| most of the flight over the North Sea until we were north of Hamburg then we turned south and began our bomb run. It was a
clear day yet the flak was surprisingly light considering the visibility and the important, well-armed city we were attacking. What little flak
there was too darn close for comfort because we got several small holes in our wings and one fairly large one in our vertical stabilizer. Our bombs
missed the oil plant and hit an asphalt plant near the city, but the group that went in behind us hit the oil plant right in the center. I
could see clouds of black smoke rising from the target with large red flashes securing every so often. We had a captain as command pilot, Griffith
missed the mission since he was in the hospital, and LT Dennis flew with another crew because we had a captain as pin point navigator. Did not see
any enemy fighters although they were reported around the target area. P51s kept a good watch for strange planes in that vicinity. I tried out a
new heated suit which was far better than the old type since I had more freedom and felt warmer. 24. Dollbergen, Germany. - 01/01/45 - We led the entire third division with the group CO going along as command pilot. bombed an oil plant at Dollbergen, or at least tried to bomb it. Unfortunately we missed it slightly and plowed up some farmer's field with 500 pounders. Had swell P51 protection which kept al enemy aircraft away from our group. Saw very little flak and what we did see was far away. We flew the first day of the new year if that meant anything. Griffith didn't fly since he was still in the hospital, but LT Dennis went with us. Temperature was -38 degrees at 24,000 feet. 25. Saarlautern, Germany - 01/02/45 - Because of the lousy job we did in bombing the last target we were put in the doghouse for a while and assigned to merely leading the low squadron. Since we didn't carry a command pilot the copilot had a chance to actually fly a plane again while I flew the tail. The waist gunner was a fellow from our Nissen hut named Wendell Kennedy who had become a spare gunner when his crew became a PFF crew. He went to sleep in the waist and missed an oxygen check, thus giving Zierbel a bad case of jitters. We had to change planes before taking off because a fire started in our number one engine and the crew chief was afraid to let it be used on a mission. We hopped into another plane and took off without must loss of time. Griffith was still in the hospital due to his leg. 26. Railroad Bridge, Germany - 01/13/45 - Bombed some railroad bridge, but did not hit it because we were knocked about in the bomber stream and cut out another formation on the bomb run. Captain Wilson, our command pilot, wasn't too happy about the whole business yet we never had any serious trouble about it afterwards. Our bomb load of five 1000 pounders went astray in the excitement and landed in a nearby city. Boyce was through with his so we had another radio operator. Griffith was well enough to fly with us once again. Had good P51 coverage so saw no enemy fighters, flak was light, but tracked us fairly accurately. Temperature was -53 at 24,000, the coldest yet. |
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