Andrew
Well-Known Member
I found this personal account of the last mission by the Nav. This makes it real and gradually this orphaned jacket regains its history.
"Navigator to crew - we are now at the I.P. (initial point from where the bombing run starts to the target). We are due at the target at 1025."
Turning down the bomb-run we could see the wall of black puffs ahead in the target area. One could almost feel the tenseness of the crew over the roar of the engines, however, we had all experienced this feeling 20 times before as we had flown into flak. We could see planes far ahead of us going down, not many but some, but we were confident that would never happen to us.
Going down the bomb-run to the target was always a good time to say a little prayer for us all to get back safely. And this day was surely no exception.
Almost as soon as we came into the flak area, we could feel the bursts all around us. The fragments seemed like hail on a tin roof as they hammered against the fuselage. More than once I called the bombardier over the interphone to see if he was all right. We received a fragment of flak through the nose and I could feel the plexiglass pieces of the nose going down my back. The minutes seemed like hours when flying through this anti-aircraft fire. The Germans really seemed to have our altitude and our Group in their sights today. Finally after what seemed like hours, but was really only a few minutes, the bombardier called over the inter-phone "Bombs Away!", after which someone immediately said, "Let's get the hell out of here." It seemed as though our ship was really taking a beating today. Several flak bursts out to our right put number three and four engines out of commission. Both engines were "feathered" and it was impossible to keep up with the Group on only two engines, so we left the formation in a dive to lower altitudes.
Even after leaving the formation, the flak gunners still had their sights on us. Flak was bursting all around us.
After leaving the formation at the rallying point, I gave the pilot our course home. We intended to follow the briefed route back for fighter protection by our own fighters and to avoid flak areas. At this point south of Leipzig we were in the very heart of Germany -- too far from Switzerland or Sweden, and even France, Belgium and Holland at this time were all enemy occupied countries. Our only hope was to follow our "Briefed" course back. We also planned to fly back at tree top level in order to escape enemy fighters and flak.
Now we were in a dive towards these lower altitudes from 24,000 feet where the formation was. The air speed meter read 250 mph going down at the rate of about 3,000 feet per minute. (The B-17 cruising speed was 150 mph.)
As we were going down, the engineer called in "Fighters at one o'clock", but they did not press an attack on us. Both number three and four engines now started to smoke and burn even though feathered. It was indeed apparent to us all that this was our last mission.
Somebody reported number 1 engine was smoking. When the pilot ordered us to bailout, both the bombardier and myself grabbed our chutes and I pulled open the escape hatch near the Navigator’s compartment in the nose. This was the navigator's duty on bail out procedure which we had practiced many times. The navigator is also the first man to bail out at this hatch.
After opening the hatch, I was met by the terrible roar of the engines and the slipstream of the number 2 engine (number 1 wasn't much use to us now, as it had been hit, too). There 16,000 feet below me was enemy Germany, and it certainly looked like a long way to drop.
Once again I checked my parachute and harness and I decided to go out the hatch head first. I had forgotten to take off my steel helmet, so I removed it and set it nicely back up in the nose of the ship -- as if I'd be back to use it again."
http://webspace.webring.com/people/du/u ... sion1.html
"Navigator to crew - we are now at the I.P. (initial point from where the bombing run starts to the target). We are due at the target at 1025."
Turning down the bomb-run we could see the wall of black puffs ahead in the target area. One could almost feel the tenseness of the crew over the roar of the engines, however, we had all experienced this feeling 20 times before as we had flown into flak. We could see planes far ahead of us going down, not many but some, but we were confident that would never happen to us.
Going down the bomb-run to the target was always a good time to say a little prayer for us all to get back safely. And this day was surely no exception.
Almost as soon as we came into the flak area, we could feel the bursts all around us. The fragments seemed like hail on a tin roof as they hammered against the fuselage. More than once I called the bombardier over the interphone to see if he was all right. We received a fragment of flak through the nose and I could feel the plexiglass pieces of the nose going down my back. The minutes seemed like hours when flying through this anti-aircraft fire. The Germans really seemed to have our altitude and our Group in their sights today. Finally after what seemed like hours, but was really only a few minutes, the bombardier called over the inter-phone "Bombs Away!", after which someone immediately said, "Let's get the hell out of here." It seemed as though our ship was really taking a beating today. Several flak bursts out to our right put number three and four engines out of commission. Both engines were "feathered" and it was impossible to keep up with the Group on only two engines, so we left the formation in a dive to lower altitudes.
Even after leaving the formation, the flak gunners still had their sights on us. Flak was bursting all around us.
After leaving the formation at the rallying point, I gave the pilot our course home. We intended to follow the briefed route back for fighter protection by our own fighters and to avoid flak areas. At this point south of Leipzig we were in the very heart of Germany -- too far from Switzerland or Sweden, and even France, Belgium and Holland at this time were all enemy occupied countries. Our only hope was to follow our "Briefed" course back. We also planned to fly back at tree top level in order to escape enemy fighters and flak.
Now we were in a dive towards these lower altitudes from 24,000 feet where the formation was. The air speed meter read 250 mph going down at the rate of about 3,000 feet per minute. (The B-17 cruising speed was 150 mph.)
As we were going down, the engineer called in "Fighters at one o'clock", but they did not press an attack on us. Both number three and four engines now started to smoke and burn even though feathered. It was indeed apparent to us all that this was our last mission.
Somebody reported number 1 engine was smoking. When the pilot ordered us to bailout, both the bombardier and myself grabbed our chutes and I pulled open the escape hatch near the Navigator’s compartment in the nose. This was the navigator's duty on bail out procedure which we had practiced many times. The navigator is also the first man to bail out at this hatch.
After opening the hatch, I was met by the terrible roar of the engines and the slipstream of the number 2 engine (number 1 wasn't much use to us now, as it had been hit, too). There 16,000 feet below me was enemy Germany, and it certainly looked like a long way to drop.
Once again I checked my parachute and harness and I decided to go out the hatch head first. I had forgotten to take off my steel helmet, so I removed it and set it nicely back up in the nose of the ship -- as if I'd be back to use it again."
http://webspace.webring.com/people/du/u ... sion1.html
