12 and 13 - Bizerte, Tunisia 16 MAR and 18 MAR 1943

Fighters report seeing a B-24 going down in flames about 75-90 miles short of the target area. Only eight chutes were reported in the area of the downed aircraft. Fighter pilots reported seeing three enemy aircraft fall to this bomber before she bought it.
Various P47 fighter pilot reports.

BRASS DIAMOND (Bingham crew)

Pilot Tom Obrian nervously tugged at his silk scarf for luck as he pushed the throttles forward and raced down the runway. At the point of Maximum Lift, he pulled back on the yoke with the help of the Co-Pilot Pat Kelly, while Engineer Tony Garcia kept an eye on the engine gages. "Airborne" Wheels up and turning to form up and tuck in to the "tail end" position.

Because of the accordion effect of the planes jocking to keep formation tight, the tail plane has to work at not being thrown about by the prop wash puts a constant strain on both engines and flight deck crew.

In Zone 2, Light Flak is encountered without result. A lone Me 109 screams in to the attack from 6:00 High. Defensive Fighter cover fails to drive him off. One enemy shell finds it's way to the pilots compartment rendering the Aileron controls useless. A second shell destroys the Starboard Flap. Nothing that would warrant turning back. The crew is determined to make good on their first mission.

Entering Zone 3, Light Flak continues to dog the formation. Keeping up is proving to be hard work.

Flak continues to burst around the plane to no effect. Two waves of enemy fighters circle in to the attack. The first wave, FW 190 12:00 Level is driven off by friendly's. FW 190 1:30 High fails to achieve any hits as it makes its pass. Luck holds when a FW 190 12:00 High is unable to hit the Brass Diamond. The Final attack of the first wave, Me 109 6:00 High is driven off by the Fighter escort. Subsequent attacks of the first wave FW 190 driving in from 1:30 level is driven off. FW 190 at 3:00 Level fires it guns without effect. Wave Two: Me 109 12:00 High is driven off.

Me 109 12:00 Level is driven off. Me 109 12:00 Low is driven off, Thank heaven for the escort. Me 109 in a suicidal Vertical dive loses his nerve at the last second and is unable to find his mark.

again the tail position draws another Me 109 in from 6:00 High. The Top turret gunner effects a minor hit on the enemy who continues to attack.

The Tail gunner takes aim and knocks the fighter out of the sky. Subsequent attack by a lone Me 109 from 1:00 Level is driven off.

Entering Zone 4, Light Flak pesky that it is, fails to do any damage. Two waves of Fighters circle the rear of the formation and drive in one at a time. Wave one, Me 109 6:00 High is hit by the Top Turret gunner but continues on until the Tail gunner again scores a victory and it trails bits and pieces of metal while it plummets to the ground. Me 109 from 1:30 Low is driven off by fighter escort. Wave Two Me 109 6:00 High and Me 109 12:00 High, Both Driven off by fighters. Me 109 6:00 High is damaged by the tail gunner tail gunner but continues its attack without effect.

Entering Zone 5, the crew is breathing hard and frantic to keep the flak and fighters off their backs. A flak hit bursts just behind the tail without effect. A second flak hit destroys the Starboard waist gun tearing it from its mount causing it to fall out of the waist.

In a concentrated effort to stem the flow of bombers over the target, Three waves of enemy fighters converge. Wave one, Me 109 6:00 High is driven off. FW 190 from 6:00 low makes a deadly pass with 7 hits across the belly of the plane from nose to tail. Shell 1 hits the nose breaking the glass and destroying the bombsight without a scratch to Navigator or Bombardier.

Shell 2 and 3 have no effect as they perforate the floor of the pilots flight deck.

Shell #4 scores a direct hit in the bomb bay shredding the bomb doors and a second later detonating the entire bomb load.

In a blinding flash of light and high explosives, what was once a receptacle of the hopes and dreams of nine men became an angry cloud of metal and flesh scattered over the enemy port.

REICH BUSTER (Williams crew)

Take off and rendezvous went good. But that was about all that did. Shortly after we headed East (Zone 2b) we were attacked by four 109’s. Only one landed any hits, but that was all that was needed. He hit the front real hard taking out our Bombardiers equipment. Lieut. Monteiro assured me he could eye ball the drop from this altitude and that we should continue onto the target. This we did. Even though the Jerry pressed his attack, there was no further damage from him.

About three hundred miles out (Zone 3a) two waves jumped us. The first was five Me 109’s making mostly frontal attacks with on dropping straight down on us and the last one from the rear. Our little friends took out the 6 O’clock fighter and Sgt. Howie getting a probable (FBOA-2) on the 12 O’clock low fighter. The last three only did superficial damage to the port wing, with one missing out right. Later we found out that our port brake was out most likely from this attack. When these two enemy fighters came back for more Lieut. Monteiro & Sgt. Moye absolutely obliterated one with four .50 cals breath of death. Once they were done with Jerry there was nothing left to fly through. This definitely scared off the other fighter as he broke hard as he attempted to shoot at us. The only two enemy fighters of the second wave were driven of by our fighters. These boys saved us from certain death all day long. Without their help we wouldn’t be here right now. We did encounter some light and inaccurate flak at this point of the trip.

Our wing mates chased any waves that attempted to come within reach of us for the next 100 miles with out incident to us.

At around 500 miles out we again encountered two Me 109’s. Our little friends chased them away one more time.

600 mile out (Zone 4b) two waves came in quick. The first wave was four Me 109’s from all around. Our boys couldn’t get a good shot on these speeding fighters and neither could they get us. All in all we took superficial damage and one was driven off by our fighters. We do believe the one that hit us was an ace from his tail markings. The second wave of four Me 109’s came in on the first tail from the same directions. This was their mistake as our gunners were ready this time. Sgt Moye shot of the wing of one coming in from 3 O’clock level and Sgt. Howie flamed the 6 O’clock high fighter and Lieut. Slayer and I can confirm that this fighter exploded after it passed us. Once again our little friends chased off one enemy fighter leaving only one to attack us. With all the lead and aircraft parts flying around his shot went wide and he decided to go on to other elements of our group. We were still encountering flak, but nothing got close enough to cause damage.

Entering the target area all hell broke loose. For the next 200 miles we saw no fewer than 39 fighters. On the way in (Zone 5a & b) we were hit by six waves of fighters. The just raised havoc with the crews nerves. But I am extremely proud of these guys, they never wavered and racked more damage than we took. First wave was five 109’s that both Sgt Moye and Sgt Howie bagged one. One was shot down by our little friends. The enemy fighter coming in from 12 O’clock level just nicked us with superficial damage. One dropping in a vertical dive walked his shots down the length of our fuselage. Taking out our radio and rendering our bomb bay doors inoperable.

The second wave of a FW 190 and one Me 109 were driven off by our little friends. The third wave came with four Me 109’s. Our little friends took two out and this knocked off the other twos attacks. They missed, leaving for other ships.

The fourth and fifth waves were ineffective doing no damage to our ship. But the sixth wave hit our number three engine. Of the five Me 109’s two were chased of by our escorts. A third was hit hard by Lieut. Monteiro sending him off smoking profusely. The last two were the ones that took out the engine. Unable to drop our bombs and down an engine we started to fall farther and farther back.

Flak was light but we did take one hit to the tail, rendering Sgt. Heron’s guns inoperative.

Thank God for our little friends as they kept most of the enemy fighters at bay. In Zone 5 one Me 109 hit us from nose to tail killing Sgt. Craddock and seriously wounding Lieut. Vining. In this zone Lieut. Monteiro and Sgt Moye destroyed a Me 109 each. As Sgt. Heron’s guns were out he moved forward to fill in for Lieut. Vining.

Zone 4 saw more enemy fighters and more help from our little friends. Mostly superficial damage from those fighters that did get in. Sgt Moye was able to add another notch in his .50 Cal handles. Towards the end of the zone one Me 109 peppered our number one engine taking it out and our progress home was slowed down to half. We left this zone with Sgt. Howie and Sgt Alba sharing a kill on a Me 109.

Zone three was quite to start, but heated up at the end. We were attacked by four 109’s lightly wounding Sgt. Heron along with other superficial damage. Sgt. Moye got his fith and final kill over one of these Me. 109’s.

The rest of the trip was left to our long trek home, seeing no more fighters was a blessing. Our landing went well considering the amount of damage we had taken.

I am saddened to inform you that Lieut. Vining did not survive his wounds. Bomb run, unable to drop

89 Enemy fighters encountered, 12 destroyed, 7 probable, 3 damaged and 29 driven off by our fighters

Respectfully,

1st Lt. Marvin Williams

FLYING BUFFALO II (Loomis crew)

We were barely off the ground and the 207th was already down a plane when Lt. Liam O'Neil in the Aces High failed to form up. I hope his crew didn't crash on take-off.

We had a relatively easy journey to the target only facing light opposition and accompanied by good fighter coverage. We were shot at by light caliber flak guns the entire time we were flying over Tunisia. Luckily, the enemy flak gunners were inaccurate.

Halfway into Tunisia, Sgt. Crawford in the tail, shot down an ME-110. Nearing the target zone, we saw our right wingman, Lt. Erik Langtot and his plane going down in flames. My crew counted 8 chutes. With Langtot's The Mystery Lady gone, we were the entire second flight and the new Tail-End Charlie.

Just before the bomb run, an FW attack caused superficial damage in the nose section, giving Lts. Stackpole and Norendale a scare. In spite of the whizzing bullets and flak shrapnel, Lt. Stackpole remained cool under the pressure and he made a good run on the port facilities.

Leaving the target zone, Sgt. Riseden, the tunnel gunner, shot down a ME-110. About the area where Lt. Langtot and his crew went down, is where we were attacked by 4 ME-109s. This attack damaged the starboard wing root and put holes in the starboard wing, fuselage and bomb bay area. In return, Sgt. Crawford shot down one of the 109s.

At the halfway point going home, another large wave of 109s attacked. They put more holes into our fuselage while Sgt. Crawford and MSgt. Gaydos each shot down 1 ME-109 apiece. After this attack, one more minor attack by a single ME-109 diving down from above. Everyone failed to see this fighter but luckily for us he failed to cause any damage and he was gone before we could fire back at him.

Our landing was a little dusty but smooth as silk.
Capt. Rick Loomis

TWIN TAIL (Libby crew)

Boy is the Old Man mad. We blew the take-off on our first mission to Bizerte. The starboard landing gear clipped a lorry that was parked near the end of the runway, flipping it over. Vic & I were able to regain control and bring our bird back down pretty hard. Nobody was hurt, but we were out of the fight this day. Thank god it was not a petrol truck...

TERRI G II (Gerber crew)
Zone 2 out 190 driven off by Little Friends

Zone 3 out two 190's driven off by Fighters

Zone 4 Out Took a flack hit in the bomb bay. Our rubber rafts got holed. A 190 at 12 High was driven off.

Zone 5 Out over the target Our boys in the fighters earned their pay well only 1 fighter got near us all the way in. a 110 came at us from 6 low. Dave winged it w/ his tail guns and it broke off attacking after it fired an ineffective burst.

Flack peppered us some. our Port rudder and wing root each took a hit as did our instruments. We no longer were going to be able to feather our props if there was a runaway. In the tail Dave's Oxygen supply was hit. Thank goodness we were already low.

John managed to put about a third of our eggs in the basket. We all were a bit disappointed about that.

On the way out Flack popped us again. It put a small hole in our port wing and a couple in the body of the plane and Dave Williams got a light wound on his right calf. He wrapped it and kept on fighting.

Zone 5 back Fighters drive off 190's and a 110

Zone 4 back Flak holed us some more putting a hole in our nose and port vertical stabilizer and removing our port rudder completely. Dave was surprised to see it fly off. Max jumped when a hole appeared beside his left waist window. Fighters drove off a few 190's

Zone 3 back fighters drove off a 110

No more enemy were encountered. We landed safely.

Submitted 1LT Jeffrey Gerber

BOBBI JO'S BOYS (Poulos crew)
Was pretty concerned about the altitude of this raid. Even more concerned as our 6 plane element became 4. I hope mystery lady 2 crew is ok. Thank goodness for our fighter boys. Zone 2 they drove off a 109 and a 190 Zone 3 they drove off 2 110's Robby in the tail nailed another 110 and a 109 missed from 12 H Zone 4 Robby killed a 190 and the fighters drove off a 109 at 12 H Target Zone we were swamped with Germans. about 18 109's came at us in 4 waves and a wave of three 110's. fighters drove off some. Top turret got two109's . Bombardier got one 109 and nose and tail shared a kill of a 109. In the meantime 109's managed to bend a fin on a bomb and hole the bomb bay doors and put several holes in the waist and the port wing. They also knocked out number 2 engine which we were able to feather. Flak put a hole in our nose, lightly wounded our waist gunner in his upper right arm, hit our starboard rudder and gave the starboard wing root a hit. Through it all we managed to put a third of our bombs on target. Coming off target flack put another hole in our waist section. Fighters drove off some 109's No other fighters or flack affected this aircraft on the way back home. Our boys want to buy rounds for our little friends. Landing was smooth as could be on 3 engines.
Submitted Maj. Poulos

SATAN'S LITTLE SISTER (Defilippo crew)
We formed up and had an uneventful flight to the target. Before reaching the IP we were attacked by a ME110 coming in from 6 o'clock low. Jerry only made one pass due to the heavy fire by Sgt Alfaro and Sgt Riffle. We received hits to port elevator, starboard rudder and Sgt Atkinson suffered a minor wound to the right shoulder. We managed to drop 30% of our bomb load in the target area. During our return flight we encountered no enemy fighters and flak was ineffective.

BATTLEWAGON (Hughes crew)
Talk about a milk run. For once we brought the Battlewagon home only nicked up. The crew chief offered to buy the rounds tonight. Of course, we still have the night side of this mission to do.
CPT Joe Hughes
Pilot, Battlewagon

COALBURG EXPRESS (Nickerson crew)
Serious damage all over the aircraft and pilot elected to abort after zone 4. Bombs were jettisoned. Co-pilot was seriously wounded and will be sent home. Engineer was lightly wounded. Engineer shot down a 190 and the navigator got a 109. Plane landed safely. 218 damage points.

BARNEY's BOAT (Lownders crew)
Took over lead plane duties after zone 4 all the way home. Dropped 40% on target. Tunnel gunner shot down a 109 as did the waist gunner and the tail gunner. Tail gunner was severely wounded and died of his wounds at the hospital. Plane landed safely. 107 damage points sustained to aircraft.

SUPPER TIME (Gordon crew)
Dropped 30% on target. We damaged 6 enemy planes but didn't shoot down any. Plane landed safely with 60 damage points.

OUR MAVEN (Twomley crew)
Dropped 94% on target. Knocked out of formation homebound right after the bomb run. Co-pilot was severely wounded and will be sent home. Both waist gunner and tunnel gunner was lightly wounded. The waist gunner shot down 2-190s and we damaged 8 more enemy aircraft. Plane landed safely with 256 points of damage.

JERSEY BOUNCE (Wiggins crew)
Due to damage we missed the target. Tail gunner was lightly wounded and the radio operator was severely wounded. The radio operator died of his wounds at the hospital. Tail gunner shot down a 109. We damaged 5 more enemy aircraft. Plane landed safely with 195 points of damage.

SLEEPY TIME? (Brown crew)
On target with 30% of our bombs. Engineer shot down a 190. We damaged 3 other enemy airplanes. Tail gunner was killed during the mission. Plane landed safely with 69 damage points.

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Mission 13 - Bizerte, Tunisia (night)

REICH BUSTER (Williams crew)

Not much to talk about, takeoff and forming up went well. Didn’t see any enemy aircraft till we made the target zone. Formation got sloppy, leaving us open for jerry to attack. Three Me 110’s approached from the 10 O’clock direction, but two were chased off by our escorts. Once again God bless those boys. This third 110 was nicked by TSgt. Moye encouraging him to miss and leave for home..

We did encounter light flack on the way in but was very inaccurate. We had good conditions for bombing and Lieut. Monteiro made up for the other day and placed 40% of our eggs on target.

Coming out of the target we were jumped by four Me 110’s, and again the P47’s were right there. They got three of them, leaving only one for our boys. Unfortunately it is hard to hit 200+ mile an hour fighters at night. Being a bigger target this German did hit the tail, doing some damage to the starboard rudder root.

The squadron tightened up and that was the last we saw of the German fighters. Back at the base our landing went by the book.

Bomb run, 40%on target.

10 Enemy fighters encountered, 0 destroyed, 0 probable, 1 damaged and 7 driven off by our fighters

Respectfully,

1st Lt. Marvin Williams

DIXIE JEAN (Jefferson crew)

For our first mission it went great. We snuck in under the cover of dark and snuck out the same way. We saw seven German Messerschmitt 110’s. The escort, P47’s, drove off five of them and our boys took out one. Boy those fighters make a bright flash when they blow. Lieut. Taft and Sgt. Garfield both combined their shots to down one Me. 110.

Flak was light over the target and very inaccurate. Lieut. Taft may have been a little too excited about his kill as he dropped our load off target. We will have him go to the practice range on his off time.

No enemy fighters were encountered on the way home. We made it back with no damaged and landed without incident. Bomb run, 0% off target.

7 Enemy fighters encountered, 1 destroyed, 0 probable, 0 damaged and 5 driven off by our fighters

Respectfully,

1st Lt. Thomas Jefferson

FLYING BUFFALO II (Loomis crew)

A night mission?? The crew wasn't trained for night missions but we'd do our best. I wasn't placing too much hope in everyone staying in squadron formation throughout the mission. At worst according to the briefing, each crew if they became separated or lost from the main formation was to proceed to the primary target independently or find some other target of opportunity.

All-in-all, this turned out to be a pretty smooth mission. We encounter no enemy fighters all the way to the target area where, because of the darkness and lack of night training, according to our bombardier, Lt. Stackpole, our bombs fell 'God knows where.'

With the city now lit up from exploding bombs, from ours and the others from the group, we avoided the searchlights and made our way homeward through the flak tracers climbing upward. As we raced away from the harbor area, we were pounced upon by 3 ME-110s attacking from head-on. Lt. Stackpole and Sgt. West each claimed one apiece while the third one put some minor holes in our port wing and fuselage. As he attempted to circle around for another pass, MSgt. Gaydos nailed him and sent him burning all the way down until it exploded when it hit the ground. There would be only one more unsuccessful enemy attack and Sgt. Crawford, the tail gunner, sent him home smoking with only one good engine operational.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful and unexciting, just the way me and my crew like it.
-CPT Loomis

TWIN TAIL (Libby crew)

I am surprised the Old Man let us fly, but I guess he figures that having to pull Tail-end Charlie duty was punishment enough. Take-off was uneventful this time and we formed up with the rest of 221st, taking our position to the rear. The flight out to Bizerte was uneventful for us, but we could see flashes of lights where other B-24s and our night fighters were engaging the enemy aircraft.

Things began to heat up as we approached Bizerte. Several waves of ME-110s began to attack us. The escort fighters and our own defensive fire manage to fend off most of them. George in the tail managed to bag a 110 that was coming in from 6 O'Clock High. Another ME-110 came in at 1:30 high and set our #4 engine on fire. Luckily, we were able to extinguish it. It wasn't until the crew had settle down from this that we noticed that Johnny, our engineer, had taken a gut wound and lay dead at his post.

I ordered Radioman Floyd to take over the top turret position and we settled in for our approach to target. Flak over Bizerte was pretty light and we were not shaken around much. When he released the bombs, our bombardier, Lt Malek yelled "For Johnny you Nazi bastards!". Maybe his battle cry helped, because it looked like our bombs were pretty much on target.

As we turned for home another wave of 110s came at us. Again George took one out that was coming in at 6 O'Clock low. After this things pretty much settled down for us. We saw no more enemy aircraft and out flight back to base was uneventful. Myself and the crew are pretty shaken up over Johnny. I can only hope we can pull it together for the next run. The rumor mill is buzzing with word of us flying a mission into Romania. Most of the boys couldn't find that on a map...

TERRI G II (Libby crew)

A Night Mission and we get selected to lead. I am being ribbed about all the carrots I have been eating the past 2 days.

Take off was a lil scary. We were hoping to see fires from the 228th to help us find the target.

No night fighters were encountered on the way to the target.

Over the target several 110's were encountered. Some how Andrew in the top turret managed to saw the wing off one! But it's buddy enacted revenge taking out number one and killing Roger my co-pilot. He missed on his subsequent pass. Flack missed us completely.

By the light of some fires made by the 228th John managed to put about 60% of his bombs where they were most needed!

Three 110's attacked us on the way out of the target area. They holed our nose and waist and right wing but all seemingly w/o any effect other than the annoying whistling noise. Two missed on their subsequent pass and one riddled our empty bomb bay and destroyed the bombsight.

On his third attack Andrew nailed him in the top turret and sent him spinning down on fire.

No other fighters were encountered on the way home and we landed sad at Roger's death.

Submitted 1 LT Jeffrey Gerber

BOBBI JO'S BOYS (Poulos crew)
Take off was just before dawn. We were hoping the Nazis were going to be shagged out from going after the other three groups all night long. The first enemy planes were seen just before the target zone. Our top turret damaged two 110s pretty bad and threw off their aim. Over the target, Robby downed a 110 coming in at 6. Fighters drove off a couple more. Flack put a few holes in our starboard wing. We managed to look through the smoke and fires of the previous squadrons and put about 1/2 our bombs on target. On the way out Our fighters drove away a couple more 110s. No other enemy were encountered on the way back to base.
Submitted Maj. Poulos.

SECRET AGENT (Everhart crew)
The first fighters appeared 100 miles out from the Tunisan border and they were with us all the way from there until we had bombed and left us when we reached the border on the way back. Several attacks from 1.30 and vertical climbs. Almost all of the fighters that fired at us hit and came around once or twice again. We were lucky in that they didn't hit any vital systems. All they did was making a swiss cheese out of the Secret Agent. Unfortunately they hit LT Everhart in the chest. Sgt Garland got three of them though! Lucky gunner on his first mission? Nooo, I don't think so, he's got it in him!
Lt Lewellen, Co-Pilot.

BATTLEWAGON (Hughes crew)
"Hopefully the night missions will be safer for everyone involved."

Another mission bringing her in all shot up, but at least we only had one wounded (Phillips). Doc says he'll be fine.

We were attacked six times in the target area, but somehow, in all the confusion (and there was a *ton* of that), Barrett found the target. Steel Rain II said we hit the docks, but I'll be damned if I could see it. All those Jerry's out there and the boys couldn't hit them. We need a *lot* more training at this night stuff.

Maybe we'll stand down a little now. Rumors keep circulating, though, about some big mission coming up. God help us.
CPT Joe Hughes Pilot, Battlewagon

SATAN'S LITTLE SISTER (DeFilippo crew)
This was an uneventful mission until we reached the target area. We were attacked by three ME110s. Our escorts drove two off and we damaged the last one. The ME110 managed to cause superficial damage to the tail, a starboard rudder hit, the port elevator was knocked out and Sgt Atkinson suffered a minor wound to the left leg. According to the Doc he will be returning to duty soon. According to Lt Willson 30% of our bombs fell in the target area. Our return trip home was uneventful.
1Lt Art DeFilippo
221 Bombardment Squadron (H)

OUR MAVEN (Twomley crew)
Easy mission. 20% on target. No damage to the plane.

JERSEY BOUNCE (Wiggins crew)
Easy enough mission. 30% on target. Minor damage to plane. Everything ok.

SLEEPY TIME (Brown crew)
We damaged one enemy aircraft and dropped 60% on target. Sustained 38 points of damage to plane.

COALBURG EXPRESS (Nickerson crew)
On target 30%. No damage to plane or crew.

BARNEY'S BOAT (Lownders crew)
We had to fight the whole way through. We downed 3-110s from our waist, bombardier, and engineer positions. We suffered 158 points of damage and our waist gunner was lightly wounded. But we did put 30% on target anyway.

SUPPER TIME? (Gordon crew)
Minor damage to plane with 41 damage points sustained. We did shoot down 2-110s from the waist and tail. Crew and plane healthly otherwise.

Group Home Base Group Rules	207th Squadron	214th Squadron	221st Squadron	228th Squadron