Mission Date: March 22, 1945
ALHORN, AF
100th BG Mission #: 285
Mission Summary
ON THIS DAY...MARCH 22, 1945
Crews from the 349th were on a Squadron Stand Down while thirty-eight other crews were seated in the briefing room at 0400 where they learned that the 100th would be attacking a Luftwaffe base, Ahlhorn, as their Primary visual target. The visual Secondary target would be the Rheine Air Field and the Tertiary target would be the marshalling yards at Rheine. If a Squadron within a group did not bomb any of the other targets, they were to bomb the marshaling yards at Oldenburg.
Seated that day was pilot James Lantz who recalled, “…we had a mission that we all liked. Today we were bombing from 18000 feet and our target was a jet airfield in Northern Germany. The day before the RAF and other divisions of the 8th Air Force had knocked out seven of the nine jet fields in Northern Germany and today we were to get one of the remaining two. After what the jets had done to us at Berlin and Plauen the trip was going to be a pleasure…”
The 13th Wing would lead the Division column, with the 95th in the Lead, the 100th as its ‘B’ group and the 390 flying as the ‘C’. Leading the 100th’s formation would be Ferbrache/Murray with the High squadron by Stivers/Champion and the Low by Albrecht/Hellerich.
Although takeoff was originally briefed for 0600, a delay saw the ships, loaded up with thirty-eight 100 lb. GP bombs, taking off in a haze over the base at 0745. The Group’s assembly over Buncher 28 was successful at 8000 feet. Climbing as they crossed to the Continent, the formation went through the Zuider Zee, Osanbruck route, reaching bombing altitude forty-five minutes prior to the IP at Sulingen. With no flak encountered, the individual squadrons peeled off to make their runs on the clearly visible Luftwaffe base. Although prop wash was encountered twenty seconds before bombs away, the Bombardiers visually sited on the Primary target with bombs away at 1148 hours.
BOM William Wellings flying in the Champion lead ship, tells us through his diary entry, “We bombed at 18,500 today and never saw one burst of flak or fighter. Didn’t even wear a flak suit or helmet today and was a helluva lot easier to work. Got back to the field around 1330 and were the first to land.” With the shortest mission flown by most of the men at 5.5 hours, it was considered a “milk run.” BOM Thomas Williams stated, “No flak, No fighters, No nothing…We clobbered the hell out of that field…”
Bombing Results
Bombing Results: VERY GOOD
Aircraft Lost: 0
Crew Lost: 0
Claims of Enemy Losses (CLS): 0
Aircraft Returned:
