hits and exploded, another was seen to be hit in its #3 engine, spinning down and exploding while yet another Fortress had one engine feathered, one windmilling and one smoking. A devastating bomb run for the 13B, it lost a total of seven B-17s before it made its turn off the target. What was left of the 390th’s lead group reformed and the 13B crossed the Rally Point and headed for home.

With bomb bay doors opened and its B-17s loaded with either five 1000# bombs or ten 500# bombs, the 100BG would finally make its turn onto the bomb run, reportedly flying through twelve minutes of intense, barrage, tracking and accurate flak. Flying the #3 position off of Colonel Price’s PFF, pilot Harvey Dickert on his #28 mission tells us, “Until today we have luckily avoided Happy Valley…We went over the target, right through the Ruhr Flak defenses but did not release our ten 500 lb bombs. Weather was very bad from ground to 25,000 feet – went over the target with a 90 knot wind pushing us at 27,000 feet. Picked up several holes, one in the wing from a 4 inch piece, the largest I have ever seen. One piece hit and broke a thermos bottle on a box of chaff Collier was sitting on. Not too much near us but we were in it a long time. Saw one B-17 blow up and take two other ships with it, 390th aircraft. Both on fire, one spinning…” William Crozier in Ricker’s Fortress recorded, “We started on bomb run and a hail of flak hit our formation…Other ships in our formation were riddled, but we were lucky again.”

However, as the 100BG neared the target, the lead PFF’s ‘Mickey’ went out and it turned off the bomb run and out of the flak before making it to the target. Although some reported a bomb rack malfunction in the lead ship, pilot Harvey Dickert recorded, "Claimed bombs were not dropped because of close Prisoner of War camp. I thought it was a rather poor excuse as the target was open."

Crossing the enemy coast at 1235 hours, the 100BG recrossed the English coast at Lowestoft and all ships were observed over Thorpe Abbotts at 1325 hours. After a seven hour mission with half of those hours on oxygen masks, the pilots were forced to land their B-17s with battle damage and a full bomb load. Additional B-17s reported with battle damage were the 418th’s Harry Hempy and Martin Rumley, who returned with his B-17 so seriously damaged that it went into the sub-depot for repairs.

The Donald Jones crew had made it through their #1 safely, although not without being christened with battle damage. In their indoctrination to combat, NAV, Art Juhlin tells us, “We received twelve hits in our ship and saw several ships go down in flames.” Returning safely after flying their #35, five airmen from George Allen’s crew, including Allen and his copilot Orton Symer had jubilantly completed their tour of duty. William Crozier tells us about three of Allen's crew. “Bessie (BTG Richmond Bessey) and Obie (TTE William Oberman) in our hut finished their tour today but their waist gunner (Joseph Costanza) got hit bad with flak in his foot today.” Joseph Costanza had lost his first crew, the John Keys crew, when they were shot down in August over St Sylvain and William Oberman remembered, “Joe was from NYC and he fit in with the crew well. He almost cried when we finished our tour, as he had more missions to go and dreaded flying with a new Crew.”

Crews: Harney, Ricker, Heironimus, Grigg, Bailey, Allen, Geller, Giles, Furrer, Everitt, Dyatt, Elbel, Charles Baker, Chamberlain, Daniels, Shelly, Kassebaum, Raine, Urban, Ransom, Carlton, Hedin, Dickert, Simmons, Corley, Jenkins, Bennett, Kramp, T Anderson, Delaney, Hopkins, Stevenson, Darby, Miller, D Jones, Ivosevic, Hempy, Dobrogowski, McLauhglin, M Jones, Terminello, Rumley, Armstrong, Roediger.