Mission Date: January 20, 1945
BREISACK, HEILBRONN, MY (S.T.)
100th BG Mission #: 251
Mission Summary
ON THIS DAY...JANUARY 20, 1945
With snow the previous night and again in the morning, thirty-six crews sat bundled up in the chill of the briefing room the morning of January 20. The targets were unveiled. The Primary target would be a railroad bridge at Breisack with a Secondary target of the marshaling yards at Heilbronn. The 13th Wing’s formation would be lead by the 390th, with the 100th flying as the ‘B’ group and the 95th as the ‘C’ group.
With Major Martin as their Command pilot, the boys took off on snow-covered runways between 0740-0810 hours with the “unfavorable weather” causing difficulties for the pilots.
The 100th’s mission summary report states, “ from mid channel to the IP, clouds started building dense, persistent contrails up to 27,000 feet” prohibiting the Squadrons from even seeing each other in the formation. LT William Wellings, flying his #13 mission recorded, “Got about half way across the Channel and ran into clouds at 15,000 feet. Climbed on course and never got to the top until a few minutes before I.P. We couldn’t bomb the primary because of cloud cover so we went up to the secondary…The whole airforce was split up and there were planes all over the sky. We bombed in a 7 ship formation which was all that was left of our “C” Squadron and after Bombs Away we left them and went home by ourselves like everyone else seems to be doing, We hit the tops of the clouds at 26,000 and let down at 1000’ per at 195 mph and never broke out until 1000 ft…Ran into snowstorms all the way but made the base in the clear and got down before the formation even got to the field.”
The Gunners reported that this was their coldest mission yet with aircraft windows and oxygen masks freezing due to the extremely low temperatures at the high altitudes. Anoxia was another problem to worry about on this mission.
When the 350th's Charles Wilson ship started on the bomb run, his Bombardier, LT Arnold Wimer fell back onto his Navigator, LT Billy Bittle. Bittle tells us, “I was really shaken up as I hadn’t heard any flak explosion, but thought he had been hit as he wasn’t moving. Luckily I noticed that his oxygen hose had come loose from the demand system. I pulled it in and turned the valve to 100% oxygen. Wimer quickly revived and hovered over his bomb sight as though nothing had happened. Since the flak was low I sat on my flak suit, and went back to my charts. Wimer fell back again; same problem. His hose came loose four times, but he was determined to drop his bombs, and did….” Their Top Turret Engineer S/SGT James McCullough gave LT Charles W. Wilson who took over for LT George Fowler a thumbs up for his flying that day. He wrote, "new pilot - damn good- hardly any flak anywhere...flew all the way back at 28,000 ft - cold as hell - milkrun."
The 351st's Wofford Crew also experienced anoxia when oxygen tubes froze up on several of its crew members, forcing the ship down. Wofford’s Tail Gunner, S/SGT Joe Urice, remembered, “After bombs away, weather problems, anoxia of Wofford closely followed by anoxia of the navigator (Frumin) and TTE (Davenport) caused Carr (CP) to take the plane down through the very dense clouds…Fortunately we finally broke into clear visibility but were at an extremely low altitude and found ourselves flying down a valley between two mountain ranges. Carr landed at a fighter strip…In taxiing the plane he ran off the strip and half buried the left shell in the soft ground.”
Flying in the 349th’s LT James Adair ship, Ball Turret Gunner S/SGT James Hendrix experienced anoxia as well. He recorded into his diary, “It was 60 to 65 below zero at altitude. My oxygen froze up and I was out for a few minutes. Conley (Culpepper) pulled me out. After that I sat in the radioroom…”
Flying his #22 mission, Waist Gunner S/SGT Guy Weaver on the 418th’s Liljenquist Crew also recorded, “…Temperature was 56’ below, coldest yet. Weather was rough, no flak, no fighters but it was one to sweat out. Number 2 engine oil tamp went down and we had to feather it, but it won’t feather, so it just wind milled. We had a little trouble finding the field. We had to talk Don (Pilot) into the traffic pattern, because his window was frozen. In all the excitement I forgot to stowe(sic) my turret. We landed that way, new guns in. They didn’t say hardly anything about it. I’m glad they consider our crew one of the best. Thank God for our safe return.”
That evening, back at the base, the red alert light let the boys know that another mission was on for the next day and most likely under the same weather conditions.
Bombing Results
Bombing Results: FAIR
Aircraft Lost: 0
Crew Lost: 0
Claims of Enemy Losses (CLS): 0
Aircraft Returned:
