Robert T. Lee

HeilbronnM/Y

On the evening of September 9th, the group was alerted once again. Crew 94-C was on the list, and with it came the weight of what that meant. Only a day or two earlier they had been alerted and arrived too late to enter the fight. Now they had their orders, and the reality of a first mission settled in. The feelings were tangled: a sense of purpose, a desire to do their part, and the quiet, persistent awareness that they might not come back. Standard practice was to assign a new pilot to fly with an experienced crew while a seasoned pilot took over his aircraft. But this crew had been with the squadron for three weeks and knew the routines well enough. They flew together on their first mission, with one exception: a different bombardier filled the position. Wake-up came four hours before takeoff. The squadron orderly moved through the barracks that night, rousing each man scheduled to fly, along with one or two alternates in case a listed crew couldn't go. The mechanics of flying a mission were by then well drilled, and the crew moved into their assigned position without difficulty. The mission itself was another matter. Crossing the Rhine somewhere between Frankfurt and Cologne, a four-gun antiaircraft battery of 88mm guns found them. The first burst detonated roughly a hundred feet off the left side. The next came off the right. The flak grew so dense that the lead group disappeared behind a curtain of black smoke ahead, and then they were in it themselves. Bursts came between the aircraft and the ship flying alongside. There was nothing to do but hold course. The crew landed and reported to Major Brutus "Pop" Hamilton for intelligence debriefing that afternoon. Hamilton, whom the pilot knew from his days as football coach and athletic director at the University of California, Berkeley, received a quiet group. Mission records noted 10 x 500-pound incendiaries dropped on a jet plant target, moderate flak, no enemy fighters, and all planes returned with one flak hole. The navigator's log told the route in full: in over the coast at Hautbano, across San Quentin and Allied lines at Nancy, over the Rhine south of Strasbourg. The primary target at Günsburg was not reached; bombs fell on a target just north of Stuttgart. The return leg passed over Speyer, Kaiserslautern, Reims, and Cambrai. In all, 1,300 nautical miles.

MagdeburgO/I

The second mission took the crew to Magdeburg. After leaving the target area the formation scattered, and though jets were spotted, none pressed an attack. The flak over the target was another matter: intense, accurate, and in volume. The lead group took the worst of it. Flying behind them, the crew watched as the bombs went away and then, almost immediately, three aircraft were hit and burning. They watched as the ships went down, trying to count parachutes. One aircraft had its bomb bay blazing like a torch. Only three chutes came out of it. Then a fourth man fell through the flames. Another, unable to get out through the bomb bay, climbed through the top hatch and came out nearly into the arc of his own aircraft's propeller. For a moment it seemed he wouldn't clear it. He did. He slipped past the tail and dropped away until his parachute opened in the sunlight below. Between two of the three ships, nineteen chutes were counted, with perhaps one man unaccounted for. The third ship accounted for an estimated six. Ralph later wrote: "I'll never again fail to return home, to count the holes, and try to get some sleep before tomorrow's mission." Their own aircraft came back without a flak hole and the crew unhurt. The navigator's log recorded the route in: Ostende, Ghent, Brussels, Liège, Cologne, Bonn, Giessen, Brunswick, and on to the target. Heavy flak was noted over Cette and Hannover as well. The return leg passed Nienburg, Dümmer Lake, and out over the Zuiderzee. By the log's count, 150 guns were active over the target and considered very accurate. Three ships lost. Twenty-nine men unaccounted for, nineteen confirmed to have bailed out. One aircraft had aborted before the target. Bombing results were recorded as poor, the target missed.

HemmingstedtO/R

The third mission came the very next day, September 12th. The target was a small oil refinery at Hemmingstedt in Schleswig-Holstein. Pete Scott didn't fly; he had been assigned Officer of the Day. The route took the crew up the North Sea, bombing south to north, which put them heading toward the Frisian Islands on the way home. A few bursts came up from Heligoland, but no flak reached them and no fighters appeared. All aircraft returned without damage. Five of the six refinery buildings were assessed as destroyed. It was, by the crew's own reckoning, the easiest mission of the early tour.

Kassel/Henschel??

The fourth mission was to a tank factory at Kassel, September 27th. The route in passed Egmond, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, and Münster before reaching the target. Flak over Münster and Kassel was heavy, though inaccurate. Their aircraft came through without damage. The formation flying behind them was not as fortunate. Fighters struck the 458th Bomb Group in the rear, and 28 bombers were lost. The crew watched it happen from ahead in the formation. The return leg ran south through Göttingen, Giessen, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, and Koblenz, then back out over Liège, Ghent, and Ostende. Bombing results were recorded as undetermined, relying on PFF equipment through the overcast. All crew returned safe.

HammM/Y

Mission five took the crew to the marshalling yard at Hamm. The route followed a now-familiar path: in over the coast at Egmond, past Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Enschede, and Münster to the target. The return ran through Gütersloh, Bielefeld, and Osnabrück. Flak was heavy at the coast coming and going, at the target, and at three points along the route. The official report noted no flak holes. The navigator's log told a different story: seven hits, a thirteen-inch tear in the bomb bay, three holes in the tail, two in the wing, and one in an engine. All crew returned safely. No fighters were encountered. The PFF bombing results were recorded as a hit on the target, though not a clean one.

PaderbornA/F

The sixth mission was a comparatively straightforward one. The target was an airfield at Paderborn, and the route in followed the familiar track over Egmond, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, and Osnabrück. Flak came up at Osnabrück and Bielefeld but nothing reached the formation over the target itself. Passing near Bad Oeynhausen, the crew counted 25 barrage balloons floating above the railroad bridge over the Weser River. Bombing conditions were good, with clear visual sighting across a formation of 750 aircraft. Results were assessed as very good. The aircraft, "Solid Comfort," came back without a mark. No fighters, no flak holes, all crew safe.

Harburg Rhenania EbanoO/I

The crew had been to Hamburg once before, on October 6th. That first time, the 2nd Air Division had tried something different: 450 aircraft split into three-ship formations and approached the target from every direction. It made little difference. The Hamburg gunners tracked each flight individually regardless, and with 150 separate formations in the air, they simply divided their attention accordingly. Bombing results that day were reported as poor. This return visit followed a more conventional approach. The route came in over Nordholz, past the North Weser estuary, Bremen, Verden, Nienburg, and Harburg, with the exit back out over the Frisian Islands. Smoke pods were visible around Bremen, Hamburg, and the mouth of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. Over the target, 230 88mm guns were active and the flak was intense. Cloud cover at 10/10ths obscured any view of the results. Ralph flew with another crew that day, testing an all-glass enclosed nose configuration. With no bombardier aboard their own aircraft, Hughes handled the bomb drop himself. Ten 500-pound GP bombs went down into the overcast. The aircraft came back with a large hole in the left side and a fair chip out of the number three propeller. All crew returned safely. Elsewhere in the formation, three men had bailed out.

Kaiserslautern??

The ninth mission took the crew south to the marshalling yards at Kaiserslautern. The formation assembled over London and crossed the coast at Boulogne, tracking through Lens, Douai, and Valenciennes to the target. The return ran out through Luxembourg, Trier, Mons, and Ostende. Flak was meager but accurate on the bomb run. Cloud cover was complete and Hughes again handled the bomb drop without a bombardier. Whether the bombs found the yards was impossible to say. The aircraft came back clean, and all crew were safe. Elsewhere in the formation, three men had bailed out.

Hannover/MisburgO/I

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.

KarlsruheM/Y

Mission eleven carried the crew to the marshalling yards at Karlsruhe. The route came in over Camiers, through Laon, Nancy, and Luxembourg to the target, returning by way of Stuttgart, Lille, and Ostende. Hughes flew on the flight deck. Over the target the flak was heavy, the crews noting bursts in red, white, and black. Cloud cover was complete and results could not be observed. Three 2,000-pound bombs went down through the overcast. One aircraft was lost and three men with it; seven others had bailed out elsewhere. Their own aircraft, "Maulin Mallard," returned without damage and all crew safe.

Minden/Mittelland Canal??

The twelfth mission targeted the canal locks at Minden. The route came in over the coast, through Zwolle, Hengelo, Münster, and Lemgo. The return passed Steinhude Lake and Dümmer Lake. Hughes again flew on the flight deck. Mobile flak was active at Münster and Osnabrück along the route, though none reached the formation over Minden itself. Three jets were spotted in the area. Four aircraft were seen going down. All 93rd Bomb Group ships returned, with one flak hole in the bomb bay. Crew safe.

MetzT/T

Mission thirteen took the crew to Fort L'Asnée in France, in support of ground operations near Metz. The bombs were 2,000-pounders, the largest the crew had carried. They were too large for the bomb bay and were suspended instead on remote toggles under the wings, inboard of the number two and three engines. When they released, the aircraft lurched upward with the sudden change in weight. The target sat close to Allied lines, and elaborate precautions were in place. American ground troops fired red smoke along their front line so the formations could see exactly where friendly positions ended. It worked, though the crew couldn't help thinking through what might happen if the markers failed to ignite at the right altitude and kept climbing. The concern was not abstract. In an earlier incident involving a similar close-support mission, bombs had fallen on American troops. The lead pilot in that case had been arrested on landing. Flak was meager and no enemy fighters appeared. One aircraft was lost. Their own ship came back clean. Patton's push toward Metz began the following morning.

Hanau M/YM/Y

The November 10th mission went to the marshalling yards, with the navigator's log recording the target as Hanau rather than Hamm. Hendershot was in hospital and did not fly. The route formed near London, crossed the coast at Calais, and tracked through Lille, Charleroi, Liège, and Koblenz to the target. The return ran out through Frankfurt and Ghent. Flak came up at Koblenz on both legs and again over Frankfurt and the target, though cloud cover at 10/10ths obscured any view of results. A jet was spotted in the area. No ships or men were lost. After the mission the crew was stood down and given a short leave in London.

Hamburg/Dpag??

The crew returned from their London pass to find the weather holding them on the ground until November 21st. At briefing that morning, the target was announced: Hamburg. The briefing officer was direct. The formation would be within range of 446 guns, seven minutes before bombs away and nine minutes after. The course ran up through the Frisian Islands, past Heligoland, a sharp turn toward Hamburg, then a right turn south after Bremen, veering east around the city, north of the Danish peninsula, and back out over the North Sea. As they turned in from the sea at Cuxhaven there was not a cloud in the sky. They were in the third position in the high right when the flak found them. It was thick enough that the lead group disappeared behind its own curtain of smoke. Bursts came between aircraft flying in formation. Then the bombs went away and the formation began a slow right turn. At that moment a burst detonated close enough to shake every sense at once. The pilot glanced at Pete Scott in the co-pilot's seat. Pete looked back, apparently unaware he had been hit. There was nothing in his expression except surprise. Then he began to slump forward into the controls. The crew disengaged Pete's radio, oxygen tube, and safety belt and pulled his flak vest. The ship flew itself most of that time, and by the time they had him clear they were well separated from the group, which they never found again. Conway climbed into the co-pilot's seat. Eck radioed ahead. The pilot put the aircraft into a shallow dive and pushed airspeed to 240 mph. Over the base, Ralph fired emergency flares. No one saw them. The message Eck had sent hadn't reached the tower, and the group hadn't returned yet. The tower assumed they had aborted before the target. The pilot parked on the taxiway and called for a doctor and an ambulance. Doc Steinbeck arrived and asked how many and where. Then they took Pete out of the plane. With no one available to move the aircraft, the pilot taxied it to the hardstand himself. They had beaten the group home by 45 minutes. Doc Steinbeck sent someone along with the pilot to get him through debriefing and to the hospital. On the flight home his face and right arm had begun to burn; fine particles of Plexiglas had passed through his oxygen mask and clothing and into the skin. Conway later explained what had happened. The flak had clipped the right subclavian artery, close to where it branches from the aorta. Pete had bled to death in under a minute. The wound was nearly impossible to find because of the angle: a small gap at the top of the shoulder where the flak vest didn't cover. The fragment was nearly three-quarters of an inch across. Hendershot recalled that before they left the hut that morning, Pete had been standing outside against the building, remarking that he and two others didn't have to fly that day. The aircraft, "The Joker," took an estimated fifty to sixty hits and nearly lost its right wing. It came home alone, north of course, through flak most of the way. Pete Scott was buried at Cambridge American Cemetery. The pilot accompanied the body on the drive out from the base. He described the cemetery as one of the finest he had ever seen, set in quiet green grounds with a small stream in the valley below a chapel. Halfway up the path, a work detail of German prisoners was clearing leaves. As the pilot approached, their leader called them to attention. He could not bring himself to return the salute. His hand shook so badly he could barely sign his name on the chaplain's document. After the mission, Dr. Steinbeck refused to certify the crew for flight until they had rested. They were sent to recuperation and did not return to duty until December 13th.

KaiserslauternM/Y

On December 28th the crew returned to Kaiserslautern, hitting the marshalling yards as part of the continuing effort to cut German transportation lines supporting the now-stalling Bulge offensive. Defenses were lighter than previous visits. The bombing results were assessed as very good. Five flak holes in the aircraft, all crew safe.

Duppach??

On December 29th the target was a railroad bridge near Kirchweiler. Crossing the coast at Ossoe, Belgium, an antiaircraft battery found them and put flak through the aircraft. Within minutes the oil pressure on the number two engine dropped and the head temperature climbed. They feathered the engine and turned back. The group was still climbing and they couldn't keep up. Back at the base, an inspection found that a piece of flak had clipped the oil line between two cylinders. All eight gallons of oil had pumped out. The quick shutdown had prevented any further damage, and a five-cent length of hose had Ship A-Able ready to fly the next morning.

EuskirchenR/J

WormsR/B

The next mission came on January 13th, to a railroad bridge over the Rhine at Worms. The route ran down into southern France and back up along the Moselle. Patchy low cloud forced a second run over the target before the bombs went down through the bomb bay doors. Accurate flak came up from Mannheim but caused no damage. Bombing results were assessed as very good. No fighters, no losses, all crew safe.

Harburg/Rhenania O/IO/I

On January 17th the briefing officer pulled back the curtain and the red line ran straight to Hamburg. The route went directly over the city, the fastest path through the flak area. The crew sweated the whole way to the target. The oil refinery at Harburg, just south of Hamburg, was the actual target. Their group came in behind the first wave, flew through the bomb cloud, dropped, and got out. Getting clear of Germany was another matter. The exit route crossed the Danish peninsula and out over the Frisian Islands, directly into the wind. Ground speed dropped to 80 miles per hour approaching the Kiel Canal. The flak found them there. Bursts lifted one wing and then the other, breaking the formation apart. By bombs away, only five of the original nine aircraft in the 330th Squadron were in any semblance of formation. They dropped and scattered. It was the coldest mission the crew had flown, the temperature recorded at minus 48 degrees Celsius. Two ships from the squadron were lost. One, flown by Gruener, was forced to divert to Sweden. The aircraft took several flak holes. Bombing results were assessed as very good.

KaiserstuhlO/I

The January 28th mission briefed for Osnabrück, with the pilot assigned as deputy lead for the 330th. Takeoff was in dense fog. The crew could make out two runway edge lights. The ground crew, standing 400 feet from the control tower, couldn't see it. Horizontal visibility was less than 400 feet. The interval between takeoffs was stretched to one minute instead of the usual thirty seconds. They got off the ground safely, formed up, and headed toward Germany. As they crossed the continental coast, flak batteries opened up. The left outboard engine caught fire and began to run away. Engine RPM climbed past the instrument limit of 3,200 and kept going. The left outboard was the worst engine to lose; the torque of all four engines was carried on that wing, and the propeller froze in full fine pitch, the blades flat to the airstream, creating extreme drag. They were at 20,000 feet. Three minutes later they were at 17,000. They contacted Air-Sea Rescue for permission to salvo the bombs. Clearance came in three minutes. A low cloud layer sat a few hundred feet above the water. ASR found them an airstrip on the water's edge. Every minute or so the pilot counted to five over the radio; from that and radar bearings, ASR directed a British aircraft toward them. Within five minutes a P-47 appeared off the left window, flaps down, flying formation. The British pilot gave the circle sign and said on the radio he was taking them in. It went smoothly until they hit cloud at 2,000 feet. The bulletproof glass, two inches thick, fogged immediately as the air shifted from dry cold to warm and wet, then began to build ice. Forward visibility was gone. Through the side window the pilot could still see the P-47. The airfield tower broke in: the main runway was blocked by a crashed B-24. They were to land crosswind on another runway. Wheels and flaps went down and they held position on the P-47's wing. The aircraft came down onto the runway and slid off onto her belly. The crew walked away with a few bruises. A staff car took the pilot to the commanding officer, where he was thoroughly dressed down for blocking the runway. The ground crew later found fifteen places where ice had torn chunks from the aircraft. Mission records logged the target variously as Osnabrück and an oil refinery at Dortmund. Four aircraft were lost. The crew received mission credit.

SchluchternR/R

The target was a rail line southwest of Leipzig. Heavy flak was active throughout the area and one ship with ten men was lost to it. Their own aircraft came through without casualties, but a fuel check over the target told a different story. Flying A-Able, known as a gas hog, they were critically low. They left the formation and dove for lower altitude, where fuel consumption was better, and made for the continent. They put down in France at D-53 with 40 gallons remaining. The crew returned to base the following day.

Target of Opportunity??

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.

Rheine M/YM/Y

A short mission to the marshalling yards at Rheine, just over the German lines in support of ground troops. Flak was meager and confined to the target area. Two German transport aircraft were spotted. No battle damage, no fighters. Bombing results were assessed as very good. All crew safe.

Swinemunde M/YM/Y

The March 12th mission was a Russian ground support operation. The briefing map showed the red line running clear around Germany, up the Baltic between Germany and Sweden, all the way to Swinemunde on the Baltic coast, where German primary flight training schools were located. The route took the B-24s over nine hours in the air, the B-17s nearly ten. Flying up through the Baltic, the crew spotted six submarines near Kiel. Flak at the target was meager. No fighters appeared. By the time the last aircraft dropped, not a bomb remained in the entire force. At 2,040 nautical miles, it was the longest mission the crew had flown. Sweden was visible from altitude.

Hannover-HanomagAFV/V

On March 17th the crew returned to Hannover, targeting the tank and locomotive works. The day was perfectly clear and they were the first group in. Partway down the bomb run something struck the aircraft and lifted it clean out of position. The shell bursts were the largest the pilot had ever seen, some visible to the naked eye before they detonated. Most flak came from above; these guns were firing from 5,000 feet below. Their own aircraft took no battle damage. The groups behind them caught the worst of it. Bombing results were assessed as very good.

MunsterM/Y

The March 23rd mission went to Münster, one of the most heavily defended flak towns in Germany. The crew was flying deputy lead of the group. In the lead ship was Major Biggers, recently promoted and appointed commanding officer. On the bomb run the lead ship blew apart. The largest pieces the pilot could make out were an outboard wing panel burning as it fell, a wheel, and one engine. The pilot had carried a deep animosity toward Biggers since the difficult weeks following Pete Scott's death. Watching the lead ship go down, he made a decision. He would not allow himself to hate anyone again. The weight of it, he felt, was too much to carry. Their own aircraft came through without damage. Bombing results were recorded as perfect.

Wesendorf A/FA/F

The 33rd mission on April 4th targeted an airfield at Pachen. No flak, but jet fighters found them again. Two hundred were reported in the area. The attack lasted roughly 40 minutes. Lee in the nose and Thorstenson in the top turret were firing throughout, the whole aircraft shaking when the fighters closed in. Lee hit one. No damage to the aircraft, all crew safe. Two men on the crew finished their tours that day.

DuneburgO/R

The 34th mission on April 7th went back to an oil refinery southeast of Hamburg, twelve miles out. The familiar anxiety returned the moment the map curtain came back. When the pilot inspected the assigned aircraft before takeoff he found that some previous crew had lined the pilot's seat and back with several layers of flak vests. He hadn't seen that done before and left them as they were. Everything went smoothly until the IP, where fighters jumped the formation. They broke off when the 88s opened up over the target. The bombs went down, and the fighters came back as soon as the formation cleared the flak. Thorstenson shot down an ME-109. Conway then called out two P-51s at two o'clock high, moving to eleven o'clock. When the second of the pair turned its nose toward the squadron, Conway recognized it as German and opened fire. The aircraft went below them, rolled over, and the pilot bailed out. With 450 jets reported in the area, and both enemy aircraft having approached from behind American planes, no one else in the squadron had fired on them. Near the end of the running fight, a fighter cannon shell came through the armor plate beside the pilot's seat, angled back, and exploded. The blast shredded the flak curtain and broke the pilot's seat belt. A piece lodged in the co-pilot Doug Schetter's left knee and drove toward his hip. The radio operator Eck was also wounded. The pilot looked at his seat after they parked. The flak vests were chewed to pieces. A distress message got through and they were given plenty of runway. Schetter and Eck were taken to the hospital. Two more gunners finished their tours that day, having volunteered for extra flights earlier. Thorstenson later received an Oak Leaf Cluster to his Air Medal for the engagement.