Mission

ON THIS DAY...SEPTEMBER 25,1944

For six days, no combat missions had taken off from Thorpe Abbotts but the 100th’s S-2 Officers and support team were finally back in their element after being alerted on the 24th for another mission. Early that Monday morning, thirty-nine crews had checked in with the attendance man stationed at the briefing room door and were shortly called to attention as the Commanding Officers entered.

The William MacNab crew were seated for their #1 combat mission. Veteran pilot, Bertram Lobdell, was scheduled to ride as MacNab’s copilot that day so MacNab’s regular copilot, Nelson Vaughan, would sit this one out. Bertram considered himself lucky to have made it through his tour of duty and was praying his luck would hold out for his last mission. On May 19, he had been scheduled for a meeting at 3rd Division’s headquarters when his pilot Martin Rupert had flown with a fill-in copilot. Rupert and the crew were shot down that day by enemy fighters and all were killed except one, BOM Lynn Barbour, who became a POW.

It would also be the #1 combat mission for Warren Marmorine’s crew, who had arrived to the 100BG the same day as MacNabs. Warren had already been indoctrinated into combat flying when on September 11, he flew as Thomas Kemp’s fill-in copilot and survived that horrific mission. Marmorine’s ROG, Lawrence Radka was subbing for Orville Everitt’s ROG on the same mission but was not as fortunate. Radka had been killed in action when Everitt’s plane was shot down.

As the curtain was pulled away from the hidden map in the front of the room, the target location was divulged as Ludwigshafen, Germany. The 3rd Division would be sending all of its B-17 Groups to the Ludwigshafen/Opau synthetic oil plant as well as the Ludwigshafen marshalling yards, located on the West side of the Rhine River and five miles across the river from Mannheim. The Division line would be led by the 92CBW, followed by the 93CBW, the 13CBW, the 45CBW and finally the 4CBW flying last in line.

This day would also bring the dreaded #13 mission to the Walter Bailey crew whose pulses ran even higher after they learned of the target and their thoughts flashed back to their own #1 combat mission flown to Ludwigshafen and through the unimaginable flak exploding around them. They now had twelve missions under their belts and knew first hand what intense combat flak felt like - no imagining necessary. Flying the superstitious #13, Bailey’s copilot William Merchen would be ‘sweating out’ his twenty-eighth birthday high over Ludwigshafen along with the rest of his crew.

The 13CBW would fly two wings with the 390BG flying as the 13A CBW while the 100BG would fly as the 13B Combat Wing. The 95BG would Stand Down. Colonel Frederick Price would fly as Command pilot with Leslie Roediger’s PFF. Major John Wallace would fly as Command pilot with James Seamans’ PFF while George Fory and his PFF crew would fly with Mark Cope as his Command pilot.

Loaded with twelve 500 lb bombs and two thousand five hundred gallons of fuel, the High group’s bombers were first to take off starting at 0650 hours and were soon followed by the Lead and Low groups. Forming over Buncher 28 into the 13B, John Furrer would pull his bomber out of formation at 0823 hours due to mechanical problems and return to base. Completing the Divisional rendezvous over Buncher 22, the 100BG soon departed the English coast.

The weather on the route was as bad as briefed, with high winds and a 10/10 cloud coverage. Climbing in altitude as the Division line crossed the water and the Belgian coast, the 13B followed minutes behind the 13A CBW, which upon following the Divisional line had flown off course. Desiring to fly closer to the briefed course and avoid the noted flak areas, the 100BG leader crossed over the 13A and remained echeloned off to its left.

Making the turn at the IP, the 13A started down the bomb run first, followed minutes later by the 13B which had commenced its bomb run at 26000 feet. Flying through the intense but inaccurate flak, NAV Roland Hetrick remembered, “I was sick and I got only one wind so by my D. R. I was bombing Mainz. Oh! What a time we do have. We didn't have any trouble today. In fact the flak didn't even bother us. I was too busy trying to find out where we were to be bothered with flak. Also it was P.F.F. and from 27,000, so we didn't have too much flak to worry about…

However halfway down the bomb run, the 13A CBW’s lead mickey went out, so it made a left turn, to allow its High group to take over as the 13A wing lead. This maneuver caused the 13A to fly behind the 13B CBW, where it remained for the remainder of the bomb run.

At 1052, bombs were away in wing formation from the 100BG on the marshalling yards but due to the undercast, no results could be observed. Fortunately, the heavy undercast also prevented any accuracy by the German gunners and Pilot Harvey Dickert, flying #2 position off Colonel Price’s PFF through the intense flak remembered “ they didn’t track us - only a few small holes in the ship…”

After bombs were away and the turn off the target was made, the 100BG’s command ship began ’S’ing’ to let the 390BG catch up and take-up their proper position ahead, where it remained for the remainder of the return route. The poor weather encountered on the return caused the formations to play a game of sky dodgeball, with the 100BG forced into maneuvering away from three separate encounters with the 1st Division’s B-17s.

Coming in over the base at 1337 hours, all ships were accounted for and landed between 1352-1404 hours. Although the intense flak over Ludwigshafen was as expected, the heavy undercast prevented accuracy and there was no real damage or losses. Thrilled to be down safely after their #13, Walter Bailey’s crew donated all eight of their shots of liquor provided at the Interrogation room's door to their birthday boy, William Merchen.

That evening, headquarters received another mission alert for the next day.

Crews flying the mission: W Miller, Furrer, Dyatt, Radke, J Williams, Kemp, Daniels, Thompson, Harney, Marmorine, Grigg, Jenkins, Frazier, Geller, Elbel, Delaney, Bailey, Macnab, Kassebaum, Dickert, Bennett, Ricci, R Miller, Roediger, Hopkins, Bucklew, Downing, Seamans, Simmons, McLaughlin, Armstrong, Fory, Kramp, Schaffhausen, Lundquist, Hedin, Kennedy, Rumley, Fabian