Air Heroes of World War II by Robert Jackson

Author:Robert Jackson [Jackson, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2017-03-07T05:00:00+00:00

9 - TARGET: SUICIDE

Very early in the war, the RAF found that daylight bombing missions without fighter escort were practically suicidal. When the Americans entered the war in Europe, however, they still had that lesson to learn — and their education proved a tragic and costly business.

THEY CALLED THE TWIN-ENGINED MARTIN B-26 Maurader the ‘Widowmaker’, and it was true that when it first entered service with the United States Army Air Corps in 1941 it experienced more than its share of accidents. The problem was that it was unusually heavy for a twin-engined machine, and needed that little bit of extra care in handling, particularly in the take-off and landing configurations. It killed a lot of inexperienced pilots before the Air Corps got used to it, and in its early days it earned a totally unjustified reputation for being a lethal aircraft.

In action, however, with experienced crews, the B-26 was superb. It made its operational debut against the Japanese in the spring of 1942, and soon excelled in the low-level attack role.

The first Marauders arrived in the European theatre in March 1943, equipping the 322nd Bombardment Group of the Eighth Air Force’s 3rd Bomb Wing at Great Saling, near Braintree in Essex. The squadron immediately began training for the same kind of operation the B-26 had undertaken in the Pacific: low-level attack.

Many senior USAAF officers believed that it was a serious mistake. The Japanese anti-aircraft defences in New Guinea, they argued, were nothing in comparison with the weight of metal the Germans could throw up around objectives in Europe. The flak and the fighters would tear the B-26s to pieces.

Despite these grim warnings, training continued unchecked and the first low-level mission was scheduled for 14 May 1943. The target was the Velsen power station at Ijmuiden, in Holland, which had twice been unsuccessfully attacked by the RAF. The American raid went ahead as planned; twelve B-26s set out, one aborted with engine trouble, and the remainder attacked the objective through intense flak at heights of between 100 and 300 feet. One B-26 was destroyed in a crash-landing on returning to base; the rest all got back safely, although every aircraft had suffered considerable battle damage. Nevertheless, the crews were jubilant; they had unloaded their delayed-action bombs squarely on the target, and they were convinced that it had been destroyed.

When reconnaissance photographs were developed the next day, however, the Americans were astonished. No damage at all had been inflicted on the power station. It appeared that the enemy had rushed special bomb disposal squads into the area to disarm the bombs, which had been fitted with thirty-minute fuses — standard practice in raids on industrial targets in occupied Europe, in order to give workers time to get clear.

The Headquarters of the 3rd Bomb Wing accordingly decided to mount a second operation against Ijmuiden on 17 May, although the commander of the 322nd — Lieutenant Colonel Robert M. Stillman — protested that another mission at low level against the same target was

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