Sortie2ADB-24Aborted

42-51569.Over Target of Opportunity.

Mission 863 · 04 March 1945

Serial
42-51569
B-24J
Fuselage Code
AG
Squadron
330th
Ted's Traveling Circus
Aboard
10
men

The crew.

§ 10 aboard

The load.

§ 6,000 lb aboard
M17
Incendiary Cluster
12× 500 lb
TypeIncendiary (Cluster) · Magnesium/oil
Weight6,000 lb
FuzingHughes Memoir

The flight.

§ Ship’s Record
The Day
Took off fromHardwick (Sta. 104)
Landed atHardwick (Sta. 104)
The Record
ResultAborted
Record confidenceInferred
Formation
Flew with330th Squadron
Fuel & Equipment
H2X scope photoNo

The target.

§ As Briefed
Target of OpportunityUnknown
As the log wrote itSo. Germany

Notes.

§ From the Record
The briefing called for an airbase at Hall in southern Germany. The weather had other ideas. Contrails were dense and persistent from 10,000 to 25,000 feet, visibility near zero, and the formation came close to several collisions on the way in. The recall order came over Lake Constance, before the IP. The bombs went out over Germany on the navigator's own GEE readings. Results were unknown. The fighter escorts got lost in the same conditions. Back at the base, the ground crews suggested it had been the most successful mission of the war, reasoning that the smoke from the bombs would surely convince German wives to demand Hitler end things at once.
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