Mission

ON THIS DAY...OCTOBER 13-15,1944

On Friday, October 13, the 8th Air Force did not fly any combat missions and those of the airmen that were superstitious were grateful for the stand down. At the 100BG’s base however, two practice missions went up: one in the morning and another in the afternoon. And that night, the Germans sent three more buzz bombs over the field.With another buzz bomb going over Thorpe Abbotts at 0330 the next morning, nerves were on edge and Vernon Sheedy in the Quartermaster unit tells us, “… it was really low and going slow, too darn slow.”

The clear morning turned cloudy and all of the 3rd Division’s wings except for the 13CBW were sent to attack Cologne, Germany. For the 100BG, another practice mission was sent up that evening, not returning until 2130 hours. While the crews had been out on the practice mission, a new alert had been received by HQ so upon the group’s late return, the ground crews went to work. The 418th Squadron diary noted, “That meant the ground crews were up until the wee hours checking the planes. Engineers, Armorers, Communications, Radar, Bombsight, Oxygen refueler men all have to get at the planes.”

On October 15, the 3rd Division’s orders would be sending its heavy bombers back to Cologne, for the second day in a row and following on the heels of the RAF’s bombing of the city the previous night. The 13CBW would fly this mission, led by the 95BG in the 13A with the 100BG flying as the 13B and the 390BG as the 13CBW, all behind the 93CBW leading the Division column.

As the crews were awakened across Thorpe Abbotts, thirty-eight B-17s had already been loaded by the armorers with six thousand pounds of explosives; sixteen 250 lb bombs and four 500# incendiaries in addition to two thousand five hundred gallons of fuel.

At the early morning briefing, the Intelligence Officer divulged the crews’ target as a marshaling yard in Cologne, one of several targeted with the intent to destroy German communications and cut off the supply lines and troop reinforcements that were supplying the Aachen battlefield. Major John Wallace, the new CO of the 418th Squadron, would fly as the 100BG’s Command pilot, while nine of his crews would be scheduled to fly in the Low squadron.

Seated for their #1 combat mission were the crews of twenty-four year-old Eugene Jensen and Charles W. Wilson, a twenty-two year-old pilot who had joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 before transferring to the Air Corps in 1942. Also seated for his #1 combat mission was twenty-one year-old pilot Alvin J. Meiklejohn who had been assigned to fly as copilot with the combat experienced Cecil Daniels before Meiklejohn’s own crew would fly their #1.

Successfully formed into the 13B CBW after take-off, the 100BG proceeded to the Division assembly point where it joined the other wings and folded into the Division line. The 13A (95BG) however, was without its Lead squadron and it fell in line behind the 13B. As the enemy coast was crossed, the 95th’s Lead squadron finally caught up with its formation and assumed its proper position in the column ahead of the 100BG.

Following the briefed route to the target, due to a 10/10 cloud coverage over Cologne, the H2X bombing method was communicated to the Squadrons. At the IP, the 100BG made its turn onto the bomb run, meeting the heavy, intense flak coming up to greet the formations head-on and taking on heavy flak damage.

Flying their #22 combat mission, Walter Bailey, his copilot William Merchen and TTE Calvin Dollar were experiencing first hand the impact of the devastating flak in the cockpit. The twenty year-old Calvin Dollar, a shell packer before the war, provides us a glimpse inside their Fortress when he wrote, “We got over 100 flak holes in our ship right after we started our bomb run. Lt Merchen got hit by flak, I heard him say, I’m Hit and leaking like a sieve. I spun my turret around and came out to see what I could do. I helped him out of his seat and lowered him down into the catwalk between the flight deck and the Navigators compartment. Then I crawled up in the blood-covered seat and flew as co-pilot. I flew alone for about 15 minutes while Lt Bailey was down checking on the Co-pilot…” Hit in his shoulder and lungs, Merchen was stabilized and Bailey returned to his seat. Dollar continued, “We lost No. 2 engine over the target and had to feather it. Then I heard Lt Bailey say, “Get ready boys, 2 and 4 are out”. I looked out at the engines and the props were windmilling to a stop, Lt Bailey shoved the throttles full open and they cut back in. Boy my heart stopped for a second…”

Over the target in minutes, bombs were away in Group formation on the lead PFF’s flares with unobserved results due to the undercast.

Making the turn to the Rally Point, many of the pilots did so with heavily flak damaged aircraft. In Cecil Daniel’s B-17, his TTE Samuel Wolfe had also been severely wounded, although in his ankle. In William Kennedy’s Fortress, “Flak was heavy to intense and damn accurate. 20 holes in plane,” while William Urban’s B-17 had ten holes. Eugene Jensen’s NAV, Richard Ayesh tells us, “...Flak was moderate to intense and accurate. 11 out of 13 ships received battle damage. We got a hit in #4 prop.” And in James Adair’s B-17, his BTG, James Hendrix tells us, “… We had about 20 holes in plane. Everyone had a close call but the Bombardier (Milton Brucker) and me. A piece cut Horney’s pants leg.” (WG James Horny)

Fortunate to be flying in the High squadron, Walter Radke’s NAV, Roland Hetrick tells us, “Today we made our first trip to "Happy Valley". I was hoping I would never have to go there. I hated it worse than Berlin…The target was covered by clouds, so we missed it as usual with P.F.F. We plough up more fields for them. My navigation was really on the ball. Even my ETA over the target was the same as their dropping time… It was really a good place to be. We didn't even see any flak to speak of. Most of it was below us. Most everyone also thought it was a tough mission. We got a hole in the nose, but I didn't even know it until I saw the glass on the floor on the way back…”

The Rally Point was made and the formations passed near Koblenz, where flak was again encountered. With no auto-pilot to prohibit maneuvering, evasive action was taken. Crossing into Belgium, John Fabian flying a flak damaged B-17, had a runaway engine and was forced down in Belgium. The remainder of the formation crossed the enemy coast south of Ostend.

Crossing the sea, the B-17 flown by twenty-two year-old Harold Sherrard and his copilot William Cully on their #3 mission, had its hydraulic system shot out and the pilots were forced down on an emergency runway at Woodbridge, England. Flying alone behind the formation, Calvin Dollar continued to fly as the copilot with Walter Bailey and tells us, “I flew most of the way back from the target, we were undecided whether or not to land in Brussels and get medical aid for Lt Merchen but we decided to fly on home. We got to the field and broke right into the traffic pattern and fired our Red Red flare and landed. A plane had run off the runway so we couldn’t taxi around by the ambulances and we just stopped at the end of the runway and they got Lt Merchen out. No enemy fighters were seen thank God!!”

After the seven and one-half hour mission to Cologne, the remainder of the ships were down without any loss of life. Both William Merchen and Samuel Wolfe would spend months recovering in hospitals on their paths to recovery, flying their last mission with the 100BG.

That evening, the grateful and exhausted crews rested easier when the mission light indicated a ‘stand down’ for the next day.

Crews known to be flying this mission: Jensen#1, Jones, Kennedy, Radke, Sherrard, Urban, Bailey, Daniels, Darby, Fabian, Furrer, Geller, Hopkins, MacNab, Marmorine, Willoughby, Porter, Baker Carl, Adair, Hughes, Wilson #1, Blanding, Fory, DePlanque (abort) (14 crew names