Mission Date: March 28, 1945
HANOVER, TANK FACTORY
100th BG Mission #: 289
Mission Summary
ON THIS DAY...MARCH 28, 1945
After no missions were completed since March 24 due to Stand Downs and poor flying weather, crews across Thorpe Abotts were again awakened at 0230 hours while their Fortresses were being loaded with eight 500 lb bombs and four M-17 incendiaries. At the 0330 briefing, the red string stopped at Hannover, where the mission’s Primary visual target would be a tank factory and their Secondary target via H2X would be the city’s marshaling yards. Many of the crews in attendance had flown the 100th’s last mission to Hannover on March 14 where hut mates had been either killed or injured from the heavy and accurate flak coming up from the gunners below.
The 13th CBW would fly third in the Division line, with the 95th BG leading the Wing, the 390th flying as the ‘B’ group and the 100th flying as its ‘C.’ Leading the 100th’s four squadron formation of thirty-eight B-17s would be Lyster/Raiford, with the High led by Robbs/Ellis, the Low by Dawson and the Low Low by Champion with Fellows as Deputy Lead.
Flying in Ivan W. Champion’s lead bomber, BOM William Wellings leaves us his record of the morning’s conditions. “Weather was briefed as p-poor and it was socked in right down to the ground and raining like mad when we got out to the ship. We waited until the last possible minute before putting in the guns, etc., but they just wouldn’t scrub it. We took off about 0615 and headed straight to France where we started to assemble at 3000 ft. The weather was lousy and we gradually raised the altitude. Flying the 4 squadron formation again and had a helluva time assembling because no one could find anyone else…The wing delayed the timing 30 minutes because of the trouble in assembly and when we finally took off we cut corners like mad and got thoroughly confused. Just barely got to bombing altitude (24,400) around the I. P. and had no interval at all. Essid (S’d) like mad during the first part of the bomb-run. The weather had been lousy the whole way but the target area was clear right up to the M.P.I. and then it got hazy, etc.“
At Hanover, a 10/10 undercast was encountered over the Primary target forcing the 100th to initiate a bomb run on Hannover’s marshaling yards. Flying through the flak on the bomb run, Champions ship was hit and forced to leave the formation, while Fellows as Deputy Leader took over his position. With no radar equipment in Fellows' ship, and the radar not working in Dawson’s ship, both of the lower squadrons released on the smoke flares from the High. All bombs were away between 1111-1112 hours.
BOM Wellings leaves us his description of what was going on in twenty-two year-old Champion’s lead ship. “…We’d been holding the same heading for a good solid minute and not a burst of flak had come up at us. I knew those b——-ds were tracking us and sure enough we got one terrific burst that lifted me right out of the seat and knocked out the interphone system. I looked out and tried to pick something up but just then I got smacked up against the right side of the plane and heard the loudest report I ever hope to hear. It was a direct hit by a 105 in the right aileron. It seemed as though everything in the world was dead and then we started that old familiar sickening spiral that all those flamers I’ve seen start out in. I grabbed my parachute and ripped off my mask and waited for just one word from Champ or one tinkle from that alarm bell and out I was going…We were really screaming down by this time and it seemed as tho we could’t help but start spinning. Then, we slowly started to come out of it and I looked out at that wing and all I could see were big jagged pieces of aluminums sticking up in the air, and what I thought was smoke trailing out behind #4 engine. It turned out later that it was actually our gas that was flying out. Champ did a beautiful job and we finally leveled out around 20,000 and started a slow descent…The Engineer went back to the waist to see how the wing was and found out the tail was all shot to hell from that first burst. There were over 60 holes back there and it looked like a sieve… Lodly reported that the whole right aileron was gone and one third of the wing was gone too. We headed straight for Liege as soon as we crossed the lines at Remagen…Finally picked up the field at St Trond and made a couple of very wide circles around it. Debated whether to jump or not and Champ decided to try the landing. Bob and I stayed up in the nose until we were coming on the final and then we ran like hell to the radio room…Champ pulled it up and prayed like hell and we just barely made it. Made another circle with all of us actually sweating back there in the radio room, and came in again….Came to a stop as soon as we could and we really tumbled out of that plane. I was so damn nervous and just couldn't keep still…And when I saw that wing —! There was about 20 ft of it taken clean out. What a mess! We figured it out and there was about 105 sq. feet of wing shot away…”
The remainder of the 100th’s heavy bombers returned back to the base after a seven and one-half hour mission, with five of those hours flown on oxygen. Upon arrriving over the base, the weather was so bad that the pilots were forced to circle the Buncher for quite a delay, with each ship requiring an instrument let-down.
The boys were lucky again today as there was no loss of men and no ships returning had any reported battle damage. The mission light glowing in the evening darkness was a pleasant sight to the boys…the next day, March 29, would be another Group Stand Down.
Champion's aircraft in Belgium however, the ‘Miss Angel’, was subsequently scrapped. Returning to Thorpe Abbotts on March 30, the crew had found that they had been marked Missing In Action and their gear had been partially boxed up, ready to be sent home.
Bombing Results
Bombing Results: FAIR
Aircraft Lost: 0
Crew Lost: 0
Claims of Enemy Losses (CLS): 0
Aircraft Returned:
