This is a story relayed to me, years ago, which I thought you guys might like to enjoy! If I researched it correctly, there were 2 17's, Peaches and Peaches II. This is a story of Peaches, a G model assigned to the 97th Bombardment Group, Lakenhealth, England....if I recall it was the spring of 43 and the target was rail yards, just outside of Berlin!
Not the exact aircraft, this was as close as I could find!
Names of the crew are not revealed, as most, if not all are deceased.
This a Air Force record of the mission in question! 353 B-17s and 92 B-24s are dispatched to targets in Germany but high clouds and the malfunction of blind-bombing equipment cause nearly 300 bombers to abort the mission; 7 bombers and 8 fighters are lost; the bombers claim 2-0-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; the bombers also drop 900,000 leaflets; details are: 54 B-17s hit Mannheim, 51 hit Frankfurt, 19 hit Bingen and 22 hit targets of opportunity; 5 B-17s are lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 150 damaged; casualties are 1 KIA, 8 WIA and 40 MIA. 1 of 92 B-24s hit Bretuit Airfield; 2 B-24s are lost and 15 damaged; casualties are 3 WIA and 21 MIA. Escort is provided by 44 P-38s, 345 P-47s and 205 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51s; claims and losses are: P-38s: no claims or losses. P-47s claim 1-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground; 6 P-47s are lost and 9 damaged; 6 pilots are MIA. P-51s claim 4-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; 2 P-51s are lost and 3 damaged; 2 pilots are MIA.
Peaches was one of the B-17's which wound up with a target of opportunity assignment and hit the rail yards by choice!
I had to fill in some details myself, so don't be fooled into thinking I was there! I am "older" than dirt, but no, didn't make the "big" show! (Wish I had)
Crunch, crunch was the sound my steps were making, walking across the yard on the way to briefing at 4AM! Almost, sometimes, sounds like German AA as it explodes close by. Geez, maybe today will be a milk run, we only like 8 more missions and on the way home.
The briefing room was in a "Quonset" hut type building, long and with a rounded off roof. As about 60 of us, pilots, navigators and bombardiers sat there waiting for the little guy, with Captain bars on his shoulder, always had a "50" mission crush on his hat and a pipe, which drooped down like it had gotten to hot sometime or other! A big canvas curtain was drawn over the route map and target, so all we could do was listen and watch until the little skinny guy with the corporal stripes on would stand up and do his thing! He would always turn to see what our reaction was as he pulled the string to reveal the map!
First, as always, a roll call to see who was not there and as usual, 2 or 3 were absent in the hospital or grounded by the flight surgeon.
Now comes the good or bad stuff! The skinny corporal stood up and a hush came over the room as all knew what was about to happen! He turned and looked our way, pulled the curtain and uh, oh, a red tape drawn over the North Channel, across Belgium, then direct to something outside of Berlin! OK, now we know, its going to be a 9 hour mission, if everything goes well, if not????
Lead group was assigned for the strike, "roundup" points assigned by squadron and finally, section leaders named! As usual I was assigned leader of "Potbelly", a 4 aircraft section which was part of the combat box formed by the "mid" group, which meant there would be bombers above us and below us. Altitude at target will be 26,000 feet, which means it will be a long climb to altitude as our birds are getting tired and after about 15,000, it slows the climb rate to around 550 feet per minute. If this mission is like any of the rest, that means as we cross the Belgium coast line, which always has clouds to about 20,000, we will have to be on our toes on heading and climb rate to hold our positions in formation. Sometimes the "Krauts" are waiting on us as we break out on top, so we always have to be on high alert as we break into the clear on top. Just hope this cloud cover doesn't go all the way to the target. Never have like dropping bombs through cloud cover, because you don't know what you have hit.
Preflight is complete, crew inspection is complete and we get into our positions for engine start! We have to wait until we see a "yellow" flare, which means it our time to start engines and taxi onto the ramp going to the active runway. We sat there, as one by one, 17's rolled in front of us on the way to the runway, but finally, a yellow flare was spotted, so we fired up the engines and pulled out into the taxi way and started for the runway.
Lining up on the runway, I could only see about 1,000 feet down the runway, as usual, we had the ole English fog rolling in and out and you might know, when it was our turn, here come the fog. Lock the tail wheel, grab the inner throttle bars of the throttles, push them up slowly as we accelerate and the tail comes off the ground just as we get to full throttle. As always, with this bomb load and 10 hours fuel, we get airborne with about 1,000 feet of runway left and set up a 120MPH climb speed. Climb straight ahead to 2,000 feet, left turn to 300 degree heading, climb to 5,000 feet, then 360 degrees to 8,000 feet, then turn to heading of 060 degrees and set up 600 feet per minute climb on the ROC. I can just see the shadow ahead and to our right a little of the bomber in front of us. All of a sudden we break out into the clear at 7,000 feet and it looks good up ahead, so group roundup should be no problem today.
To be cont'
My computer has slowed down and I need to close a few things, will finish in a little while!
I see the lead section for our "combat" box up ahead and to the right a little, so I will just cut the corner a little and should slide right into that slot that I need to fill. One of the bombers in my section, "Lily" has had to abort as he had a electrical fire in the bomb bay and fropped all his bombs in the channel. I have often wondered if there was anyone down there when those bombs hit the sea? I don't know if one of the "spare" ships can catch us now or not, guess not, they are mostly for aircraft, which cannot takeoff for some reason or other, then they can take off and fill in that empty spot.
Coming up on 8500 feet, order crew to don flak helmets, oxygen masks, plug up electric suits and gloves, unlock their weapons, lock and load. After having each crew member check in with a OK on equipment, I ordered them to test fire weapons. We always test fired weapons out over the sea, so as to not hurt anyone on the ground with falling lead. We had been told about 2 months ago about a fisherman who was injured with falling lead one day, so we all are conscious of that danger. I always had the boys just touch the triggers, not to hold for a 1 second burst, as we need that ammo over the continent somewhere. Bombardier reports problem with electrical circuit in the bomb bay, so he and flight engineer go to the bomb bay to find out the problem. Rack 3 and 7 circuit breakers had tripped, so was reset and now good to go. (Or so we all thought)
I've had a touch of sore throat and the throat mike is bothering me today, but to many things to thing about right now to worry with that! Climb rate still pretty good here at 21,000 feet, air is smooth and everybody is where they are supposed to be. Being the mid group, we are second over the target, the lead group is always the low group of bombers as they get to altitude quicker than us, then we get to altitude and the bombers behind us form the high group as they are always last to get to altitude and last over the target. We have in the past, did it the other way around, front group high, we still mid and last group low, but there had been a near miss or two so they settle on this method, so as to not put anything in danger below except the target.
TO BE CONT'
