Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: ML52 on August 22, 2017, 08:45:35 PM
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By this time, I was getting quite concerned. We had been flying for about 3 hours with an engine out; Norwich, with its' barrage balloons and anti-aircraft guns was close by; other aircraft were milling around in the darkness; no alternate airport to go to; no radio contact with the tower and no lights on the ground to indicate our base and runway. The whole countryside was still blacked out.
Luckily, fuel was not yet a problem. We had taken off with a full load of gas and the flight to Hamm was not a long one.
After circling about 3 more times, all of a sudden the runway lights were turned on. I immediately entered a normal traffic pattern. As usual, landing lights were turned on during the final approach. The tower still maintained radio silence.
We landed and rolled to near the end of the runway, turned right on to a taxiway, turned off our landing lights and started to taxi back to our parking area. Periodically, the landing lights were turned on for a very short time to assist me in taxiing the aircraft in. These lights were not designed for full time ground operation and would burn out quickly with prolonged use.
When we got about halfway down to our parking area, military personnel in a jeep flagged us down and I stopped the aircraft. We were then informed that German fighters and fighter bombers were in the area and had hit the base. The German planes had intermingled in the darkness with the 8th AF planes coming back across the North Sea and were not detected when crossing the English coast.
We shut off all lights, and due to the extreme darkness proceeded slowly to our parking area. Needless to say, after shutting down the three engines, we evacuated the plane in a hurry.
We were told later at the debriefing, that German aircraft had come across the base, strafed it and dropped two bombs. One enlisted man, PFC Daniel Miney assigned to the 1229th Quartermaster Service Company at Rackheath was killed, and five aircraft had not yet returned. It was not know at that time if they had been shot down by the intruding German aircraft or had landed at some other 8th AF base in East Anglica. Each aircraft had a 10 man crew.
Early the next morning, I went down to the Squadron Operations building to get clued in as to what had happened the night before and to find out the status of the 5 missing planes. I was told that three had landed safely at other bases and two were shot down close by with no survivors. One was shot down northwest of the base by a German fighter and the other shot down by anti-aircraft fire near the base.
Just by chance, the first pilot on one of the aircraft, Lt. James Roden, had been a close friend of mine from our early days of training at Wendover, Utah. In my opinion, Lt. Roden was the best formation flying pilot that I had ever known. I felt a great personal loss upon hearing of his death.
I never received an explanation why the tower did not break radio silence and instruct us to turn off our lights, scatter in a northerly direction and return in a half hour or so. It is possible that the first few returning aircraft were advised of the situation. At that time, I estimated that we were about 8-10 minutes away and 20-25 miles out from the base. With VHF radios, we should have been able to pick up tower transmissions at that distance.
The German fighters probably did not try to shoot down any of our aircraft while intermingled with us coming in over the North Sea. That action would have been detected and their surprise attack ruined. Our incoming aircraft would have been alerted and appropriate disbursal information given to us. The ground bases and anti-aircraft gun sites would also have been alerted earlier.
We had no fighter protection while flying over the North Sea. Our normal excellent fighter escort was provided by P-38, P-47, and P-51 day fighter type aircraft while flying over the Continent. We did not have any night fighters since the 8th AF had always flown during daytime and there was no apparent requirement for them.
There were about 1,000 B-17's and B-24's crossing the coastline enroute to about 30-35 8th AF bases in East Anglica.
If the German fighter type aircraft had enough fuel and ammunition, all their pilots could have returned to Germany as aces or double aces. This was a fighter pilots dream--to be undetected among hundreds of enemy bombers flying at night with their running lights on and their guns secured (unmanned for landing).
I do not know how many bombers the 8th AF lost that night. I do know that our group lost two and that there were probably about 30 to 35 groups flying.
To the best of my knowledge, the 8th AF never made any more of these "surprise" early evening missions over the Continent.
Major Kenneth L. Driscoll
U.S. Air Force- retired
Feb. 1992
Attached is a handwritten page:
6/6/94
After I wrote this article I found out that the 2nd Air Division (made up of B-24 type aircraft) lost 7 aircraft over Germany on this mission and 14 over England. These were either shot down by the German intruders or British or American anti-aircraft guns.
I do not know what the losses were in the 1st and 3rd Air Divisions (all B-17 type aircraft)
Ken Driscoll
P.S. B-17 type aircraft outnumbered B-24 type aircraft about 2 to 1 in the 8thA.F.
1st Air Div. = B-17's
2nd Air Div. =B-24"s
3rd Air Div.=B-17's
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II./KG 51 Me 410s
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Great read..
Thank you for sharing this.
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Good read, thank you