Mission

ON THIS DAY JULY 10,1943

The summer in East Anglia had produced several days of miserable weather and no combat missions had been flown by the 100BG since July 4.  At Headquarters, Red Bowman recorded, “Weather is really bad now, cold, wet and gray. Have to have a fire to achieve any kind of comfort…”

At 0130 hours on the morning of July 10, twenty-seven crews were awakened for the 100BG’s next mission. At 0230 hours, the crews were briefed on their targets; Luftwaffe bases with the primary target of the airdrome at Le Bourget near Paris while their secondary target would be the Carpiquet airfield near Caen. No last resort target was designated.

Field Order #19 called for the 402nd CBW to lead the 4th Air Division: the 95BG would fly lead with twenty-one aircraft, the 100BG would fly as its low group with twenty-one fortresses and a composite group would fly as the high group: the 95BG would provide the lead squadron, six additional aircraft from the 100BG would fly as its low and eight aircraft from the 96BG would fly as its high squadron.  Flying in close support of the 402 CBW would be the 401st, made up of the 96BG and the 94BG.

Because this mission would be closely coordinated with the 1st Division, VIII Bomber Command had planned the routes in and out from the target. With a shorter time flying over the water, no extra wing tanks had been ordered. In addition, the route to the target would expose the 4th’s aircraft to enemy fighters after it left the English Coast. To provide the pilots sufficient time to climb to altitude and be in “proper defensive formation” before leaving the coast, both wing and division assembly would be over England. For further protection, the men were briefed on their escort fighters; four squadrons of Spitfire IX’s on the route in and eight out the way out.

At 0525, take-off commenced and over Thorpe Abbotts, all but “Raunchy” (flown by either Sam Turner or Kiessling) took off because its “fuel pump drive shaft failed and dropped inside accessory section of engine.” Although group and wing assemblies were completed as planned, the division assembly was not accomplished until after the departure from the English coast.

Before the enemy coast was crossed, five fortresses would leave the 100th’s formations due to various reasons: “Muggs”, “Our Baby”, “Damifino II”, “El P’sstofo” and 42-3233.

Upon crossing the French coast, the bombers hit a solid undercast of 10/10 coverage. Ten minutes before the target, the decision was made to abandon the primary target and proceed on to the secondary. Making a 180 degree turn left, at the northern outskirts of Paris, “meagre and inaccurate” flak was encountered. The leader would ultimately call the mission when “conditions were impossible for bombing” and all one hundred and one of the 4th’s heavy bombers headed back for England without dropping a single bomb.

The division was ahead of the briefed for time to meet any of their escort fighters and not at the proper altitude. With the 1st Division’s escorts observed ahead in the distance, the division’s leader altered from the briefed route in favor of a more direct and shorter route. It was then that, “…up through the clouds, on the way back, came squadrons of the Luftwaffe's "Abbeville boys" — crack French-based fighters… Aggressive attacks were from all angles and lasted all the way to the coast…”

The 100th’s gunners valiantly fought off the attacking German fighters. Fifteen to twenty-five ME109s and FW 190s had pressed their attacks. Records tell us, “Two ME 109's attacked as a team on the tail of the lead ship of the 100th Bombardment Group. When the first of these two was fired upon he would drop back and No 2 would move in, when No 2 was fired upon he would drop back and No 1 would come in again, etc”.

Flying in Sam Barr’s Torchy II, waist gunner Bill Ohl tells us, “We were attacked by German Fighters, FW 190s. I tried my best to bring them down as they came in on these attacks, but they came right on in through a wall of bullets from my gun and firing as they came. Their wings light up like a billboard as they come in on you. I saw one burst out in a quick flare of fire, and then it went out. The ship did not go down, although it was hit badly…"

Charles “Scotty” Duncan and CP Archibald “Buddy” Robertson had their hands full on the “Judy-E.” Leading the low element, low squadron of the low group,  Robertson remembered, “We were moving to the secondary target when yellow-nosed FW 190’s attacked. Our number one engine caught fire and was feathered. To evade the fighters and get to cloud cover we went into a power dive. The cloud cover was lower than we thought and at 15000 feet I gave the order to bale out. The engineer had jumped already, after salvoing the bombs. The IFF and bombsight had been destroyed when I left the plane at 3000 feet. I believe only the pilot was left in the plane.” Not a novice to crash landings, the twenty-six year old Duncan could very well have brought the fortress down himself in Dieppe, France. Making a crash landing the previous December in training, a newspaper reporter prophetically wrote that Duncan “facing death courageously, used every ounce of his strength and wisdom to direct that plane in the uncharted heavens…” For the Duncan crew however, all would become POW’s except for CP Robertson, who would evade capture for three months and not return to England until October 5,1943.

Twenty-two year old pilot William DeSanders from Dallas, Texas was flying the low wing on Scott Duncan. He tells us, “I found out today the feeling of fear. It’s what you feel when you see an efficient machine firing cannon at you at close range! It’s what makes your flesh crawl with the realization that any moment might bring a violent death from an exploding shell…I suppose I stood the test okeh for Griff (William Griffith BOM) swears that my timely evasive action saved us when Scotty was shot down, burning. One Focke Wolfe hurt us pretty badly but Berg (Lester Berg TTE) shot him to pieces right in front of the ship."

When the battle was over, the 100BG would return with wounded and suffer yet another loss of crew and aircraft. In Donald Oakes’ B17,  ROG James Scott, who had been injured himself by fighter gunfire, had dressed the wounds and provided morphine to his severally wounded BOM Howard Ball. Returning fortresses with battle damage would require ground crews and the sub-depot for repairs. William DeSanders, grateful to be down, recorded, “I flew Braley’s ship and he was sore as hell when he found it needed two engine changes and the whole right wing replaced. It’s hard to believe that very many of us can survive 25 of these missions!"  With the loss of ten more airman, wounded and no completed mission, Red Bowman ended his day with the entry, “Failure to deliver a load of bombs on the target left everybody pretty sour again.”

However, the casualties were much higher for the German Luftwaffe that day. The 4th had lost two bombers and twenty men while its gunners had destroyed twenty-four German fighters, another eight probably destroyed and six more fighters damaged. Credit was given to the 100BG for destroying four fighters, three more probables and another two damaged.

Remarks from division headquarters contained concern over the number of aircraft that had aborted the mission, impacting the defensive capabilities of a formation. “The large number of abortives on this mission is disappointing. Some were caused by personnel failure, and additional instruction had been given or disciplinary action taken as the case seemed to warrant. It is believed that excessive abortives have also been caused by the additional horse power required to keep the wing-tank aircraft up to a cruising speed of 160 MPH and a rate of climb of 150 MPH and 500 FPM. On future missions the cruising speed and rate of climb will therefore be reduced. Most abortives, however are the result of faulty maintenance and inspection. This situation will improved as OEL equipment, hangars and shop space become available on the airdromes.”

Known to fly this mission:

Barr, Van Noy, Barnhill, Reed, Reeder, Roane, Claytor, Duncan, Scott, Hollenbeck, Braley, DeSanders, Helstrom, Fienup, Murphy, Barker, Dye, King, Kiessling, Flesh, Knox, DeMarco #1, Turner or Kiessling, Oakes, Woodward (some names missing)