Mission

Colonel Neil B, Harding, 100th Bomb Gp commanding Officer, led a nineteen ship formation almost to Bremen where oxygen trouble in the lead Ship, a pathfinder, forced it to turn back, Primary target was the Shipbuilding section of the Ruhr Valley port. Take-off was at 0754 hours.

This group was flying as lead group in the 13th Combat Wing, which was the third wing in the Air Division formation. This position was maintained until the pathfinder failure necessitated a shift in leaders near the point of turnback. At this time the pathfinder had to turn back and reduce altitude dividing our aircraft into two groups. Some followed the leader, some the deputy leader. ‘There was no bomb run.

At one time some of the aircraft opened their bomb bays in preparation to salvo but were disrupted by a group of B-24's that flew under our formation. Thereafter crews kept bomb bays closed expecting to be led on another bomb run. Bombs were finally jettisoned in the North Sea.

Our Group encountered very little fighter opposition although a great many were seen. Several enemy aircraft tried to sneak up through the undercast and come in between 4 and 7 o'clock, but on being fired upon the dived back in the clouds, After the turnback a group of B-24's followed the group for a while and formations of approximately 15 ME 109's and 350 FW 190's severely attacked them.

All aircraft from this group returned safely. Pilots believe that pathfinder aircraft should be permanently assigned to each group and carefully checked before each mission. In any event they would rather drop their bombs over Germany than in the North Sea.