Mission Date: April 5, 1945
NURNBURG, MY
100th BG Mission #: 294
Mission Summary
ON THIS DAY...APRIL 5, 1945
At the 0400 briefing, the map was revealed by the S-2 Officer and the crews saw that the red string stopped at Nurnburg. There, the 100th’s first Priority visual target would be the sorting siding in the marshaling yards. Their Secondary using H2X would be the main passenger station in the center of the city.
The 13th CBW would fly third in the Division column, between the 4th and 45th which would fly last. The 100th BG would lead its Wing, with the 390th flying as its ‘B’ group and the 95th as its Low. Again Colonel Sutterlin would fly as Command pilot with John Williams. The High would be led by Albrecht/Champion, the Low by Wofford and the Low Low by Wieland. Each of the 100th’s heavy bombers would carry six 1000 lb GP bombs.
The weather at take-off was poor, with visibility of only five hundred yards so the Continental assembly plan was implemented. Flying in Champion’s ship, BOM William Wellings tells us, “… The weather was terrible and raining like hell when we got out to the ship but they only delayed T.O. 1/2 hour and we finally took off at 0720. Headed right for France to assemble and had to climb right through clouds the whole way. Had a terrific time trying to assemble because our radio was on the blink and our flare pistol was no good either…”
Briefed that the cloud tops ended at 10000 feet, in reality they reached 25000 feet and the pilots were concerned about icing. James Lantz remembered, “Our airspeed kept dropping off on the way up and we did all we could to prevent ice but gathered some clear ice on our wings. The assembly was a rare thing too. We were in the low squadron and the lead kept us in the clouds all during assembly. Flying in the clouds and prop wash was no fun…We finally got together and were on our way. We reached the target and started on the bomb run. It was fourteen minutes long and seemed like an hour.”
Peeling off at the IP for the individual squadron runs, heavy flak was encountered, continuing throughout the bomb run. Catching a break in the clouds, the Lead, High and both Low formations dropped visually on the Primary target between 1145-1150 while the High dropped on the Secondary at 1211.
Pilot James Lantz, having recovered from previous flak wounds tells us, “The flak was intense and they were tracking us. The little puffs were blossoming at our altitude just off our left wing. They weren't fifteen feet off my left wing and I thought sure that the next burst would have us for sure. It didn't though and we made a sharp right turn off the target. We thought we'd seen the worst of it and had already considered this a rough mission but we didn't know what was in store for us. The leaders saw some breaks in the cloud layers and started letting down between them. Finally we were between two cloud layers about a thousand feet apart and ran into a blank wall. The Squadron above us started breaking up and B-17s were going every which way. I expected one to come diving down into the middle of us at any minute… “
Hitting the cloud bank, the 100th’s formation broke up. Visibility was nonexistent and Wellings added, “Our Squadron stuck together some way. All we could see was a faint outline of a wing beside us and we just stuck on that. Our Squadron lead did what I thought was a smart thing when he turned 30 degrees to the right and flew for five minutes and then returned to course. In this way we got out of the way of some of the Squadrons that were breaking up. We continued to let down to three hundred feet before breaking into rain, at least we could see the ground. We flew over Holland and Belgium, thought now except for the battle across the North Sea we had seen the worst of it. However just as we were crossing the coast line at an altitude of five hundred feet we were fired on by flak and 20mm cannon. I thought we had had it for sure. One plane had its tail lifted up by flak and just as its nose started down another burst caught it and pushed it back up. I told the boys to start strafing the shore with our 50s and you could see tracers making their path towards the shore. They were still tracking but didn't score any hits…”
Pilot, Raymond E. Blohm had lost his squadron in the cloud bank. Returning alone, his ship picked up flak off the coast of Holland telling us, “When you can't see the wing tips of the next plane while flying close formation, its time to leave…That is how thick the soup was. Ducking under the clouds to 1500 feet all alone we set our course straight for home, but little did we know that course, took us between two large concentrations of German troops…Batteries on both sides of us, 88’s, machine guns, and rifles opened up on us — it sounded like a hailstorm…I was rocking the Fort from one side to another — that is twisting & turning to avoid the flak burst, and once there was a burst just where my wing had been a second before” To minimize the danger, Blohm took his ship to the “deck,” meaning treetop level. “The Germans certainly were persistent. But inspite of the heavy hail of fire not a man aboard my fort was hurt and our worst damage was a flak burst, which knocked out one inboard engine and flattened a tire…We were in the fire of the German guns for seven minutes…Coming over the channel, our boys tossed out their ammunition, guns and flak suits and equipment to lighten the plane because our gas supply was low. One of my gunners was so earnest about it he threw out his bag with $100 he had in it.”
Fighting the weather through the entire return route, thirty-four out of the thirty-eight B17s landed at Thorpe Abbotts between 1440-1520 hours. Oliver Hildebrandt had returned his ship earlier due to an electrical fire. Eleven of the returning bombers would return with battle damage.
At Interrogation, it would be the S-2 Intelligence officers’ turn to listen intently as the mission details tumbled from the men’s mouths. Two of the three missing ships were later reported to have landed safely at other bases: Griswald Smith, low on gas, had landed at a base in France and Lee Jacobs, also low on gas had landed in Belgium. It would be twenty-four year-old Robert L. Estes and crew that would never return. Flying their #1 mission, they had last been seen flying into the cloud bank. Ultimately, their ship would crash into the sea.
That evening, the mission light indicated that the 100th had been alerted for another mission.
Bombing Results
Bombing Results: EXCELLENT
Aircraft Lost: 1
Crew Lost: 9
Claims of Enemy Losses (CLS): 0
Aircraft Returned:
Media Articles
Use your thumb to scroll through the results box below.
| Media Item | Type | Page | Volume/Issue | Broadcast Source | Time | Description | File |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willis Magathan plane blasted by flak part 1 | The Wichita Beacon May 3 1945 | 12:00 am | |||||
| Willis Magathan plane blasted by flak part 2 | The Wichita Beacon May 3 1945 | 12:00 am |
