SUBJECT: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 21. From William J. Watson's diary: March 2 Twenty first raid - Target Chartres, France - Airfield where they train cadets. We hit airfield hangers. Only fighters we saw was ones taking off to intercept us. P47s strafed them and we were not bothered. Flak was very light. From Albert Soriano's memoirs: Mission No. 21 Date Mar. 2, 1944 Target Chartres, France Time 1:46 Trip 5:15 hrs Altitude 28,000 Temp. (C) 41 below Damage None Memo This was the most beautiful piece of precision bombing I have ever seen. As you can see from the photos not one bomb hit outside the target area. There was very little opposition. In fact this was a nice trip, the weather was fine and the bombing was good. We won't be coming back here. From James Baldock's flight log: No. XXIII - MARCH 2, 1944 Took off at 1400 hrs. and climbed to bombing altitude of 22000 ft. before leaving England. Crossed Engilsh coast at Eastbrowne at 1520 hrs. and crossed Channel, entering France just north of Le Harve. Went straight to target, an airfield at the edge of Chartres, France, southwest of Paris, and dropped our bombs at 1603 hrs. over clear target. Left target, crossed French coast northeast of Dieppe, and returned to England. Scattered flak encountered but no fighters due to P-47 escort. Landed at base at 1915 hrs. No damage to crew or plane. Smitty has had it. Lucky rascal. TOTAL TIME : 153:15 PILOT - LT. Bailey, R.M. - B-17G - 120 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "You know," Yeager says, "I wondered as I watched the two parachutes open what really was happening to all the great German pilots. Had we gotten all of them? I mean, at that point we had a ten-to-one kill ration. I later learned that some of their top aces had flown more than one thousand combat missions and had bailed out as many as twenty times. Talk about heroes." _Pilots_ by William Neely +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ E-mail: nrm1853@rserver3.dsac.dla.mil -- ************************************************************ Adam R. Fathauer E-Mail: fathauer@gsimail.ddn.mil GSI c/o DSAC-R (Preffered) BLDG 27 Sect 3 x400.fathauer@wcsmvs.infonet.com 3990 East Broad S t. (Alternate) Columbus, OH 43213 Phone: (614)692-3836 Fax: (614)692-9731 * ************************************************************