Mission Date: March 19, 1945
FULDA, LUTZKENDORF, & JENA
100th BG Mission #: 283
Mission Summary
ON THIS DAY...MARCH 19, 1945
At the morning’s briefing, thirty-eight crews learned that their Primary target for the day would be a synthetic oil plant located in Lutzkendorf. The Secondary visual target and tertiary via H2X would be the Carl Zeiss Optical Instrument Works situated in the center of Jena. Alternate tertiary targets were also assigned, one of which was the railway storage siding situated in Fulda.
The 3rd Division would be led by the 4th CBW while the 13th CBW would fly last in its line. Leading the 13th would be the 100th BG, with it ‘B’ group consisting of a composite group made up of the 390th and the 95th. The 95th would also fly as the ‘C’. Leading the 100th's formation would be Robinson/DePlanque with the High led by Gibbons/Murray and the Low by Robb/Hutchinson.
A low layer of clouds prevailed over the base and the 100th was under another Red Alert due to the Luftwaffe flying raids over the area the previous night. Consequently, the formation assembled over France at 13000 feet, making visual sightings of each other through breaks in the clouds. TG Donald Becker on Bernard Painter’s crew tells us, “We were sweating out old number 13 even before we went to briefing so when it turned out to be only 6 miles from Merseberg the sweat really poured. The Luftwaffe was over here again last night & as before we went to France to form--we formed over Reims & I had about an hours time to look at the famous cathedral city which was almost a shambles but the cathedral was still intact…”
Unable to bomb Lutzkendorf visually, the formation proceeded to Jena, where flying through meager tracking flak, the IP was made good. The high clouds and contrails in the target area caused difficulty for the squadrons to make visual contact with each other, forcing them to heavily use the wing’s Channel A radio for communication. Peeling off into individual squadrons on the bomb run, the High and Low squadrons attacked Jena via H2X at 1327 hours, although with disappointing results. Problems with the Lead ship’s mickey forced them on to Fulda, where they attacked at 1402 hours.
After bombs were away, the Rally Point was made good and the pilots barely returned to Thorpe Abbotts by 1600 hours, flying through bad weather over the Channel. Only three ships returned that day with battle damage from flak.
Twenty year-old Donald Becker, completed his diary entry for the day with, “…the raid was cold but uneventful-and the expected 200 fighters of the Luftwaffe didn't show. The flak was out of range and we had no close calls. On the way back we saw the ruins of Cologne and Coblenz and the level battlefield & shell pocked city's ruins stretching for hundreds of miles-it was amazing & kinda sickening too. We got a weather report of a zero ceiling over the Channel & an 8000 feet thick cloud level so the formation peeled off one by one & tried to penetrate it. We were low on gas and let down to a bare few feet above the stormed Channel & still couldn't see anything. We were lost for close to an hour & the gas kept burning faster & faster as the minutes ticked by - that Channel looked awfully cold - We were very close to ditching when the coast of England suddenly loomed up-it never looked so beautiful before and the crew went wild with joy. We landed with a few more gray hairs and only about a cupful of gas for each engine--God! what a relief! Old 13 came off O.K. but someone sure is looking after us!”
That evening, the mission light indicated a Group Stand Down for the next day.
Bombing Results
Bombing Results: FAIR
Aircraft Lost: 0
Crew Lost: 0
Claims of Enemy Losses (CLS): 0
Aircraft Returned:
Photos
Fulda, 19 March 1945
Fulda, 19 March 1945, flown at 26,000 feet and took 8 hours and 15 minutes to complete.
