Mission 798

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.