Mission Date: March 17, 1945
RUHLAND, PLAUEN , ST PFF
100th BG Mission #: 281
Mission Summary
ON THIS DAY...MARCH 17, 1945
At the 0430 briefing, the thirty-eight crews in attendance listened as the S-2 man divulged the target. The synthetic oil plant at Ruhland, a scrubbed mission from the previous day, would be again the Primary and Secondary targets for the day. Located twenty-seven miles north of Dresden, the Ruhland refinery was “one of Germany’s biggest remaining producers.” The Tertiary visual target would be a textile plant making parts for tanks in Plauen or the center of Plauen, if H2X was required.
The entire 3rd Division would be flying to Ruhland, with the 45th CBW leading the Division’s column of B-17s and the 13th CBW flying second. Leading the 13th CW would be the 95th BG with the 390th flying as its ‘B’ group and the 100th as its ‘C.’ The 100th’s formation would be led by Ferbrache/Murray, with its High squadron led by Stivers/Hutchinson and its Low by Liljenquist/Raiford.
Expected to fly a one thousand one hundred mile round trip, the ships were filled to their limits with fuel, additionally weighed down with twelve 500 lb. bombs. Although a 10/10 layer of clouds prevailed over the base, all of the 100th’s ships took off as planned, making a higher group assembly due to the cloud coverage. As the 100th's formation approached the wing assembly point from the southeast, the 390th’s formation approached from the south, cutting off the 100th's formation. Forced to ’S’ across the Channel to gain the proper interval behind the 390th, the 100th was soon back on course, crossing the front lines under light flak.
As the formation neared the target at Ruhland, meager to moderate flak was again encountered. High layers of clouds forced the formations to climb higher to 26000 feet in order to keep out of the weather and the dense and persistent contrails formed by the preceding groups. Nearing the IP, poor horizontal visibility and being crowded out of the bomber stream by the 486th BG's ships forced the 100th to overshoot the IP. With no ability to make the attack on the Secondary via H2X, the 100th’s Air Leader made the decision to proceed to Plauen. Encountering meager to moderate flak again at Plauen, the 100th in squadron formation dropped their bombs from 24,650-26,000 feet at 1305-1306 hours.
Considered a “milk run” by the crews, the weather was the main obstacle of the day. Another cloud layer encountered on the route home broke up the 100th’s group formation, causing the pilots to return to base in squadron formation.
Flying his #35 mission, BOM Robert Fitzgerald from the William Wilson crew recorded, “We had to fly through two weather fronts up to 27,000 feet…The temp was -50 degrees at flying altitude. You never took your gloves off. Fingers would freeze in a matter of minutes. This was our final mission. Wilson always said if we got our last mission he was going to slow role right over the airfield, but we were so happy we could hardly wait to land that plane and get out and kiss the ground.”
After a nine hour mission with five of those hours on oxygen, all but two of the 100th’s ships landed safely back at TA with no flak damage reported. Two pilots had landed safely elsewhere; low on fuel, Albert Prestholdt landed at A-89 in France with an engine out. LT Morasco landed in Belgium after losing two engines and after losing altitude they “dropped ball turret and everything else we could.”
Bombing Results
Bombing Results: UNOBSERVED
Aircraft Lost: 0
Crew Lost: 0
Claims of Enemy Losses (CLS): 0
Aircraft Returned:
