8th Air Force 931
7 April 1945
Object Number - UPL 35188
Description
1,200 Heavies Hit Reich After 1-Day Nazi Air Bid
The flaming air war which the Luftwaffe rekindled Saturday appeared yesterday to have been extinguished once more by the U.S. fighters and bomber gunners as over 1,200 Fortresses and Liberators, protected by approximately 750 fighters, bombed rail yards, airfields and oil targets in central Germany without opposition from enemy planes.
The only air activity along the route of the bombers came in the form of three training planes, which were promptly shot down by the fighters. On Saturday, when the Luftwaffe daringly attacked a force of 1,300 heavies in strong groups, fighters of the 8th downed 64 planes while bomber gunners accounted for 40, making a grand total of 104.
It was the strongest opposition thrown at the bombers since Mar. 2, when fighters and gunners knocked down 73 planes. The renewal of opposition Saturday cost the 8th 22 bombers and three fighters. Ten bombers and one fighter are missing from yesterday's missions.
Visual Bombing Over Targets
The bombers had ideal weather yesterday, with visual bombing prevailing over all targets except a rail yard at Plauen, 40 miles southwest of Chemnitz. The targets area stretched from west of Berlin to 15 miles south of Nuremberg.
Three airfields were hit, one southwest of Dessau and the other southwest and south of Nuremburg. Rail yards beside those of Plauen were at Stendal, 70 miles west of Berlin; at Hof, 15 miles southwest of Plauen; and the Eger, 30 miles southwest of Plauen.
Ordinance depot in the Bayreuth area, 40 miles northeast of Nuremberg, were pounded and another objective in the Nuremberg area was a jet-propelled repair planet at Furth, north of the city. Fifty-five miles west if Berlin, the bombers hit an oil depot at Derben.
Flak, described as meager by airmen, represented the only opposition for the day. One fighter pilot called it a quiet day everywhere in enemy territory, with 'not a thing moving.'
Heavy bombers of the 15th Air Force made their third consecutive raid on the Brenner Pass Route yesterday, besides plastering railroad bridges along the northern Italy front.
Mission Details
BUCHEN
Description: OIL DEPOT
DUNEBURG
Description: EXPLOSIVES PLANT
FASSBERG
Description: AIRFIELD
GUSTROW
Description: MUNITIONS PLANT
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Eighth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
HITZACKER
Description: OIL DEPOT
KALTENKIRCHEN
Description: AIRFIELD
Notes: The Germans are getting very desperate throwing whatever Luftwaffe resources remaining at the bomber formations. They have very poorly trained fighter pilots with little or no combat experience and their losses are dramatic this late in the war.
KOHLENBISSEN
Description: AIRFIELD
KRUMMEL
Description: EXPLOSIVES PLANT
Notes: A mix of 252 P-47s and P-51s provide escort. Mix not given in available data.
LUNDEBURG
Description: INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
NEUMUNSTER
Description: MARSHALLING YARDS
PARCHIM
Description: AIRFIELD
SALZWEDEL
Description: AIRFIELD
SCHWERIN
Description: MARSHALLING YARDS
Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
Notes: Primary – Airfield outside of Domitz (50 miles SE of Hamburg) Secondary – Town of Schwerin, 45 miles east of Hamburg. The mission looked like a lot of fun. No flak, bombing altitude was only 15,000 and the met. officer promised us visual conditions. The course consisted of hitting the Dutch coast about 20 miles north of Amsterdam & flying directly east over Zuyder Zee which is what the British are trying to reach at present in order to encircle Holland completely. Once on the east coast of the celebrated Zee, we whooped down toward Osnabruck and north of Hannover. Then a little further east to the primary's I.P. which was about 45 miles east of Hannover (Klotze, was the town's name) From there we cut sharply to the North into Domitz (prim.) Our course out was SW a little past Hannover, west from there (passing barely10 miles north of the Ruhr pocket) until reaching the Belgian coast, we cut up to Southwold and home.
UELZEN
Description: MARSHALLING YARDS
WESENDORF
Description: AIRFIELD
Connections
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People
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 401st Bomb Group 615th Bomb Squadron
- Highest Rank: Sergeant
- Role/Job: Ball Turret Gunner
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 401st Bomb Group 612th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: 12120324 / O-835109
- Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
- Role/Job: Pilot
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 401st Bomb Group 612th Bomb Squadron
- Highest Rank: Second Lieutenant
- Role/Job: Co-Pilot, Tail Gunner
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 401st Bomb Group 612th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: 36864214
- Highest Rank: Sergeant
- Role/Job: Waist gunner
- Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
- Nationality: American
- Unit: 466th Bomb Group 787th Bomb Squadron
- Service Numbers: O-2057209
- Highest Rank: First Lieutenant
- Role/Job: Pilot
Aircraft
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Diana Queen Of The Chase
- Unit: 401st Bomb Group 612th Bomb Squadron
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Dynamite John
- Unit: 401st Bomb Group 612th Bomb Squadron
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Lucky Lady aka Screaming Eagle
- Unit: 351st Bomb Group 95th Bomb Group 335th Bomb Squadron
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: Farmer's Daughter
- Unit: 401st Bomb Group 614th Bomb Squadron 615th Bomb Squadron
- Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
- Nicknames: D-Day Dottie
- Unit: 401st Bomb Group 613th Bomb Squadron
Revisions
Virginia Wise, eldest child of Lester Allen Wise, B-17 (43-39056) pilot 8th Air Force, 385th Bomb Group, who flew on this mission from Great Ashfield, England to Gustrow, 7 Apr 1945
Virginia Wise, eldesthild of LesterAllen Wise B-17 (43-39056) pilot, 8th Air Force, 385th Bomb Group, who flew on this mission from Great Ashfield, England to Gustrow, 7 Apr 1945
Information from original, hand-written combat logs of Maj. I.J. Barrios dated Feb-Apr 1945.
Lee Cunningham, 8th Air Force missions research database / Stan Bishop's 'Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces', the Combat Chronology of the US Army Air Forces and the work of Roger Freeman including the 'Mighty Eighth War Diary'.
