Twentieth Mission

January 21, 1945 Once more the air forces were called on to give support to the ground troops, this time we were going to the rail yards at Mannheim. This city was also a nice nest of flak guns. It was planned that we would bomb "Cat and Mouse" so as to avoid the heavy anti-aircraft fire around Karlsrhue. On the bomb run, which took us right up the Rhine Valley, the lead ship's blind bombing equipment went out making it neccessary to make a straight run on the target. The whole group went right over Karlsrhue, and they were good shots down there. Half way down the bomb run a burst went off right over our nose. A large piece of flak came through the nose taking out my gun sight, and barely missing my head. I was afraid to look around at Dinwiddie because he had always been in the habit of standing right behind me on the bomb runs. This day he stayed lying on the floor, and it was a good thing. The piece of flak went through the instrument panel in the cockpit, and sprayed tachometers, and glass all over it. One of the oil pressure instruments hit Spungin in the leg, and made a nice hole in it for him. Bacher got some plexiglass in his eyes, and couldn't see very well. As soon as I dropped our bombs and had the doors closed, I went back, and gave Spungin first aid. As soon as it was possible we left the formation, and with the plane on automatic pilot we went on back to the base alone. Bach and Spungin both received the Purple Heart, as did seven other men in our squadron from that day, and later Genraral Partridge (Division Commander) presented Bach with the Silver Star. After that we all went to the flak house for a rest, and Bacher and Spungin were sent home.

Flying Time: 0730

George L. Edgar

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