Mission

ON THIS DAY...SEPTEMBER 27,1944

Awakened between 0200 and 0300 hours, twenty-five crews would be seated for the 0400 briefing where they learned that the 100BG would be flying to Mainz in northwestern Germany. According to the 418th squadron diary, attacking the marshalling yards at Mainz was a special request from the ground forces.

The 3rd Division would be sending half of its force back to the synthetic oil plant at Ludwigsafen/Opau, forty miles south of Mainz while some of the wings, including the 13CBW, would target the Mainz marshalling yards.

The 100BG would fly as the Lead group of the 13A Wing, led by James Seamans in a Pathfinder aircraft with Major Thompson flying as Command Pilot. The 349th’s Joseph Trapnell, William Terminello’s copilot, would fly as lead pilot for the first time along with the 349th’s Operations Officer and pilot Captain Andrew Gorski, leading the 100BG’s Low group formation. The 95BG would fly as the 13A’s High group. The 390BG would fly as the Lead and High group of the 13B CBW.

The seated airmen included Marquard Anderson’s regular copilot Dean Salmeier, who would also be flying his first mission as a lead pilot. And if all went well, this would be the last combat briefing for Ronald Cumming and half of his crew, including CP John Williamson, BOM Charles Shively, TOG Leroy Doyal, WG William Wheeler and BTG Isaac Golden.

Take-off from Thorpe Abbotts commenced at 0604 hours. Wilbur Ivosevic experienced a runaway prop of his #2 engine, aborting the mission at 0625 hours at 800 feet and returning with his twelve 500 lb bombs back to base. After spiraling upwards through the undercast on instruments, the 100BG formed up at 13000 feet over Buncher 28 and continued its climb to 19000 feet where the 95BG was met and the 13A wing assembly was completed. Falling into the Division line, the English coast was departed at Clacton on the Sea.

Crossing the continental coast at Belgium, the 3rd Division and its twelve wing formations flying at two-minute intervals, headed east. Three minutes before reaching their briefed IP, Walter Bailey and CP William Merchen experienced engine problems and their TTE Calvin Dollar tells us, “Lost No 4 engine 3 minutes from I.P. Couldn’t keep in formation and were losing altitude. Called Lead ship & he said we should turn back. We didn’t want to take the bombs back, we took a vote and everyone wanted to go to Germany & drop the eggs. So on we went alone saw some flak but it was all way off…”

The 13A CBW crossed the IP at Lieg, Germany at 0934 hours. With the target covered by a heavy 10/10 undercast, the bomb bay doors were opened in preparation for bombing via Pathfinder in wing formation.

The flak coming up from Mainz was moderate, tracking and low but fortunately inaccurate. Although six rockets were observed ten miles northeast from the marshalling yards while another three were observed ten miles southwest of the target, none were close to the bombers. Other difficulties for the pilots came from the prop wash from the bombers ahead. Pilot Harvey Dickert on his #33 mission recorded, “...Got into prop wash on the bomb run of six minutes. Weather good all the way except for ten tenth low cloud cover. No enemy fighters – flak wasn’t as bad this time as last time we went there. Vern (Dickert’s CP Vernon Keilhotz) finished 35 today.”

In Seaman’s lead Pathfinder, the smoke flare was shot off and the 13A's bombs were away at 0939 hours. Flying in the Low squadron, WG James Smith on Walter Charles crew was grateful for the change in their position. He wrote, “We were supposed to be “Tail – End Charley” but we sneaked into No. 5 position en route to the target. Meeker (Decker) got his bombs off o.k. this time right with the lead ship. We bombed P. F. F. Through 10/10 overcast and weren’t able to see if we hit it, but I guess we did, for the whole 3rd division bombed it. The flak was scattered and moderate but there were quite a few rockets. Some burst in the group next to us but I didn’t see any ships go down. It was really cold today.”

The Rally Point was made but not before some of the 100th’s pilots in the Low group took evasive action to get out of the flak. Ricker’s WG Raymond Mainka tells us, “... There was a good deal of flak but not very accurate. We were flying lead in high squadron, low group. We ran into some flak at the rally point so had to use evasive action.” With some of the Fortresses taking on slight battle damage, all were able to make it back to England, crossing at Ordforness and back over the field at Thorpe Abbots by 1210 hours.

At Interrogation, the crews recorded the mission details, noting that they were especially grateful for the “Damn good P-51 & P-47 escort.” It was Walter Bailey's twenty-seventh birthday and now that he was safely home, it was time to celebrate. His TTE, Calvin Dollar tells us, “We got down & Capt Gorski told Lt Bailey to come over to Ops after interrogation. He went over and was presented with his Silver bar (1st Lieutenant). What a birthday present.”

It was also a celebratory day in the 350th Squadron area when Hubert E. Trent returned to the 100BG, almost one year after being declared missing in action. Trent had been copilot on Harold “Pinky” Helstrom’s crew, one of the original 100th's crews when the crew was forced to make a crash landing near Caen on his #21 mission on October 4, 1943. Trent evaded capture and with the aid of local farmers and the French Underground, had been moved from Caen to Belgarde to Paris where he remained with the Maquis for twenty-five days. Escorted next to Lyon, where he remained for another twenty-five days, Trent finally made it to Switzerland. The 350th Squadron diary noted, “His too had, like Reynolds’ story, been a story of secrecy and escape which took him undercover across the veiled face of Europe into the sanctuary of Switzerland."

For the 3rd Division, it was all about bombing results and Harvey Dickert was correct to believe that good bombing results for that mission were doubtful as S-2 Officer Red Bowman mission notes tell us, “Results very poor. Bombs fell in woods two and three-quarter miles form target. No losses.” Alerted for a mission that evening, maybe the next day would bring better results.

Crews to fly the mission: Trapnell, Furrer, MacNab, Kassebaum, Frazier, Ricker, Daniels, DL Thompson, W Charles, Marmorine, Grigg, Jenkins, Bailey, Streed, Willoughby, Cumming, Dickert, Ivosevic, Hempy, Bennett, McGuire, Lundquist, Kennedy, Salmeier, Seamans