Easter
Sunday, April 9, 1944.
MISSION
1. Warnemunde, Germany.
On April 9, 1944, the nation
observed its third wartime Easter. For many U.S. servicemen, it was a day of
war, rather than one devoted to the remembrance of Christ.
On Easter Sunday, 1944, we flew our first combat mission as Crew 69 of the 94th heavy bombardment group, U.S. Eighth Air Force,
from a base near Bury St. Edmunds in West Suffolk, southern England; we took off before dawn for a daylight raid on five targets in northern Germany and Poland. In one of the deepest penetrations made by the 8th Air Force up to that time, an estimated 500 to 750 American B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators with nearly 1,000 escorting fighter planes made a wide sweep over the Baltic Sea.
The Forts and Liberators bombed aircraft factories in Poseri, Poland and Four other cities north and northeast of Berlin. Pilots of the escorting Mustang, Lightning and Thunderbolt fighter planes reportedly shot down 20 Nazi planes in an air battle and destroyed others on the ground at
German airfields.
For Crew 69 it was a nine-hour mission, four hours on oxy gen at 25,000 feet, five hours over enemy territory. We got some close flak over the target — an aircraft factory at Warnemunde — but some of the more ‘experienced fliers termed it “just medium.”
We had good fighter escort all the way and saw no enemy fighter planes. Other bomb groups which made the deeper penetrations to Posen, Poland; Gdynia, the Polish port near Danzig; and Marienburg told of fierce, opposition in some instances and placed the number of enemy interceptors at about 600 planes.
Posen, about 150 miles east of Berlin, Was the site of large manufacturing plants for Focke-Wolf fighter airplanes relocated there from German cities to escape destruction. German military men had claimed the city was out of reach of allied bombers It had never been attacked.
A communiqué issued by Lieut. Gen. Carl A. Spaatz’ Strategic Air Forces headquarters said- that Focke Wolf plants in all Five of the target cities were bombed in clear weather. The plants were described as interrelated factories that constituted a vital production complex for single-engine fighters of the Luftwaffe.
To reach their targets the American bombers crossed and re-crossed the most heavily defended parts of Germany and proved that hardly an acre of Hitler’s fortress was sate from daylight bombing raids.
After nine hours in the air, Crew 69 landed back at its base in England with one mission completed and 31 more to go.
The United States that day lost 31 heavy bombers and eight fighters. Some 318 American fliers were dead or missing in action. Many others were wounded.
We had no way of knowing how many Germans were dead or injured because of the bombings.
That was Easter Sunday, 1944.
On Easter Sunday, 1944, we flew our first combat mission as Crew 69 of the 94th heavy bombardment group, U.S. Eighth Air Force,
from a base near Bury St. Edmunds in West Suffolk, southern England; we took off before dawn for a daylight raid on five targets in northern Germany and Poland. In one of the deepest penetrations made by the 8th Air Force up to that time, an estimated 500 to 750 American B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators with nearly 1,000 escorting fighter planes made a wide sweep over the Baltic Sea.
The Forts and Liberators bombed aircraft factories in Poseri, Poland and Four other cities north and northeast of Berlin. Pilots of the escorting Mustang, Lightning and Thunderbolt fighter planes reportedly shot down 20 Nazi planes in an air battle and destroyed others on the ground at
German airfields.
For Crew 69 it was a nine-hour mission, four hours on oxy gen at 25,000 feet, five hours over enemy territory. We got some close flak over the target — an aircraft factory at Warnemunde — but some of the more ‘experienced fliers termed it “just medium.”
We had good fighter escort all the way and saw no enemy fighter planes. Other bomb groups which made the deeper penetrations to Posen, Poland; Gdynia, the Polish port near Danzig; and Marienburg told of fierce, opposition in some instances and placed the number of enemy interceptors at about 600 planes.
Posen, about 150 miles east of Berlin, Was the site of large manufacturing plants for Focke-Wolf fighter airplanes relocated there from German cities to escape destruction. German military men had claimed the city was out of reach of allied bombers It had never been attacked.
A communiqué issued by Lieut. Gen. Carl A. Spaatz’ Strategic Air Forces headquarters said- that Focke Wolf plants in all Five of the target cities were bombed in clear weather. The plants were described as interrelated factories that constituted a vital production complex for single-engine fighters of the Luftwaffe.
To reach their targets the American bombers crossed and re-crossed the most heavily defended parts of Germany and proved that hardly an acre of Hitler’s fortress was sate from daylight bombing raids.
After nine hours in the air, Crew 69 landed back at its base in England with one mission completed and 31 more to go.
The United States that day lost 31 heavy bombers and eight fighters. Some 318 American fliers were dead or missing in action. Many others were wounded.
We had no way of knowing how many Germans were dead or injured because of the bombings.
That was Easter Sunday, 1944.
I would love to see more of this diary. It sounds like this gentleman was in the same building with my great uncle on Lt Mcmeekins aircrew. and I am trying to learn more about his short time with thw 410th squadron before he was shot down.
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