Mission

ON THIS DAY...OCTOBER 4-5, 1944

On October 4, the crews had been awakened, briefed and in their aircrafts ready for take-off when the mission was ultimately scrubbed. The 418th’s Squadron diary noted, “…So the planes taxied back to their dispersals, the crews headed for the locker rooms and shed their flying equipment, then headed for their sacks. A practice mission was planned, but this too was scrubbed.” A Red Alert was sounded that night and a buzz bomb “hit off of to the west around eight pm.”

The next day, under Field Order #440, the 3rd Division would send its B-17 forces to northwestern Germany, to Münster with the primary targets of the Luftwaffe’s Handorf and Loddenheide air fields. The 350th’s Squadron diary noted that Münster was where “… almost a year previous most of the Squadrons original crews including the beloved original Squadron Commander, Major Gale W. Cleven, were lost in a cataclysmic onslaught by the enemy's flak and fighters. This time the 100th was older and farther along…”

Scheduled to lead the Division’s line of Fortresses would be the 4th CBW, followed by the 93rd, 13th, 45th and the 92nd CBW flying last in the column. The 13 CBW would fly two wings: the 13A with the 95BG flying as lead and high group with the 390A flying as its low. Following it would be the 13B CBW, where the 100BG would fly as the lead (100A) and low groups (100B), with the 390B flying as its high. Leading the 13B CBW would be twenty-five year-old pilot George Fory in the 100th's PFF aircraft, with Major Maurice Youngs as Command pilot.

Take-offs commenced at 0805 hours and the 100BG’s pilots began the long process of forming up. With high cumulus clouds over the fields, the formation altitude was briefed for 14000 feet but many went to 20000 feet to get over the clouds. The winds that day were also not as briefed and “considerable maneuvering was necessary.” The 100BG never formed with its High group, the 390B, even though it was reported on course and on time and contact was unable to be made as the formations crossed the channel.

Checkpoints made by some of the Groups, including the 100BG were being reached eighteen to twenty minutes early. NAV Art Juhlin in Donald Jones B-17 recorded, “…Metro winds were way off and we hit the enemy coast twenty minutes early. Somehow the lead navigator got lost and we never did get over the target but toured Germany and all of Holland up to the North Sea…” A fact supported by many of the other airmen’s diary entries. Charles Porter on William Kennedy’s Fortress wrote into his small mission notebook, “Had a mess up. DIdn’t get to the target or drop the bombs. Circled Germany & Holland and came home. No flak at all. No E/AC.”

The 100BG and 390B, had eventually completed the 13B formation after crossing the Dutch coast, but ran into difficulties when “The navigator used a wrong wind, bringing the wing approximately 30 miles north of the target. The 13B CBW, believing it was over the correct IP, made the turn and attempted a visual bombing run after its mickey went out. The groups made the turn at the IP with bomb bay doors open but in Walter Bailey’s B-17, the doors would not open and his TTE Calvin Dollar recorded, “We were on the bomb run and our bomb bay doors wouldn’t open. I had to climb down and jump on them to break them loose but we made a dry run…” 

Coming up on the target and unable to pin-point their location, the wing leader turned off the bomb run without dropping and the 390B followed as "per standard operating procedures." Unsuccessful in locating a target of opportunity in the area, the Command pilot ultimately decided to abandon the mission and return back to base with its bombs.

James Smith, WG in Walter Charles B-17 recorded, “The one today was all the way through a messed up deal. We were supposed to bomb an airfield at Munster. It was as clear as a bell and the only time since I’ve been there that we could have done a good visual job. But the lead navigator got off the beam and there we were circling around by ourselves, just our one group. We couldn’t even find a target of opportunity. If the German fighters had been on the ball we would have been cold turkey…”

Buzz bombs had been flying over East Anglia again during the day, with explosions heard at 0130 and 1130. As the 100BG returned to the coast of England, the coastline defenders thought they were enemy intruders and sent flak up to greet the formation. Calvin Dollar in Bailey’s B-17 tells us, “When we came over the English coast the Limes shot 3 bursts of Flak at us. Thank God they can’t shoot!”

All ships returned safely back to Thorpe Abbotts at 1315 hours, after a seven hour flight and four and one-half hours on oxygen. With all but one aircraft still fully loaded, the armorers, for the second day in a row, unloaded what they had loaded that morning. The 418th Squadron’s entry for the day noted, “A miserable day today. The planes were recalled at the target. All brought their bombs back to the disgust of the armorers. Defusing, unloading the bombs and returning them to the bomb dump isn't exactly light work.”

Night practices to prepare the men for the increased hours of darkness during the winter months were commencing. Cold weather operations, night take-offs and landings, night vision and instrument flying were all to be emphasized, particularly with new crews. That evening a night mission went up but not before more buzz bombs continued to fly overhead, hitting twice more that evening and night. The entry into the 418th’s diary tells us, “A practice mission was cooked up for the evening. Takeoffs began about 1945. At 1955 the tannoy came to life to announce a red alert. Red Alert: Extinguish all lights, stop all traffic. This of course stopped takeoffs. It was fifteen minutes later that the tannoy again came to life with the all clear. Takeoffs were resumed. Out on the field the all clear was indicated by a red-green flare shot from the tower. The practice mission was back about 2100 hours. The tower shot magnesium marking flares for them. Although the flares were several thousand yards away from the barracks area, their brilliance was enough to read by.”

It was not a good day for the 100BG as out of the three hundred eighty-two Fortresses sent to Munster that day, the majority were successful in attacking the primary targets. That night, the 100BG was alerted for its next mission and the Squadron boards began to fill with the names of available crews and aircraft.

Crews known to be flying this mission: Jones, Kennedy, Miller, Radke, Schaffhausen, Anderson, Bailey, Charles, Darby (aborted), Downing, Fabian, Frazier, Geller, Hempy, MacNab, Spurgeon, Thompson, C Williams, Fory

25 crews scheduled (missing 6 names)”