The formation continued its climb, at 190 feet per minute on a course of 058° true for a distance of 204 miles. At this point, they turned easterly, continuing their climb. At a position 35 miles NW of Heligoland, the bomber stream turned SE, giving the FLAK batteries at Heligoland a wide berth. Now, the crews reported to their stations and prepared for entering enemy airspace. The trip out over the North Sea was uneventful. The German radar had detected the 8th Air Force as soon as they had climbed above the radar horizon for the radar stations along the North Sea and Channel coasts. The 216th Naval FLAK unit located on Borkum had one of those radars and began sending reports to the Luftwaffe control station on the mainland as soon as they picked up the radar returns of the huge bomber stream. Beyond that, however, the war was once again passing them by. At 1251 hours, the 486th made landfall between Bremerhaven and Cuxhaven, at which point they turned toward Bremen. They were now pushing into enemy territory, and on their toes. Unfortunately, when North of Bremen, they encountered a FLAK zone that S-2 had not known about. The first casualty was the Adler crew, flying #949 (“Nobody Getzit”) in the high squadron of the 486A/92C Group. The ship was racked by several FLAK rounds, the first off the nose that wounded the bombardier. FLAK damaged engines #3 and #4, causing the ship’s speed to dropp off and the ship began to settle. LT Adler made a turn in an attempt to return home, but the aircraft wasn’t going to make it and the order to bail out was given. The ship went down at 1304 hours and was last seen near Bad Bederkesa. The German FLAK was light but accurate. The pilots may have become confused, with some taking evasive manuevers getting out of position making the planned turn near Bremen became more complicated. At 1308 hours, the stream began a turn to the left, which would take the bomber stream to the southeast of Hamburg where they would begin their bombing run. Such a turn put the lead aircraft under Harper’s nose, and Walthall, too, would have been to his low side. Scully would have to tell Harper of any changes in their ship’s position relative to the lead. His attention now became divided between the lead and Walthall, whom he would have difficulty seeing. According to an eyewitness account provided at the mission debriefing, a burst of FLAK detonated beneath #909. The witness said that #909 then nosed up into #145. The survivors of the crew, Sergeant Kazmer Rachak, flight engineer and top turret gunner, and Lieutenant Quentin Ingerson, navigator, said they were unaware of such a burst and didn't feel any unusual motion of #909. #145 was on the outside of the turn, and Harper would have had difficulty seeing the lead and maintaning his position. He would have relied upon Scully to give him updates. This meant that Scully would not be able to watch Walthall and he requested updates on Walthall from the tail gunner, but he was having trouble seeing him, too. |