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production, the so-called gasoline war, as well
as in the preparation and support of the Allied
landings in the western part of the continent and
the opening of a second front.
The Battle of Fuel
On Friday, May 12th, 1944, the unit took part in
the 8th Air Forces first raid against industrial
targets in the former Czechoslovakia. The tar-
get was Most (Brüx) and was the first of many
attacks on German oil refineries in the Battle
of Fuel Campaign. During the Allied landings
in Normandy on June 6th, 1944, The Hundredth
had two combat missions to her credit that day.
The third – the middle one of the day – was can-
celed by bad weather.
Also, the beautiful spring and summer of 1944,
by when it was already clear that the war would
end in favor of the Allies with their supremacy
in the skies over Europe increasingly evident,
saw several heavy missions and losses… such as
May 24th, to Berlin, with the loss of nine aircraft;
July 28th and 29th Merseburg, eleven aircraft
both days; the 11th of September, 1944, Ruhland,
thirteen aircraft. The latter mission became the
second most tragic for the Bloody Hundredth.
That day she saw a major air battle over the
Czech-German border, and although the Luft-
waffe was seemingly out of breath, it was not to
be the last of the great battles that awaited the
unit before the end of the war.
During this period, the Hundredth also flew two
Russian Shuttle missions under the codename
Formation of the 100th Bomb Group during a mission over Europe. The aircraft in the foreground is B-17G 44-8514 ‘Lassie Come Home’, which survived the war and was flown
back to the U.S. (Don Bradley collection).
Col Thomas S. Jefrey was commander of the 100th Bomb Group from 7 May 1944 to 1 February 1945. He added his
15 combat missions flown as a command pilot with the 100th Bomb Group to the earlier 12 he flew as a deputy
commander of the 390th Bomb Group. (Michael Faley, 100th BG archives)
HISTORY
INFO Eduard
Speciál B-17F / The Bloody Hundredth 1943
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June 2024