B-24J serial 42-109618 departed Hardwick on 4 November 1944 on a mission to Jever Air Base. The aircraft failed to return from the mission; no eyewitness saw it leave the formation and there was no radio contact after the target. According to German records (Air Base Command A 13/XI, Jever), the aircraft crashed near Voslapp, 7 km north of Wilhelmshaven, in the Jadebusen tidal flats at approximately 1146 hours on 4 November 1944. Four crew members were found dead; their bodies were buried at the Garrison Cemetery Wittsund. One crew member (S/Sgt Lloyd O. Calcut) was captured. The remaining crew were reported as drowned. German document KU-3294 (dated 20 November 1944) transmitted identification tags and photographs of four recovered crew members to Evaluation Center West, Oberursel. The MACR form notes no survivors were confirmed and no parachutes were observed.
Mission 700.Hannover/Misburg.
Hannover, Germany
The cost.
The route.
Operational data.
Meager in Frisians, meager at landfall, intensive at target
Debrief notes.
The formation.
Each ship that lifted off, and the men aboard her.▸ 1 ship carrying your selection
The tenth mission was to an oil refinery at Hannover, though the crew remembered it as Merseburg, one of the most heavily defended targets in Germany. The route went out over water to Cuxhaven, then Bremen, Lüneburg, and Cette before reaching Hannover. The return passed Dümmer Lake, Zwolle, and Alkmaar. Flak in the Frisians on the way in was meager, but over the target it was intense. The crew later recalled 155mm guns sending up enormous bursts that broke the formation apart before bombs away. Hughes released the bombs. Weather intervened and they missed the target by a mile. Four flak holes in the aircraft; no ships or men lost. From November 4th the missions came rapidly, five in seven days. It was, as the crew described it, their greatest period of strain. They were weary, tired almost beyond endurance.
Misburg (Hannover), -40 degrees, flak rough, oxygen troubles. Aircraft 994-K (42-99994 'Beaver's Baby').
McGuire M7, 1944-11-04, Hannover/Misburg (official credit Merseburg). Heavy and accurate flak, saw red in the center of bursts. Overran formation on turn into target, had to dog-leg out and back in alone; last mission McGuire had trouble holding formation. Source: McGuire memoir pp.006, 101-102.