World War II Experience
By Lloyd M. Sundheim, Navigator, 603rd Squadron
I received my Navigator Wings and Commission as a Second Lieutenant on Dec. 4, 1943 after completing the prescribed course as an Aviation Cadet at San Marcos, Texas. I was then assigned to the 398th Bomb Group at the Rapid City, SD B-17 Air Base. Bomber crews consisting of Pilot, Co-pilot, Navigator, Bombardier, Engineer, Radioman, Tail Gunner, Waist Gunner, and Turret Gunner were formulated. (See page 2 in "Remembrances" [by Allen Ostrom] for Locations of All Crew Members on Plane.)
After about 3.5 months of training, we went to a "Staging Area" at Grand Island, NE. We left there with our own assigned B-17 in mid-April via Labrador flying the Atlantic past Newfoundland and Greenland, landing at Iceland where we stayed for two days. We then left and arrived in England via Scotland. The total flying time was about 30 hours in six to seven days. Our airfield was located about 30 miles north of London next to the small village of Nuthampstead. We lived in metal huts.
England, at the time, was being plagued with "Buzz Bombs" which were launched by the Germans in Europe. These bombs had a whistling type of sound as they went overhead. When the whistling stopped was the time to get nervous as you would have no idea where it was going to hit. Luckily, no-one from our base was ever killed or injured from them though one landed on the edge of our field. In London and suburbs much damage was done.
Life at the base was comfortable with good food compared to other combat areas. The plus for a flying job was the comfort of food and lodging at night. Recreation areas were provided. There was a lot of card playing in the evenings. A few sight- seeing trips to London included the play "Arsenic and Old Lace."
Our first mission on arrival in England was on May 11 to Bettenbourg, Luxembourg. Our bombing targets usually consisted of fuel storage places, munitions factories, chemical plants, and industry associated with such items. In the early part of the war, the Germans had many fighter planes that would attack our bombers. Our own fighter planes would accompany our bomber groups part of the way to help protect them. As the war progressed, the number of enemy fighter planes decreased. Instead, the enemy concentrated on ground-based anti-aircraft flak guns. Radar was used to determine the altitude of our bombers and the shells filled with jagged pieces of steel were programmed to explode at our level. When these would explode it sounded like "hail on a tin roof."
Many planes and lives were lost from flak. Measures were developed whereby the radar of the German flak crews was adversely affected to reduce their accuracy. Dropping of "chaff" consisting of strips of metal foil would cut to half the radar wave length. Active radio jamming also reduced the accuracy of flak guns. Our military intelligence would give us maps before each mission that would show where we could expect to get hit by flak. However, sometimes these large guns would be mounted on railroad cars enabling them to change location.
I was on 28 combat missions. Twelve were to Germany, thirteen to France, one to Poland, one to Holland, and one to Luxembourg. We were flying about twice as many missions per month during this period leading up to D-Day as well as after D-Day. Prior to each mission all crews participating would meet in a large briefing room close to midnight.
There we would be briefed on the pending mission and given instructions. Each crew would then go to their respective planes. Everyone wore a parachute and flak protective apron as needed. The planes would all be started and warmed up. At the designated time each plane would taxi out and take off in a pre-planned scheduled order. Once proper altitude was reached, strict formation rules were observed to avoid accidents. Depending upon weather, cloud coverage, etc., the bombing altitude was usually 8,000 to 30,000 feet. Approximately 3 tons of bombs would be carried. The point at which a bomb run would begin was usually determined in advance and called the I.P. [Initial Point]. All bombers would turn their plane at that point to a definite compass-heading which would lead directly to the target. The bombardier in the lead plane had control from this point because he would be dropping the bombs. The bombardiers in the other planes would drop theirs simultaneously.
On our return from a mission we were immediately interviewed by Intelligence after giving us a jigger of whiskey or can of soda pop. I would report anything we might have seen while on our mission that would be of value to Intelligence such as suspicious new munitions factories, fuel storage, flak gun sites, etc. for possible future targets. Missing planes, disabled planes, falling planes, parachutes seen, approximate locations also were reported.
Beginning in late May 1944 we flew many consecutive missions to France in a "softening-up" process preparing for the D-Day invasion of France. Though these were shorter missions due to the close proximity of our base in England they were more dangerous at a lower altitude because of increased accuracy of the anti-aircraft guns.
When we had completed about one-half of our missions we were given a Rest and Recreation (R&R) leave of seven days with transportation to Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland.
The most exciting and frightening mission I had was to Posen, Poland on May 29, 1944. We had dropped our bombs and were on our way back to the base. We were quite relaxed and lowered our altitude near the Brussels, Belgium area since maps showed no evidence of anti-aircraft guns along this route. All at once we were getting hit with flak from anti-aircraft guns. Soon a red fluid was coming down on my navigation desk from above in the pilots’ area. At first I thought the pilot had been injured. It turned out that this was red hydraulic brake fluid and the lines had been shot out. However, this was serious enough because he needed brakes to safely land when we got back to England. The engineer with the cooperation of the other crew members contributed urine in our steel helmets to solve the problem of restoring fluid for the brake line. We had to fly around for about an extra hour during the repair with some fear of running out of gas. We landed okay with only a little sideways skid. However, inspection of our plane revealed 200 to 300 holes made by the flak. A hole was made in the nose area just missing my foot. We all felt extremely fortunate on escaping without injury. I think our faith in the "Almighty" got us through this. Planes coming back from a mission would shoot a red flare if there were injured men needing prompt medical attention.
My last mission was on Sept. 17, 1944. The performance record of the group included the dropping of nearly 16,000 tons of bombs on German and occupied territory. They engaged in close support of ground troops in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. The group lost 70 aircraft in combat plus 50 more abandoned after forced landings. On the human side 296 flying personnel were killed in action, 298 became prisoners of war, 8 rescued at sea, 44 liberated by allied troops and 8 sustained combat wounds.
On Oct. 26, 1944 I left via the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner for a 5-day ocean trip to Boston, MA and then by train to my home in South Dakota.
See also:
Lloyd's grandson Scott wrote: "The photo I have [above] is Grandpa (with Grandma) in uniform as Staff Sergeant, so earlier in the war (He was drafted in summer 1940, I believe). He has an 8th Air Force patch, but this must be before becoming 2nd Lt. then 1st Lt. during 1944." |
Personal History Information
- Veteran: Lloyd M. Sundheim
- Navigator, 603rd Squadron
- Date of Personal History: Unknown
- Author: Lloyd M. Sundheim
- Submitted to 398th Web Pages by: Scott Sundheim, Lloyd’s grandson