SUBJECT: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 23. From William J. Watson's diary: March 6 Twenty Third raid - Target Berlin - Our route was almost straight in and straight out. We were hit by fighters on the way in. We got to the target 28 minutes late. Made a dry run the first time. Closed bomb doors and circled the city. Could see all the flak from the center of the town and thought we were going through it. We did turn and bombed one of the Marshalling yards on the outskirts. Being so late we missed our escort. We were hit by the most vicious fighters I ever saw. Seven of our formation was shot down. Capt. Brown, Lt. McLaughlin and Lt. Christiani from our squadron. For my first time I saw a 17 on fire and blow up. Hope I never see it again. McLauglin crashed into Brown. 68 Forts lost, 7 from our base. The flak was the most accurate yet. One piece hit me in the hip. It stung till we hit the ground. Hope I never have to go back. From Albert Soriano's memoirs: Mission No. 23 Date Mar. 6, 1944 Target Berlin, Germany Time 3:58 Trip 8:30 hrs Altitude 27,300 Temp. (C) 63 below Damage Several Small flak holes. Memo Damn is the word to use for the weather we had today. It was so cold that our electric dynamo, which supplies power to our radio set, froze while it was running. This time we had to bomb a secondary target. Our squadron was assigned to bomb a factory on the bank of a river, as a secondary target. I hope we never meet this kind of weather again. From James Baldock's flight log: No. XXV - MARCH 6, 1944 - HAPPY DAY Took off at 7:50 hrs. & climbed to 18000 ft. before leaving England. After leaving England we crossed North Sea, entered Holland, crossed Zuyder Zee, and entered Germany southwest of Bremen. Headed for Berlin, going north of Hanover and Brunswick, and finally reached our I.P. Made our bombing run eastward on our briefed target in the southwest edge of Berlin. Overshot the target so we practically circled Berlin & finally dropped our bombs at 1335 hrs. from 21000 ft. onto marshalling yards at the southwest edge of Berlin. Left target and retraced route back to England. Encountered scattered flak to & from target and over the target had very accurate, & heavy flak. Our own group wasn't attacked by fighters on the way in but after we dropped our bombs, (wow) F.W.-190's stayed with over an hour. Seven 17's in our group went down, the sky was full of parachutes. Our left wing man caught fire from 20 mm's, the crew bailed out while still in formation, and the ship climbed upwards, barely missing us after we slid sideways to miss him & then it rammed the group leaders ship from beneath, knocking the leaders ship into our own squadrons last 3 ships. Finally the heaven sent P-47's showed up & stayed with us the rest of the mission. We landed at our home base at 1635 hrs. No damage to crew but ship shot up pretty bad. Total Time ... 168:30 PILOT - LT. Bailey, R.M. - B-17G - 120 From a local British newspaper: Forts, Libs Blast Reich In Southwest ----- Marauders Pound French Coast Again; Fighters Go Along With Bombers ----- Strong formations of Eighth Air Force Flying Fortresses and Libera- tors attacked targets in southwestern Germany yesterday, while Marauder medium bombers kept up the pre-invasion bombardment of northern France which has been carried on almost continually in the last nine days. Neither targets nor losses of the Forts and Libs had been announced at a late hour last night. Eighth Air Force fighters escorted the American heavies to their targets, and U.S., RAF, Dominion and Allied fighters gave support to the bombers' withdrawl, it was announced officially. The Marauders, each carrying at least a ton of high explosives, spanned the Channel under cover of RAF, Dominion and Allied fighters. They were in the vanguard of streams of other mediums and fighter-bombers hunting targets along the invasion and so-called "rocket-gun" coast. Libs Heavily Attacked Judging by reports from Liberator crews, they bore the brunt of German fighter attacks. "About 90 miles in from the coast the enemy fighters began to work on us," said 2/Lt. Paul M. Elliott, of Provo, Utah, co-pilot of the B24 Glorious Lady "Some were using rockets." 1/Lt. H. H. Christianson, of Ridgefield, Utah, pilot of the B24 V for Victory, said the German fighters pressed home their attacks to such an extent that they passed through the formations, firing rockets and cannon. "The fighter escort was better than I've ever seen," 2/Lt. Donald F. Hutchins, of Santa Paula, Cal., co-pilot of the Fortress Northern Queen, said. "I didn't see an enemy fighter during our entire trip. The cover was excellent," said T/Sgt. Charles A. Rayburn, of Chicago, radio operator on the B17 Pegasus. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "The rammed B-17, piloted by Captain Paul Brown of the 388th, immediately caught fire. 'A ball of flame extended from the No 3 engine back beyond the right elevator. The only intercom chatter I remember after we were hit was Paul Brown's order to bail out. I handed the pilot his chute and he buckled it on,' Sergeant Roy Joyce, the top turret gunner afterwards wrote. 'I buck- led on my chute and headed for the bomb bay. After opening the door I backed off - it was full of flaming gas. I vaguely remember some of the crew at the radio room door and saw one man jump through the bomb bay.' Joyce was still considering how best to get out of the plunging inferno when the bomber exp- loded and he was knocked unconscious. Five crewmen succeeded in getting out of the aircraft either before or after the explosion. Joyce himself came to as he was falling through space and pulled his ripcord." page 115 of _Target_Berlin_ by Jeffery L. Ethell and Alfred Price +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -- ************************************************************ 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