Target for Today...
200th Heavy Bombardment Group (virtual)
8th Air Force
United States Army Air Forces

Group Stats

Mission 2
Kreigsmarine U-Boat pens at Vegesack, GE
17 October 1942
(Mission due 05 May 2004)

FIGHTER COVER EXPECTED

Flight Log Gazetteer

Low Squadron

HIGH ROLLER (Carswell crew)
High Roller was last seen falling out of formation just past the target area due to intense flak. The starboard wing was on fire. Various crews report chutes seen with up to nine at one time. Hopefully all men got out of the stricken plane. It was also reported that High Roller had dropped here bombs before she went down. We are contacting the Red Cross now.
1LT Billingsly, Debriefing officer

BUFFALO GAL (Martin crew)
Buffalo Gal was last seen falling out of formation just before the target area due to intense flak. She was on fire in numerous locations. Various crews report chutes seen with up to seven at one time. She was not able to drop her bombs before she was shot down. It is hoped this crew escaped. We are contacting the Red Cross now.
1LT Billingsly, Debriefing officer

BLOOMERS (Bozeman crew)
When word came down our next mission to was to Vegesack, alot of the boys wrote letters home. Scuttlebutt from the B-17 squadrons that had already been there sure had 'em worried. Especially since the Forts have two more guns in the nose, plus an actual turret downstairs.

From zone 2 into zone 7, we saw five waves. Only four bandits made it through to Bloomers, two attacking from six and two from off the right side of the nose. Luckily the ones attacking from in front were poor shots, because none of our gunners could get a bead on them. The guys from behind missed too. We got damage on two of them.

Flak was heavy, and we could hear stuff pinging off Bloomers hide, but no one saw any more holes in her than we left England with. I feel guilty saying it, but we didn't have a scratch when we dropped our bombs. 2LT Dallas put 40% on target. 190 snuck up on us from 6 Low as we exitted the RP. Our accuracy was still poor, but his wasn't as he walked hits down our fuselage. I couldn't raise anyone on the intercom to find out what other damage might have been done. Response from the tail was a bit sluggish though. The 190 came around for a second pass from 3 Level. We must have missed again, because I could feel Bloomers shuddering from the impact of 20mm's. I could hear MSG Knoxville yell, so I knew he'd been hit, but he ducked out of his turret to give me a thumbs up. The 190 came around for a final pass from 12 Level, so this time I could see for certain we weren't shooting for crap. Bastard blew up the #4 engine, and 2LT Torrance couldn't feather it. Damn good thing the intercom was out, because I was pissed. The fun didn't stop there.

We were still over land, already falling behind the formation when we got jumped by three 110s. Couldn't get hits on the first two, because they both came in from 1:30. The other one must have come up from underneath, because I saw him zip by my window. The two from 1:30 shot up the nose pretty bad. They came back for passes from 1:30 and 3 High. MSG Knoxville let out a Rebel yell when he bagged the one at 3 High; the other missed and dove away, thank God.

Zone 6 we got surrounded by 110s and a 109. I know for certain 2LT Dallas got the 109 in front. Our accuracy was improving -- I hoped it wasn't too late. About that point I started to lose track of things. As we left zone 6, SGT Spicoli showed up on the flight deck to tell me his tail guns had got shot right out his hands. I told him to check on the situation in the nose. A few minutes later he reported back, white as a ghost, only saying "2LT Madison ..." and shaking his head. I sent him to the waist to help out SGT Zanardi. At some point in zone 5 a 190 had a go at us from the rear, ripping us a new one. (Out of character = 9 hits in one pass!) The Germans must have lost interest -- no sport in shooting a wounded duck -- because that was the last we saw of them. Good thing too, because me and 2LT Torrance were having a hard time keeping Bloomers in the air. Landing was solid. I need a drink.

Crew Chief Report: Intercom out; #4 engine total loss; tail guns total loss; damage to port elevator, rudder and empennage; damage to stbd rudder; dozens and dozens of holes in all surface areas; navigator station needs complete rebuild. (282 Peckham Points)

S-1 Addendum: 1LT Bozeman awarded Air Medal. 2LT Onalaska assigned as navigator.

HELLZ-A-POPPIN (O'Conner crew)
Take-off was smoother than it has been in a while, though the adrenaline may have had something to do with that. We formed up over our beacon and headed out over water, scarcely a care in the world. It seemed as if we were on a training flight til we got close to the coast. Radio chatter suggested the Krauts were hitting some of the boys pretty hard, and Chuck Philby in the top turret shouted that a 190 was diving down on top of us. His tracer streaked past us, though, and the 190 was a blur past my window.

Things quietened down again til we hit the target, and a 109 came in at 12 high and put some lead through our starboard aileron. It was pretty banged up, but the Kraut took a packet from Philby's twin guns and dived away smoking.

Flak was pretty heavy, and we took hits against the port aileron - luckily it held up - and a piece about four inches long wedged in the metal under my window. Would've taken my head off! I've got it here as a keep-sake.

We seemed to put a lot of our eggs on target, and saw nothing much on the way back til we hit the coast again. A 190 came at us from 10.30 and Philby blew him apart before he could do anything to us.

Landing was a piece of cake, and the boys are all ok.

Oh, yeah. Silks-a-poppin' looked to be in trouble again. Those poor bastards need tougher fuel tanks! Heard that Dollins was going to put his crate down on an emergency coastal field a few miles away, so all seemed ok. Maybe you should check on him?
1st Lt Murphy "The Murph" O'Conner

BLARNEY STONE (O'Neill crew)
We were all a little apprehensive when we heard the target was Vegesack! Its a long way to fly with little real protection in front. It will be a relieved crew when we finally get our aircraft upgraded. We took a rather scenic tour of southern England while forming up, I heard my navigator muttering over the intercom something about someone not being able to find a piss-up in a brewery. Our lead plane The Flying Buffalo seemed a little lost and it took a few sharp 90 deg turns to put us safely into the box ...... drinks are on you Wally Blunder of the Buffalo!

The outward leg went smoothly! What German fighters did get airborne were chased off by our little friends. Things started hotting up a little over target, the flack was a little thicker than was necessary well in my opinion anyway, don't think it will ever be quite thick enough for the Krauts.

The Krauts damaged my aircraft and put a nice hole in my inboard fuel tank, luckily the leak sealed itself (the crew chief will not be amused). There was much cursing and swearing coming from the nose, seems a splinter from the flack burst wounded my bombardier (got him in the ass), wounded his pride more than anything, guess he wont be "sitting" for a couple of days.

After the flack incident my bombardier was madder than a rattlesnake, a Kraut 109 decided to come in a little close and got a good long burst from the front gun. The 109 broke off and seemed to trail some smoke, we didn't see a chute though.

Well we put 20% of our bombs on target....someone was going to have a bad day in Vegesack!

We Finally got home albeit via Scotland, thanks to Wally Blunders creative navigation.
Lt O'Neill

BAD PENNY (Radee crew)
Well, we drew the lead plane slot. We all hoped we do the squadron proud and bring the group in well so we could hit the target hard. It didn't turn out that way for us. We took off without a hitch and everyone formed up well to start.

As soon as we got over the Channel a group of Germans were waiting on us. 2-109s broke through our air cover and holed us pretty well along the fuselage and tail. Reed in the top guns got a piece of one though to make us even. Sharpe reported immediately that his gun system had failed in the tail. I advised him to move up to the waist with Norman. I didn't like having our tunnel gun out even though it seems very ineffective back there.

Once these guys left us we saw nothing but clear skies and rolling seas beneath us. If we hadn't known we were going into Germany, it would have been a good, easy flight. Jack and Jack tried to get the tunnel gun working again but it just would not cooperate. Thank goodness we get no attention from the bottom for the rest of the mission. I told Weasel God and Bouncing Betty to stay in tight with us and told them about our tunnel gun problem.

We then neared the German coast and we turned hard to starboard for the run. We were met by a couple of fighters, I think a 109 and a 190 at least. They were ineffective as our gunners hammered out fire in all directions.

Then the flak hit. And my God was it furious. I have never seen flak like that and I hope never to see that again. Large bursts were everywhere. Officially, I would call it heavy, large caliber, and accurate! Drolet got a piece of shrapnel in the upper forearm early on I think. We were hit at least 6 times by something. Our port aileron was blown slap off and a huge hole appeared in our starboard wing root right near the main spar. That about knocked us out of formation.  If Weasel God and Bouncing Betty had been as tight as regulation, we would have collided I am sure. Next thing I knew Michael was calling from the tail that his guns were out too. Now our rear and bottom guns were gone. Dang it. Flak was thick as hell everywhere.

Somehow LT Allen got the bombs dropped and we turned for home. Norman in the waist reported seeing High Roller falling thru the formation on our right. He counted at least 6 chutes he said. I hope the rest of those guys got out.

A couple of 109s and a 190 came at us after we cleared the barrage zone and we got at least a 109 and a 190 for their trouble. I saw Jack's kill as the German was coming right at us and he just blew apart with .50cal fire. John got a 109 in his waist position according to him and Norman. He shoots better there than he does with the tunnel gun. Maybe we need to keep him there!

From that point on it seemed to quiet down for us. A couple of 190s and 109s jumped us back over the sea and did a couple of hits but nothing serious was damaged. Once these guys left us, no one bothered us from there back to home. (OOC: I rolled a Bad Luftwaffe communications random event and that event with our fighter cover cleared up German attacks on us from there on home..<GRIN>)

We came in behind Steel Rain as they had wounded on board. With our aileron damage and the overall damage to our ship, I was hoping we could get down in one piece. We hit very hard and actually bounced back in the air before we settled to the ground. Probably was my roughest landing since basic flight school. When we finally stopped LT Allen came back to us and said "Now gentlemen, if you would kindly step from the wreckage of our aircraft after that great landing, I am buying the beer."
LT Radee

STORM RIDER (JHaygood crew)
We took off and flew up to our form up position easily. Everything checked out. We didn't see a single enemy plane that our little friends didnt pick up. Everything was quiet until we got over the target. Flak was heavy. A rather large piece hit the nose section of the plane and damaged the .50cal there. Otherwise they got close and a lot of little pieces hit us here and there but nothing major. Even though the bombardier was rattled with the damage to the nose, he dropped our bombs right on the target. If you see hits, its us.

We damaged a 109 that got through the formation and he left us alone after that. Another 109 later on came from the deck straight up to us. The tunnel guns couldn't bear on the target and he blew the tail guns off. Luckily SGT Proffitt wasn't hurt.

Our fighter cover picked us up on queue and we saw no more enemies from then on. Landing was good.
LT JHaygood

WEASEL GOD (EHaygood crew)
We saw one fighter on the way to the target and a P-47 picked him up. Germans did go after other guys in the group but not us. Pretty flight to the target otherwise.

Over the target area the flak was thick. Our port elevator took a hit and left the plane. More worrisome was when the #2 engine took a chunk of metal and it sputtered and cough but stayed running. We watched our guages heavily after that. The flak messed up our bomb run because of the engine hit and I bet we killed some poor farmers cows is all. The waist reported seeing High Roller falling through the formation. He counted at least 7 chutes.

As we turned for home 3-109s and a 190 pounded on us. We got the 190 and a 109 by some good shooting from SGT Williams and LT Robbins. That helped alot. The other fighters banged us up pretty good. SGT Green took a round in the thigh. It was bloody but I hear nothing too serious. Our tail guns were shot out so SGT Macmillan moved to the other waist position. And to top it off our instrument panel was blasted. Busted gauges everywhere but the #2 engine stuff kept working. It seemed we were living right with that engine.

A 109 came back around at us and hit the flight deck again. More guages gone. Hell they were pecking away at our instruments one by one. But we felt awfully lucky not be be hurt with all that glass and metal flying around in the pilot's compartment. (OOC: rolled the random event Lucky Rabbit's foot)

Friendly fighters picked us up when they were supposed to and it was quiet for the rest of the mission.
LT EHaygood

BOUNCING BETTY (Schneider crew)
Well the reason I didn't radio in was that our radio was shot to bits sir! We almost didn't make it back.We got attacked constantly from the english coast out bound , small numbers of fighters but dangerous .Our Little friends drove most away.

Then we hit the IP (intial point ) for the bomb run and got hammered by multiple head on attack by four or more swarms of Me109's and Focke Wulfes 190's. Our bombardier shot down 2 Fw190's in less than 3 minutes , damn fine work from LT Krasnoploski but they shot up our radio, and gave us some bad scares. Then we saw the flak. How bad? The worst, I have flown observer missions before with the 231st, but this was bad. Box barrages, 88mm, 105 mm, maybe 128 or 138 mm. Heavy, and accurate, we were hit about 10 or 11 times , killed the tail gunner Van Hoven, poor kid. Tore up the tail guns and the rudders, bad hit on the port wing starboard ailerons hit, knocked the heat out for the nose both guys, heat knocked out for the tunnel gunner. Pretty bad. But we hit them sub pens real good .

Coming on round north from thee bomb run we got attacked both from 12 o'clock and low 6'oclock by some pretty damn good pilots that torn us up again and again, blew up our number 1 engine...lots of holes in "Betty" , ripped up Van Hoven body some more. But we got loose of them and managed to limp home in formation. It was my decision not to drop out of formation on account of the crew with no heat as it would jeopardize the ship and rest of the crew. I take full responsibility for the severe wounds of Krasnalopski annd Rossilini who will sent home now due their frost bite injuries. That's all I guess.
Major Schneider

FLYING BUFFALO (Loomis crew)
When the mission cover sheet was removed the entire briefing room went silent - GERMANY! At least the fighter cover would be good to the limit of their range. The Flying Buffalo will be leading the squadron today but not the group. Our navigator, Lt. Wally Blunder, would be thankful for that fact as all he had to do was have the squadron follow the leading 214th.

Take-off was perfect, as we were the first 207th aircraft down the runway. After coming out of the clouds, the squadron formed up and we set out looking for the rest of the group. After few minutes, no group. We took a scenic tour of East Anglia while we searched, with the rest of the squadron faithfully following behind us, all the while keeping good radio silence discipline. Lt. Blunder then requested making a sharp 90-degree turn. After another 5 minutes, the squadron spotted the lower flying 214th and formed up behind them and between the 336th flying in the high squadron.

We experienced only minor fighter action just before our P-38 escorts had to return to England. The escorts took care of one of the jokers but one FW-190 slipped pass them. Luckily, he missed us but Sgt. Steve Crawford didn't, shooting him down as he flew pass the tail.

The Luftwaffe appeared again as the group made the 45-degree turn towards Vegesack. Three ME-110s came at us. The ball gunner, Sgt. Terry Riesden, was manning the starboard waist gun and severely damaged one of them, causing the 110 to miss. Another ME-110 found an opening from 6 low and Sgt. Crawford missed him completely. That one scored two minor superficial hits and damaged the port waist gunner's O2 system.

Flak was scary - the most serious damage was to the bomb controls. The tail took two hits, with the gunner's O2 system hit. Flak also hit the area right behind the flight deck and the starboard wing.

Now having to make a make a manual bomb run, Lt. Mike Stackpole's bomb run was just about textbook perfect as he put close to half of the bombs among the U-boats dockyards.

At the rally point, the fighters returned. Two Fw-190s attacked with only one causing damaged. One his first pass, he wounded Lt. Blunder and Sgt. Crawford. Luckily, both were light wounds. His second pass lightly wounded Lt. Stackpole. But the biggest damage was the hole he put in the starboard outboard fuel tank. It was a slow leak and the Flight Engineer, Sgt. Chuck Gaydos, calculated we would not have enough fuel to land at base but maybe we could still make the English coast. Sgt. Crawford in the tail informed me that Lt. Carswell's High Roller in the second flight was on fire and reported all 9 crewmembers had bailed out.

The rest of the trip across the North Sea was uneventful. The squadron tightened up its formation just as the P-47s rendezvous with the group.

Just before reaching the English coastline, the crew began throwing out everything not bolted down to lighten the plane trying to keep us in the air for a few more miles. We broke formation after reaching dry land and we began looking for a place to land. We touchdown at an RAF emergency field near the town of Cromer just as the last of the gasoline was used up. Our British allies were nice enough to patch up our wounded and put some 'petrol' in the port wing tanks so we could return back to home base. After returning to base, our crew chief took reported the damage was relatively light. In addition to the fuel tank hole, there were two O2 systems, the bomb controls, and eight other holes to repair. On a scale where a score of 200 was rated as heavily damaged, the chief estimated he'd rate today's damage at a 47.
Capt. Rick Loomis

WILD THING (LeFevre non-player crew)
We saw no action until we reached zone 5, and then there was only one bandit. A solo 190 came at us at 12 o’clock high. He fired his shots, missed then left.

We saw no action in zone 6. In zone 7 we got jumped by 2 waves. The first wave had 4 109s. The nose shot down the 12/high. And the tails hit the 6/high enough to miss his shots and then broke off. The other 2 109s missed. Wave 2 had a 109 and a 190. The 109 missed and the 190 hit our outboard tanks, on the starboard wing. It would have leaked if it wasn’t for the self seals. On the second pass, our Top Turret damaged him enough to brake off. The flak was heavy, but our luck held and we did not get hit once. Our luck ran out on the bomb run. We were off target with no bombs hitting the target. I guess our bombardier jumped the gun.

On the way back in zone 6 we saw 2 bandits, one being a JU 88, but he did not get to fire a shot, our Tunnel gunner nail him. In zone 5 we saw four 109s but 3 missed. The fourth 109 scored a walking hit. He hit the nose, Flight Deck, Bomb Bay, Waist, and Tail. In the tail section he got the port rudder, in the waist he hit the tunnel gun and it became inoperable. In the bomb bay it was superficial damage. In the flight deck he killed our radio operator. (The tunnel gunner manned the radio the rest of the way home) In the nose it was superficial damage also. On his second pass he missed us completely.

The rest of the way was quiet, and the landing went well.
LT LeFevre

BITZ-N-PIECES (Hope crew)
Before we left the crew were nervous and itchy. Nobody wanted to screw up on our first mission. The take off was a bit bouncy but after that we settled down to long boring trip out to Germany. For hours the only other aircraft we saw was the rest of the squadren, oh and the odd "little friend"

Over the target we took a few hits from the flak. A nice new hole appeared between me and Mark Paulus my Co-pilot. we could see light shining through. Luckily it missed everything important. Then Vic Meier from the tunnel was sceaming that he was hit, Rob the radio op went back to check him out. It was only a flesh wound in the leg, but by the noise he was making you'd a thought he had copped one real bad. Once Rob calmed him down things got quiet again.

Andy did a great job of dropping our little presents over the target with 60% hitting smack on.

We turned back for home and ran into our first enemy fighters. Karl Dixon laid into one and it went down trailing smoke. Karl says he saw a 'chute open from the 109. Vic claimed that he hit a Me 109 as well but if he did it didn't go down. After that excitement the rest of the way home was much like the way out except for Karl going on about being the first to bag a kill.

Next thing we knew we were back amongst the fighter cover and on our way back home.

Lets pray that they are that easy.
LT Hope

JERSEY BOUNCE (Wiggins non-player crew)
Everything went well enough for our mission. We got attacked heavily by fighters over the target area. High Roller was shot down above us and fell just outside of our formation with her wing on fire. We saw at least 6 chutes before we were busy shooting at enemy fighters again. Flak was heavy and we only got dinged by a couple of pieces. We hit the target well enough and turned for home. Our radio operator was lightly wounded soon there after. Once we got back over the ocean it became quiet again. Landing took some effort but we got down ok.
LT Wiggins

SILKS-A-POPPIN (Dollins crew)
Well, one day we might bring a plane all the way home in one trip. We started out pretty fine, just cleared the coast when we got hit by 2 190's. The engineer ripped one apart and the other just kept on going without coming close to hitting us. Nothing all the way to target. Steady flying, beautiful day and then, Flak city.

Took 7 hits from flak. All but 3 were superficial. 2 hits on the tail gunner and the Starboard outer tank got shredded. The engineer, God bless him, got what he could pumped out and into the others. Figured that might give us enough to get home.

Again, not a single plane on the way back. Made it to an emergency strip just inland in England. The ground crews there managed to patch the tank and give us enough juice to get home. Sorry to give you guys a scare but here we are. Say, you don't think my engineer could get a little recognition for his actions. We probably wouldn't have got home without him. Oh yeah, tailgunner wants 2 Purple Hearts. One for each wound.
LT Dollins

BOBBY JO'S BOYS (Poulos crew)
Takeoff was normal as could be.  We were in the back of the middle squadron.  I like to normally lead but I wanted to see for myself if the squadron formation was tight as it should be.  Saw some fighters on the way in but they never got as far as us.   

Over the target zone 4-109’s jumped us.   Our tail gunner ripped the wing off one at 6 High.  Ones from 12 and 1:30 missed and zoomed by. One from 12 High got us putting some holes in our starboard empennage and into our engineer.  It was a pretty serious wound and he slumped from his seat with a thud.  I called our tunnel gunner forward to administer first aid.  The 109 came back for a second helping from 6 high and our tail guns missed but he didn’t again.  He ripped into our starboard rudder and shot out the tail guns.  Our gunner was lucky to get away relatively unscathed.  He then took over duty in the top turret. The German came around for thirds but  he must have been tired or bored as he missed.

I watched in horror to the damage the rest of the squadron was taking from flak. Flak pinged all around us.  I saw a softball size hole appear in our port wing and then the whole aircraft lurched as a burst exploded next to our tail.   Our waist gunner yelled “Holy Cow!, Sir, most of the right empennage is GONE!”    That explaind the funny feeling in the rudder pedals.  The bombadier was swearing, as he was dropping as the flack hit.  He reported at least he thought some of the bombs were on target.   The waist gunner went back to inspect the tail further and saw a that if our tail gunner had still been there he’d be toast. 

On the way out three 109’s jumped us.  Two missed but one at 12 high managed to knock out #1.  We got it feathered ok.   He missed on a successive attack from 1:30 level. 

Just out of the target zone a 190 and a 109 found us.  The 109 missed after being slightly damaged by our bombadier, but the 190 at 12 High hit our control cables.    He missed tho when he came back in. 

No other fighters we seen .  Landing was shaky but we made it down ok.  Our engineer will recover but he’s heading home.
Submitted,
Major Alex Poulos