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out. Several FW-190 pilots pulled off some rst rate
deection shooting on side attacks against the high
group, then raked the low group on the break away
out of a sideslip, keeping the nose cocked up in the
turn to prolong the period the formation was in their
sights.
I observed what I believe was an attempt at air-to-air
bombing, although I didn’t see the bombs dropped.
A patch of 75 to 100 gray white bursts, smaller than
ak bursts, appeared simultaneously at our level, off
to one side.
One B-17 dropped out on re and put its wheels
down while the crew bailed out. Three ME-109s cir-
cled it closely, but held their re, apparently ensur-
ing that no one stayed in the ship to try for home.
I saw Hun ghters hold their re even when being
shot at by a B-17 from which the crew were bailing
out.
Near the IP, at 1150 hours, one hour and a half af-
ter the rst of at least 200 individual ghter attacks,
the pressure eased off, although hostiles were in
the vicinity. We turned at the IP at 1154 hours with
14 B-17’s left in the group, two of which were bad-
ly crippled. They dropped out soon after bombing
the target and headed for Switzerland, one of them,
“042”, carrying Col William Kennedy as tail gunner,
#4 engine was on re, but not our of control. Major
William Veal, leader of the high squadron, received
a cannon shell in his #3 engine just before the start of
the bombing run and went in to the target with the
prop feathered.
Weather over the target, as on the entire trip, was
ideal. Flak was negligible. The group got its bombs
away promptly on the leader. As we turned and
headed for the Alps, I got a grim satisfaction out of
seeing a rectangular column of smoke rising straight
up from the ME-109 shops, with only one burst over
in the town of Regensburg.
The rest of the trip was a marked anti-climax. A few
more ghters pecked at us on the way to the Alps.
A town in Brenner Pass tossed up a lone burst of fu-
tile ak. Col LeMay, who had taken excellent care
of us all the way, circled the air division over Lake
Garda long enough to give the cripples a chance to
join the family, and we were on our way toward
the Mediterranean Sea in a gradual decent. About
25 ghters on the ground at Verona stayed on the
ground. The prospect of ditching as we approached
Bone, short of fuel, and the sight of other B-17’s fall-
ing into the drink, seemed trivial matters after the
vicious nightmare of the long trip across Northern
Germany. We felt the reaction of men who had not
expected to see another sunset.
At 1815 hours, with red lights showing on all fuel
tanks in my ship, the seven B-17’s out of the group
who were still in formation circled over Bertoux and
landed in the dust. Our crew was unscratched. Sole
damage to the airplane; a bit of ventilation around
the tail from ak and 20 MM shells. We slept on the
hard ground under the wings of our B-17, but the
good earth felt softer than a silk pillow.
Piccadilly Lily after landing at Telergma Base in Algeria, following an attack
on the Messerschmitt factories at Regensburg during a shuttle mission on August 17, 1943.
HISTORY
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August 2024