Pathfinder Pioneer: The Memoir of a Lead Bomber Pilot in World War II by Celia Straus & Raymond Brim

Author:Celia Straus & Raymond Brim [Straus, Celia]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2016-04-19T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

MISSIONS SIX AND SEVEN—THE DUTCH COAST

Huls Synthetic Rubber Plant—June 22, 1943, 92nd Bomb Group— 6:00 hours flying total—235 bombers over target, 16 planes lost, no escorts but Spit fighters to meet us on the way home.

We didn’t fly another mission until June 22, when the 92nd BG dispatched 29 Forts, including 11 YB-40s, to take out the rubber plant at Huls, Germany. Huls provided a third of the entire Axis rubber production capacity. The plant was just north of the Ruhr area and was the second largest of its kind in Germany. Start engines was to begin before 2:00 a.m. on June 21, but fog closed down some of the bomber bases, so it was the next day, during our pre-dawn briefing, that they told us that this mission was the closest approach so far of the U.S. Army Air Forces to Germany’s heavily defended Ruhr industrial region. It was only 300 miles from England, within easy reach of Forts, but it was also the first time our bombers had flown that far into Germany. We all understood that the farther we penetrated into Germany with no escorts, the more vulnerable we were to enemy fighters.

We were part of a force of 235 bombers comprised of a number of groups; although by the time we reached the target we were down to fewer than 200 due to aborts. Lt. Colonel Reid and Lt. Shaefer were leading us. At 6:00 a.m. the weather en route and over the target was pretty clear, so we were cleared to go.

Again I did most of the flying because of our position in the formation. The various groups, flying on converging courses, were to be brought together at bombing altitude at around 8:45 a.m. Then we were to turn south to the target while a small decoy force kept the German fighters busy in the northwest. Each of our Forts had a dozen .50-caliber machine guns, so flying in such a large formation provided a lot of firepower, but in actual combat, we were pretty vulnerable.

As soon as we crossed the Dutch coast, about thirty German fighters launched an attack, surrounding our formation and weaving in and out, but then they broke off with no success. While we had no fighter escorts, we did have the 11 YB-40s deployed throughout the formation undergoing their first real combat run. The idea was that these YB-40s could protect us during deep penetration by Jerry fighters. It didn’t work. They added nothing to our defense and they didn’t have bombs, so they added nothing to our offense.

Once we crossed the North Sea and headed over land into the Ruhr industrial area we faced fifty more German fighters, which approached us from the rear, once again without success. They attacked from above at about 11:00 a.m. and from below at about 6 p.m. They tried hard to break up our formation, but because they didn’t seem to want to give battle close in, they were unsuccessful for the most part.

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