Authors: Robert J. Mrazek
The actual times that the groups finally came together in the sky over England, culminating in the final formation of the bomber train before heading for the enemy coast, were taken from the postmission group reports.
The exodus of aborting aircraft from the Fourth and First Bombardment Wings as the bomber train neared France was observed by Mr. Andrews, Mr. Karnezis, and Mr. Armstrong. The specific numbers of Fortresses that were forced to abort the mission from each group, as well as the individual aircraft, were found in the postmission group reports, along with the stated reasons for their departure.
According to the Eighth Bomber Command’s final narrative of the operation, forty-four Fortresses aborted the mission prior to reaching the French coast. Another thirty-two turned back prior to reaching Germany due to bad weather, mechanical problems, or navigation error. They represented 22 percent of the original attacking force.
The Golden Eagle
The author relied on a number of sources in describing the events in this chapter. Most of the information about Jagdgeschwader 2 was drawn from John Weal’s fine book,
Jagdgeschwader 2 “Richthofen.”
Egon Mayer’s combat record, including a list of his victories in the air, was found at Kacha’s Luftwaffe Page (
www.luftwaffe.cz/index.html
). Additional information about his background and personality was gleaned from the Luftwaffe Archives & Records Reference Group (
www.lwag.org/forums/index.php
).
Mayer’s role in conceiving the frontal attack strategy against the Flying Fortress that changed the course of the air war was documented in Robert Forsyth’s
Fw 190 Sturmbocke vs B-17 Flying Fortress
, as well as
The Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich
by Donald Caldwell and Richard Muller, and Donald Miller’s
Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany
. A copy of the circular in which General Adolf Galland, commander of all fighter forces in the Luftwaffe, embraced Mayer’s frontal attack strategy can be found in Mr. Forsyth’s book.
Egon Mayer’s fighting prowess was already legendary among the air warriors in the Luftwaffe, and he was becoming well known by reputation to the Eighth Air Force. Caldwell and Muller described one of Mayer’s sorties in
The Luftwaffe Over Germany
that astonished the American bomber crews who witnessed it. On July 14, the 305th Bomb Group had been returning from a bombing run near Paris when two Fw 190s appeared ahead of them. Ed Burford, one of the B-17 navigators, recalled what happened next in an interview with Mr. Caldwell. “Whoever it was gave a riveting display of aerobatics in front of our entire 102nd Combat Wing before slashing in to fatally damage the leading ship of the 422nd Squadron in the low slot.... I had never seen such a tremendous volume of tracer go after that one plane with a wingman in tow. Downright discouraging to hit nothing but air.”
The Fw 190 pilot was Egon Mayer.
The deployment strategy by the Luftwaffe of the fighter staffeln in France and Germany in September 1943, as well as the Luftwaffe’s tactics in attempting to destroy the B-17 bomber trains, is covered in depth in Caldwell and Muller’s
The Luftwaffe Over Germany
. The author also found useful information in Cajus Bekker’s
The Luftwaffe War Diaries
.
In describing the deployment of the staffeln of Jagdgeschwader 2 to meet the threat of the diversionary raids mounted by the Eighth Air Force along the Dutch coast and at Rouen northwest of Paris, among other sorties, the author relied on the German air force defensive activity report for September 6, 1943, which chronologically detailed all fighter movement in France on the morning of September 6, and the “Y” Service Report, which was a compilation of all enemy radio transmissions, including the German fighter staffeln, monitored minute by minute by tracking stations in southern England.
Into the Valley
The report of the early loss of two Fortresses to flak shortly after the combat box formation that included the 306th, the 92nd, and the 305th groups crossed into French airspace was found by the author in the postmission group reports, as well as a crew interrogation report.
The surprisingly few, desultory attacks by enemy fighters while the Stuttgart bomber stream was crossing France were noted in the crew interrogation reports from most of the groups. All the developments within individual B-17s came from interviews with the pilots mentioned or crew interrogation reports.
In depicting the first attacks by the scores of enemy fighters that broke through the cloud cover as the combat wings were approaching southern Germany, the author relied on the descriptions contributed by Mr. Karnezis, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Laws, and Major Ralph Jarrendt in his crew interrogation report.
The author’s account detailing the level and intensity of the Luftwaffe attacks on the American bomber train was drawn from the crew interrogation reports, the postmission group reports, the Luftwaffe Archives, the Eighth Air Force’s narrative of the mission, and the confidential report sent by Ira Eaker to Hap Arnold on September 10, 1943.
The account of Mr. Andrews’s actions after one of his bomber’s engines was shot out in the first wave of fighter attacks was drawn from his written narrative of the mission, as well as his interviews with the author.
The Blind Leading the Blind
The ferocity of the attacks by German fighters on the low squadron of the 388th was documented in the crew interrogation reports of the men who returned from the mission, and in the Missing Air Crew Reports (MACRs) of those planes that were lost. The MACRs were continually updated during the war as new information became available. Mr. Laws also wrote in detail about these attacks in his postwar account. In addition, the author found valuable information in the Escape and Evasion Reports written by the men who survived and then escaped occupied Europe after their Fortresses were shot down. The Escape and Evasion Reports were particularly useful in determining what happened aboard each lost plane in its last moments. The author also utilized this material in attempting to establish the order in which the eleven Fortresses in the 388th were lost that day.
The section of this chapter dealing with the insurmountable challenges that faced First Lieutenant Henry Dick, the lead bombardier of the 388th Bomb Group, in trying to get a fix on the primary target over Stuttgart was evoked in detail in the lengthy postmission report that he filed on September 8, 1943. The subsequent movements of the 388th in maintaining formation with the 96th Bomb Group can also be found in Dick’s report, as well as the postmission report filed by Major R. B. Satterwhite, the group leader of the 388th.
A Ride in the Whirlwind
The author’s account of the events that transpired after the First Bombardment Wing arrived over Stuttgart at 0949 on the morning of September 6, 1943, were reconstructed from the postmission reports filed by the nine groups within the First Bombardment Wing. In addition to the reports filed by the group leaders, the author reviewed the reports filed by the nine lead navigators and the nine lead bombardiers.
For the events that transpired inside
Satan’s Workshop
, the lead plane in which General Travis was flying, the author relied on the postmission reports filed by Major Lyle, the group leader, First Lieutenant Norman Jacobsen, the lead navigator, and First Lieutenant Jack Fawcett, the lead bombardier. The report filed by Lieutenant Fawcett was particularly valuable. He wrote at length about what occurred aboard the plane while he tried to acquire the primary target with his bombsight.
To the author’s knowledge, General Travis never explained his decision to circle over Stuttgart three times before the bomb load in
Satan’s Workshop
was accidentally toggled by Lieutenant Fawcett, thus signaling the other bombardiers to release their own payloads. The author drew his conclusions on the decision based on the general’s actions and decisions on the missions he led after Stuttgart, and the testimony of other pilots he flew with, including Don Stoulil and Bill Eisenhart, both of whom were interviewed by the author. The appendix in this book provides some insight into the general’s determination to complete a mission as it was ordered.
The impact of the general’s decision was felt by most of the pilots and crewmen the author interviewed, including Bud Klint, Jimmy Armstrong, and Andy Andrews, all of whom vividly remembered the challenge of attempting to stay in a tight formation as they flew three times over the flak batteries surrounding Stuttgart. For those on the outer rim of the formation, it was particularly difficult. Mr. Armstrong likened it to the child’s game of crack the whip, but it had deadly consequences. After draining gas at an accelerated rate, many of those Fortresses without Tokyo tanks could not make it back to England. In addition, the tight combat boxes soon lost their integrity, and the ragged formations that headed homeward were easier targets for the German fighters.
Another description of the confused maelstrom of Fortresses over Stuttgart can be found in Brian D. O’Neill’s
Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer: B-17s Over Germany,
a book in which he closely tracked the combat careers of many of the flight crews in the 303rd Bomb Group as they attempted against the odds to complete their combat tours in 1943 and 1944.
The paragraphs in
To Kingdom Come
that describe the increasing frustration and anger of pilot David Shelhamer, eventually leading him to order the salvoing of his plane’s bomb load through the clouds, was drawn from Mr. Shelhamer’s account to Brian O’Neill.
The accidental release of the bomb load in
Satan’s Workshop
was described by the chagrined Lieutenant Fawcett in his postmission report, along with his honest admission that he had no idea where the bombs had landed.
The experiences of Andy Andrews, Jimmy Armstrong, Olen Grant, and Bud Klint as they continued to circle the target were drawn from the author’s interviews with them, along with Mr. Armstrong’s book,
Escape!
And the Sky Rained Heroes
The description of the events leading up to the Fourth Bomb Wing’s attack of its secondary target at Strasburg, including the specific movements of the 388th and 96th Bomb Groups, were drawn from the postmission reports of lead bombardiers Henry Dick and Thomas Hines.
Mr. Karnezis described the resumption of German fighter attacks on the 388th Bomb Group, and the loss of his friend Earl Melville’s plane,
Shedonwanna?,
in an author interview. The details of what happened aboard
Shedonwanna?
in its last moments were drawn from surviving crew members’ accounts in the plane’s Missing Air Crew Report. MACRs also provided valuable information in helping the author describe the destruction of
Impatient Virgin
and
Shack Up
. Additional details were supplied by Major Jarrendt’s crew, among others, in their crew interrogation reports after returning to Knettishall.
The events leading to the loss of three more Fortresses in the 388th’s low squadron, including Lew Miller’s unnamed bomber,
Lone Wolf,
and
In God We Trust,
were drawn from the Missing Air Crew Reports for each bomber, the Escape and Evasion Reports filed later in the war by survivors of the doomed planes, the Escape and Evasion Reports submitted by Warren Laws and Joe Schwartzkopf, and the written account of the mission by Mr. Laws.
Est Nulla Via Invia Virtuti
The description of the actions taken by Mr. Andrews in attempting to save his plane and crew after losing an engine on their approach to Stuttgart, and then losing a second one after leaving Stuttgart, followed by the attacks of four German fighters and the subsequent landing of
Est Nulla Via Invia Virtuti
in Switzerland after being intercepted by a Swiss fighter plane, was drawn largely from the account of Mr. Andrews’s combat experiences that he wrote after the war. Additional details were drawn from author interviews with Mr. Andrews.
Another source of information about these events from the Swiss perspective, including information about the Swiss pilot who intercepted Mr. Andrews’s bomber, as well as the actions of Allen Dulles, the head of the American spy network in Europe, can be found in an account by the American Swiss Foundation at the Web site
www.americanswiss.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=78
.
Theirs Not to Reason Why
The descriptions of the incidents that occurred in the final minutes before
Slightly Dangerous II
crashed into the French countryside, including the ultimately successful attacks by German fighters, the scene of copilot Jack George firing his .45-caliber pistol at one of the Fw 190s, the struggle in the cockpit after the steering cables were shot out, and Mr. Karnezis’s signaling the rest of the crew to bail out, were based on interviews with Mr. Karnezis at his home in California, along with the Escape and Evasion Reports filed by Mr. Karnezis and Mr. George after they reached freedom.
The subsequent account of Mr. Karnezis’s exiting the plane with the slashed parachute, his injuries after hitting the ground, his escape from the German search party, and his rumination on the famous line from “The Charge of the Light Brigade” while he struggled to escape across the forest was drawn from author interviews.
To the Last Beat of the Heart
The source for confirming Egon Mayer’s first aerial victory of the day, the destruction of a Flying Fortress ten miles northeast of Troyes, France, was Kacha’s Luftwaffe Page.
The final moments aboard Ted Wilken’s plane before it went down, including the description of the frontal attacks that set the nose on fire while killing the bombardier, navigator, and top turret gunner, and wounding Ted Wilken, Warren Laws, and John Eicholtz, were drawn from Mr. Laws’s written account of the Stuttgart mission. The author also relied on the Escape and Evasion Reports of Mr. Laws and Mr. Schwartzkopf, both of which provide descriptions of the plane’s last minutes, culminating in their bailing out of the stricken bomber.