| 21. Pforzheim, Germany - 12/24/44 - There were more planes in the air on this mission than ever before, even considering the
vast force that flew on June 6, '44, D-Day in France. Got up at 5:00, briefed at 6:00, took off at 9:00. The purpose was for the entire 8th Air
Force to bomb all German airfields from where enemy planes were taking off to strafe our ground troops as they fought the German breakthrough. If
we were able to put big holes in the landing fields the Luftwaffe would be unable to send up the planes to harm our troops. We led the group over
to Germany, started on our bomb run, but failed to drop our bombs because LT Moller didn't see the field until too late to make the necessary
corrections in hit bombsight. We proceeded on to the secondary target which was a marshalling yard at Pforzheim. Our incendiaries and 500 pounders
really did a wonderful job of tearing up the tracks, cars and buildings thanks to the bombardier's accurate bombing. It was such a clear day that
we all could see the fires and explosions as the bombs hit the yard and city below us. The air was full of allied bombers and fighters with P51s
and 47s everywhere. Some of the groups were attacked by fighters, but our formation was lucky enough to be untouched. I saw three B17s go down, one
of them spinning down in a slow spiral until it struck the ground with a huge red flash. Due to a strong head wind and to visual weather we were
perfect targets for all the flak guns on ground. A little four-gun battery on the front lines even started firing at us though they failed to score
any direct hits. We received on small hole in the number one cowling and had the command aerial torn in two. Temperature was -40 degrees. 22. Neuwied, Germany - 12/26/44 - We were scheduled to fly on Christmas day, but due to a thick ground fog the mission was scrubbed at the last minute, giving us a day of rest on the day of days. The next day our group was a stand-by with the understanding that the 486th would fly only if some other group failed to take off due to a ground fog or some similar difficulty. Someone must have had trouble because we took off and joined the bomber stream for Germany. The frost on the ground made a pretty picture as we left the runway about 8:20, not to mention the not-so-beautiful ice we had to scrape off the wings and window before taking off. We led the group with a major in the co-pilot's seat as command pilot. Our mission was to bomb a railroad bridge at Neuwied that was hidden by a smoke screen when we started on our bomb run, otherwise the day was perfectly visual day which afforded a wonderful view of the ground below us. The bombardier did the best he could by following the river along and trying to guess about where the bridge would be, then he released his bombs. We later found out that we only ruined several acres of golden brown wheat, missing the bridge completely. Temperature was 45, saw no enemy planes, had P51 escort, and saw light flak which was low and behind, thanks to the chaff we threw out. 23. Hamburg, Germany - 12/31/44 - The last mission in 1944 and a fairly easy one at that, plus the fact that we set a new record of six missions in one month. Woke up at 3:00, briefed at 4:00, took off at 6:30, bombed at 11:33, and were back over the base at 2:20. Our target was an oil plant at Hamburg which was producing a large amount of oil for various German war machines. We did |
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