| 27. Kaiserlautern, Germany - 01/18/45 - This was one of the easiest missions we flew and we were all feeling pretty good until
we got back over the English coast when we ran into a fierce rainstorm which I don't believe any of us will ever forget. We encountered hail, rain,
lightening, and a strong wind as we came near the base so the tower called us to fly around the area for a while until the weather got better.
Zirbel and Jake were sort of sick while the rest of us weren't feeling any too well ourselves. I bumped my head several times on the window and
also had an unsettled feeling in my stomach. The plane bucked as every bolt strained and the ship's skin popped and groaned with all of us certain
the plane would break in two at any minute. Before the storm had passed we felt as if we had been on a roller coaster ride, but we finally got back
to the base and landed. Unger was really tired from wrestling with the controls while the rest of us were plenty exhausted from being bounced
around. Our mission had been to bomb a marshalling yard which we did through 10/10 overcast. P51s covered us all of the ay, but we saw neither flak
nor fighters. We led the third division and since that division was all that flew, a bomber stream of 100 planes, we really led the entire 8th Air
Force! Temperature was -38 at 24000, had new radio operator, Captain Skipp took LT Dennis' place since Danny had finished and left the next day on
the start of his trip back to the States. 28. Mannheim, Germany - 01/21/45 - Our second mission to Mannheim and Unger's last mission since he had flown two before we started. As it later turned out, it was also the last one for Jake and Belay because Jake went to P51s with Unger and Belay became group navigator. Took off about 7:45, climbed to 12000 feet only to discover an oil lead in the number three engine cowling which was throwing a thin stream of oil back over the top of the wing. Unger conferred with the command pilot and they decided the best thing to do was to turn back for another PFF plane at the base. We did this with a minimum of effort of lost time and were able to rejoin the formation just as it crossed the French coast. We took back the lead from the deputy leader an continued on to our target, a marshalling yard at Mannheim. Bombing was done by PFF because of a 10/10 cloud coverage below us. During our bomb run we hit a clear spot and got several pieces of flak in our right wing. Even so, it was a great deal better than the other time we went over the city. On the way back the formation was forced to break up due to the low hanging clouds over the channel, each plane coming back by itself. Saw no fighters and flak in only that one spot. Temperature was -52 degrees at 27,000 feet. Since it was Unger's last mission we shot off all the flares we had left when we got back over the base. Had a major for command pilot, some new officer for pin point navigator, and a different radio operator. We led the 486th on this mission. 29. Weimar, Germany - 02/09/45 - I was classified as a spare gunner for the rest of my tour, so had to wait until some crew needed an extra gunner for a mission. After one or two false starts I finally flew as nose gunner with a bunch of fellows I knew in the squadron. Briefed at 6:00 and took off about 8:30. I had a wonderful view up there in the nose and the only work I did was to turn on the chin turret every once in a while to swing the guns around so that any watching Jerries would see someone there. The only trouble was |
Copyright © 1998-2024, 486th Bomb Group Association.