Mission No. 22
Date – November 4, 1944
Assigned Target – Oil Refinery, Hamburg, Germany
Target Attacked – As briefed
Results – Unobserved (Path Finder Fortress)
Aircraft Number – 8044-X (Path Finder Fortress)
Bomb Load – 12 500 lb. General Purpose
Position in Formation – Wing Lead
Time – 7 hrs. 20 min.
Altitude over Target – 27,000'
Casualties – None
Damage – Minor flak damage (tail section)
Losses – None
Loading List
C.A. – Capt. Frazier, Willis E.
Pilot – Capt. Arlin, A. A.
Nav. – Capt. Pickett, Paul E.
Nav. – 2nd Lt. McIntyre, Ralph H.
Mickey – 2nd Lt. Meyers, Thomas E.
Bomb. – 1st Lt. Baxter, M. V.
Eng. – T/Sgt. Chmielewski, R. J.
Radio – T/Sgt. Ruff, C. F.
W. G. – S/Sgt. Carter, C. M.
W. G. – S/Sgt. Wilson, W. C.
Tail – S/Sgt. Hoffman, A. W.
Editor's Note: The official 398th target for November 4, 1944 was Harburg, Germany, about 10 miles south of Hamburg. Perhaps Captain Arlin just used the name of the larger city for his diary.
Mission No. 22
November 4, 1944
Twice before in the last few days we have been briefed for this target, but both times it was scrubbed due to weather. Each time, the scrub was good news because from experience, we know just how rough Hamburg usually is. They sure have a lot of flak guns over there, and they know how to use them.
The briefing, take-off and assembly went pretty much as usual. We assembled at Debden at 13,000' and made the Division formation without any trouble. We departed the English coast just north of the Wash and started our climb out over the North Sea.
After crossing the sea, we entered the enemy coast south of the Elbe River mouth through a narrow corridor between the flak areas. The corridor is so narrow, and there were so many wings trying to get through at the same time, that there was quite a bit of bunching up and running over one another. Some of the groups were forced to get off to one side or the other, and were unfortunate enough to pick up quite a bit of flak. All of the Eighth Air Force was trying to get through this same corridor at about the same time.
We were forced to ride high over the “A” wing ahead of us, so we lost our interval. The “A” wing was jammed against the wing ahead of them, and so on. After we had flown south to our I.P. in this manner, it was necessary for us to go quite a ways south of the I.P. to get enough interval to bomb. We came in on our run flying straight and level, waiting for the flak to bust loose.
Due to the number of groups coming [into] the same area from all different directions, and the sky being so filled with chaff, it was quite a rough day for Jerry. He didn’t know where to shoot to hit anyone. The sky was completely covered so he had to depend entirely on radar. It must have been awfully confusing for him because he never did do any really effective shooting in our direction. Some of the wings ahead of us caught it pretty bad, but by the time we got in there, Jerry was throwing flak everywhere as sort of a hopeless gesture. We dropped our bombs and got out of there post haste with a small amount of battle damage considering the number of guns there were below us.
The same condition existed coming back out of that corridor between the flak areas, but we got out without any trouble, [and without] running over any flak. The trip back was awfully slow due to a terrific headwind, and some bad weather that we had to stay above. We made the field without anything happening, and the weather was good enough here to bring the formation in and make a normal landing. Once more, what looked like a rough one to start with turned out to be a milk run, and again all of our ships returned.
