Mission Date: February 14, 1945
DOUBRAVA, BRIDGE (100TH "C")
100th BG Mission #: 258
Mission Summary
ON THIS DAY...FEBRUARY 14,1945
After a scrubbed mission on the 11th and a Group Stand Down on the 12th, the crews of the 100th were briefed for another mission on the 13th, but it too was scrubbed due to bad weather over the continent.
On the night of the 13th, the RAF would bomb Dresden and once again at 0123 hours on February 14, eventually causing a firestorm that would destroy the city. It would be the 1st Division’s column of B-17s that would continue the attack on Dresden later in the afternoon of the 14th, becoming the third attack on that city within a twelve hour period.
At Thorpe Abbotts on the morning of the 14th, thirty-eight crews were awakened and briefed for a mission to the Chemnitz marshaling yards, thirty-five miles southwest of Dresden. As both the 100th’s Primary and Secondary targets, an attack once again on Chemnitz had the purpose of aiding the paths of the advancing Russian army. Plausen would be their Target of Last Resort.
The 13th Wing would lead the 3rd Division with the 390th flying as the Lead group and the 95th as its ‘C’ group. Flying as the Wing’s ‘B’ group, the 100th’s formation would be under the command of Major Harry Cruver flying with LT Williams while the High would be lead by Gibbons and DePlanque and the Low by Wooten and Murray.
Departing Thorpe Abbotts between 0830-0900 after a one hour weather delay, the route to the target was as briefed but due to the 10/10 cloud coverage, the 100th’s formation lost visual contact with their Wing’s lead formation. In addition, dense contrails made navigation even more difficult as the 100th prepared to turn onto the bomb run. As maneuvering began for squadron bombing, the 100th’s High squadron came ahead of its own Lead. Carrying on in that order, the High attacked Chemnitz first, followed by the Lead just seconds after. Halfway down its bomb run, the Low Squadron encountered the 390th’s invisible Lead and Low formations coming towards them head-on in the middle of the “soup.” LT Lyman Fillingame recorded, “… Everyone peeled off in different directions and we dumped our bombs out of formation…” Forced to abandon its bomb run due to the “interference” from the 390th, the Low squadron bombed a railroad bridge in Doubrava, Czechoslovakia as a target of opportunity.
On the route back, near Koblenz, the formation encountered an air full of flak and observed a ship in the group ahead of them go down after a direct hit, reportedly from the 95th Group. Robert Fitzgerald recorded, “… A ship in the group ahead of us took a direct hit and went down in a spin. We counted 5 chutes when it exploded at about 15,000 feet. The chutes all came down right on the front lines. About that time a dozen P-51 Mustangs who saw what happened dived and started shooting at the German troops trying to protect the 5 airmen…”
After almost nine hours in the air, the ships landed back at Thorpe Abbotts, with only three ships returning with battle damage from the flak, although two required sub-depot repair.
MEANWHILE IN ENEMY TERRITORY…
In the afternoon of February 14, Prisoner of War, twenty-two year-old Howard Leach, was taken to the train station to be transported to the Luftwaffe Evaluation Center at Oberusel near Frankfurt, where all allied airmen were interrogated. Shot down on the February 3 mission to Berlin, Leach had evaded capture for ten days, the longest period of any of the Oldham crew. As he worked his way towards the Netherlands through bitter cold, Leach finally surrendered on the 13th when he encountered a German Officer at an outpost rather than an abandoned factory as he had suspected.
Bombing Results
Bombing Results:
Aircraft Lost: 0
Crew Lost: 0
Claims of Enemy Losses (CLS): 0
Aircraft Returned:
