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Mission No. 7

Date – June 20, 1944

We were briefed to go to Hamburg today. Not knowing Hamburg that wouldn’t mean much, but we had 54 ships over there yesterday and several of them are still over there. Almost every ship that went yesterday was badly shot up. Out of this Squadron, we lost Harry (he just made Captain yesterday), Lt. Halter and his crew, and Lt. Hadjes and his crew. Major Wiebel also went down on this one. The crews that were there yesterday and the papers both agree that the flak was the heaviest ever encountered in the E.T.O. [European Theater of Operations]. Worse than Berlin if that is possible.

When S-2 [Intelligence Section] rolled up the screen at briefing this morning and we could see where we were going, everyone’s face turned almost green and, after an audible gasp, the room became deathly quiet. I still had a bad case of the jitters from that last Berlin deal; when I saw our target for today, I really had them. I [felt as if] I might feel if I had just been sentenced to be shot. I and a couple hundred other officers were feeling pretty grim.

To make it worse, we group leaders were flying alone for the first time. It is a policy for the ship leading the wing and both ships leading the two other groups to have two lead pilots. One does all of the flying and bombing and the other, riding as C.A. [Commander of the Aircraft], takes care of all the radio work. Today, Group showed that they thought something was very likely to happen to us because they didn’t put the second lead pilot in either of the group lead ships. Also, the group leads didn’t get the second Navigator we usually have. They didn’t want to lose two lead pilots or Navigators in the same ship if it went down. It looked pretty rough.

The weather was perfect; we didn’t see a cloud in the sky during the entire mission and the visibility was unrestricted. We made a good assembly at low altitude and headed out across the North Sea. The last part of our route across the sea we climbed up to bombing altitude. By the time we had reached the Continent, at the mouth of the Elbe River, we could see Hamburg. We couldn’t see the city itself, but we could see the huge black cloud above it where the groups already attacking it were under fire.

We crossed the Elbe and continued on east, keeping Hamburg on our right until we reached the I.P. [Intial Point]. Here, I screwed up. We were supposed to go in as a wing, all 56 ships together and all drop on the wing leader. I was leading the Low Group looking out of my side window up at the wing leader, keeping my formation in position with him. The sun was in my eyes and my window had become so frosted that it was impossible for me to see when the Lead Group turned off the I.P. toward the target. All I could do then was swing over and bring my group on in alone and behind them.

As we approached the target, there was the biggest and blackest cloud of flak I have ever seen or want to see again. Approaching it, it seemed like we were approaching a solid wall. Wings going in ahead of us would pass out of sight until they came out the other side. Like Berlin, ships could be seen falling out of the bottom of it, some on fire and some out of control. I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth and got ready to go in.

I turned the ship over to Bax on A.F.C.E. [Automatic Flight Control Equipment] and we started our bomb run. By the time we hit the flak area, we were flying in the chaff of the group ahead and above us, and were taking plenty of evasive action. The flak was really boiling up in huge quantities, a lot of 105 stuff along with the 88. We flew into that target twisting and turning like mad. By the time we reached the target, it was obscured by a smoke screen and the smoke and dust from previous bomb bursts, so Bax picked a target at random and let the bombs go. Then, with much more turning and diving, we squirmed our way out of the flak area. In one piece.

The first thing after leaving the flak area, I checked the crew. They were all O.K. and the ship seemed to be alright. We were not leaking gas and the engines were still running. Then, I called the tail gunner and checked the formation. He said one of our ships had gone down over the target but the rest were in formation. Some had feathered engines but were keeping up O.K. The ship that went down was Hornshuh’s; he was leading the low squadron. He seemed to be under control and wasn’t on fire when he went down.

In a few minutes we were back in wing formation out over the North Sea and heading home. Our fighter escort was good; we had 47s and 38s with us all the way. No Jerries were seen out. It is always comforting to be able to look out and see friendly fighters along with you.

After landing, we crawled out of the ship feeling tired but a lot better than we did when we took off. We checked the ship and found quite a few holes, but none caused more than minor structural damage. Most of the flak went through the ship in places where there wasn’t anything to damage.

At the Interrogation, we went over the strike photos and had a general discussion of the whole mission. It was decided that the trouble I had at the I.P. was the best thing that could have happened to us. The other two groups had hit our briefed target and had destroyed it. As it turned out, the target we hit at random was more important than the briefed target. We destroyed or damaged some oil docks and warehouses, and sank an oil tanker.

Major Daily, who led the wing, got the D.F.C. [Distinguished Flying Cross] for the mission. I got another Citation from General Gross.

Hornshuh landed late with a ship so shot up they had to junk it. He made it back on two engines.