What My Uncle Did Today...

[Lost Cause]

Mission Briefing
Mission Number: 5
Date: Monday, 13 December 1943
Group Air Commander: Lt. Colonel Harris E. Rogner
Crews Briefed:
Target: Kiel
Target Details: The port of Kiel on the Baltic Sea, Germany.

Flying Control
Runway: 05 View take-off plan form
Engines: 0750 hours
Taxi: 0800 hours
Take Off: 0815 hours
E.T.R.: 1504 hours

Flying Control Notes:
0843 hours - 21 aircraft off OK.
1545 hours - All aircraft down safely.

Mission Debriefing
Aircraft on Mission: 21
Aircraft Lost
Over Continent: 0
Other: 0

Mission Summary:
Eighteen aircraft attacked the primary target, the bombing having been carried out by PFF methods due to poor weather, with unobserved results. Four aircraft of the 401st sustained battle damage but all returned safely.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Combat Air Crews Flying this Mission

612th Bomb Squadron (H)
Aircraft
Capt J.F. Goodman and crew 42-31091 IY-O Maggie Group Lead Ship
1st Lt W.J. Kelly and crew ?
2nd Lt T. Neag and crew ?
1st Lt W.D. Sellers and crew ?
1st Lt S.E. Smith and crew ?

613th Bomb Squadron (H)
Aircraft
2nd Lt R.M. Fowler and crew ?
2nd Lt D.H. Lawry and crew ?
Major J.R. Locher Jr. and crew ?
1st Lt H.L. Piper and crew ?
1st Lt B.M. Shotts and crew ?
Capt L. Stann and crew ? Box Lead Ship

614th Bomb Squadron (H)
Aircraft
1st Lt W.R. Dawes Jr. and crew ?
Capt J.C. Peck and crew ?
1st Lt S.P. Wilson and crew ?

615th Bomb Squadron (H)
Aircraft
1st Lt H.J. Chapman and crew 42-37809 IY-G Carolina Queen
Capt R.M. Dempsey and crew 42-37833 IY-F Omar the Dentmaker
Capt C.A. Lewis and crew 42-31077 SC-A Pakawalup II


Thankyou, Uncle Duane.

 

[Spinaroonie]

Dude

My brother plays a bunch of video games too, but you don't see me posting his high scores here.

 

[Lost Cause]

Spin cycle....

Yeah, but if he loses his game, he doesn't die, 20,000 airmen did.

 

[Spinaroonie]

He bombed a port?

 

[Lost Cause]

a port, hmmm....

Like a place where you'd have U-boats, shipyards, patrol boats, raiders, and fuel for said vessels? Besides it was a combined effort to get the ports by the 8th AAF, they hit the sub bases, to deny supplies to the Germans at the Eastern Front.


*Cut the idle chatter, what's buggin' you Spin?

 

[Spinaroonie]

Re: a port, hmmm....

*Cut the idle chatter, what's buggin' you Spin?

I read most of that stuff in the original post and wasn't sure what was going on.

Then I had a funny line.

 

[Coolville]

It was funny, spin!

But damn, I thought this was an incest thread....

 

[Coolville]

Oh and LC, you were on about restoring bombers in another post in a thread far, far away.

You hear about the WW2 bomber in Greenland that crash landed on the Inland ice 60 years ago? It was dug out recently and, with spare parts from that period, the team got it up and running again and flew that puppy out of there.

cool shit.

The ice preserved her lovingly.

 

[Lost Cause]

It was a funny one, Spin..

Yeah Cool, I heard about that one, and a P-38 they found about 200 ft down in the icepack. They dismantled it, and shipped to the states for restoration the original pilot was there. They plan to fly it to Europe for a WW2 anniversary. Change that, the P-38 just took it's first flight!!!!! You can see it at; http://thelostsquadron.com/

 

[Coolville]

Re: It was a funny one, Spin..

Yeah Cool, I heard about that one, and a P-38 they found about 200 ft down in the icepack. They dismantled it, and shipped to the states for restoration the original pilot was there. They plan to fly it to Europe for a WW2 anniversary. Change that, the P-38 just took it's first flight!!!!! You can see it at; http://thelostsquadron.com/

Groovy.
Regarding Greenland, a friend of mine is a glaciologist and he visited an old US base far out on the Inland ice. It was almost forgotten after being closed back in the 60's. It was dug out under the ice with the purpose of transporting missles across Greenland without being spotted by Soviet sattelites. But it became too expensive so it was closed.

But glaciologists study it now, to see how the ice in the tunnels has moved and shifted.

The crazy thing is that the army just up and left, leaving the base 'as is'. So, there is a canteen with tables, chairs and kitchen, plus cans of soup, etc. - all in place as though it was used yesterday.

And a chapel, and bunk beds and everything.

He says it is spooky but super interesting.

 

[Lost Cause]

Speaking of spooky/eerie....

I was in Goose Bay, Labrador doing work with the SAC detachment, and some U-2s. The thing to do when you were off duty, was to go to the other end of the base and check out the WW2 barracks. You walk around and swear you can hear people talking, and the droning sound of airplanes above you. inside the old huts, there was little notes written all over the walls from the 1940s. I wish I would have taken pictures of those momentary scribbles frozen in time. Just before I left in early '76, they had located a B-24 that had crashed in the woods in the 40's with the pilot only on board. He had survived the crash, but the forest swallowed the plane so it couldn't be spotted by air. From the looks at the site, the pilot walked away, and never came back to the plane. I hear they're still finding aircraft and armor in the lakes in Europe, I think they found an American bomber in one of the dikes after the war.

Another good site with crash site links: http://www.armyairforces.com/default.asp

 

[Coolville]

Re: Speaking of spooky/eerie....

The thing to do when you were off duty, was to go to the other end of the base and check out the WW2 barracks. You walk around and swear you can hear people talking, and the droning sound of airplanes above you. inside the old huts, there was little notes written all over the walls from the 1940s.

Yeah, I get that feeling whenever I visit war graves or even the old German bunkers along Denmark's west coast.

East of Paris there is a war cemetary from the Battle of the Marne in 1***. The US cemetary is a vast woodland of crosses, row on row, maintained by a force of 15 gardeners, much like the British war cemetaries. Powerful stuff.

But what was more powerful was the little cemetary a kilometre down the road housing the German dead from the same battle. A tiny little cemetary inside a thick brick wall with massive trees. Takes you two minutes to walk around it. Under every cross there are 8 German soldiers and the little cemetary is the burial place for 4 times as many soldiers as the massive one nearby.

Both are moving, but the little one somewhat moreso. The losers still remembered, out of respect, packed into a little square.

And now, it seems so poignant that on many of the crosses there is a Star of David, denoting German-Jewish soldiers who died for their country. This being WW1, before Hitler's fucked up ideas.

Moving stuff.