Sixteenth Mission, 31 March 1945     Target: Oil Facilities, Brandenburg, Germany

B17's from the 833rd Squadron of the 486th BG

Tony's Mission Log:

This mission must have been stressful for Tony's crew as bad things started to happen early in the mission. Thankfully, the Ruhr region was being quickly overrun by the Allies and shortened the length of the mission over enemy territory. However, becoming a straggler was never a good thing. Thankfully, enough fighter support was available to spare an escort for them. 

P51 Mustang escorting a crippled B17.

These comments are from S/SGT Clarence Kooi's journal, who also participated in this mission:

"We were on oxygen about six hours which is a long time. The Allies are really going to town on the Western Front namely Berlin. They are near Kassel and Hanover two rough targets and most of the great Rhine cities with their heavy flak concentrations have been captured. We went in over Gen. Patton’s salient and didn't get any flak like we usually do over the lines."

On the 29th of March, the Allies started conducting what would be called "The encirclement of the Ruhr" or "The Ruhr Pocket", in which the Allies trapped more than 400,000 German troops. The bombing campaign had laid waste to the infrastructure of that area and made it very difficult for the Germans to react quickly to the threat. Largely, the Germans were glad to see the end coming and to be able to surrender to the Americans instead of the Russians, who they despised AND feared. The Germans had been so brutal in their treatment of the Soviet people they conquered, and the Russians made a point of paying them back. 

The Ruhr Pocket circa 4 April 1945

An American soldier guards a massive gathering of German POWs in the Ruhr pocket.

This video focuses on the Ruhr Pocket from a German perspective. 

Fifteenth Mission, 30 March 1945   Target: Oil Refinery, Hamburg, Germany

On this mission, Tony's Squadron suffered a loss. Lt Veal's ship, flying alongside Tony's, was shot down with the loss of most of the crew. This had to be a very emotional moment, as these were men they knew, not strangers from some other group. 

Position of Tony's Crew and Lt Veal's crew in the formation

This is taken from SSGT Huffman's diary: 

"LT Veal's crew (our Buddy Crew), who trained with us at Alexandria and [was] assigned to the 832nd Sqd. at the same time we were, was hit directly behind No. 4 engine and peeled off and went into a dive before exploding about 5,000 ft below us. We saw no parachutes."

This is Lt. Veal's Crew:

Lt Veal's Crew was shot down over Hamburg by flak. According to the reports from the 486th BG, "One of the aircraft's wings broke off, and began its dive. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft exploded. Seven of the crewmen are listed as KIA and 2 POW."

The Veal Crew was flying this ship, which had been known as "Lil Butch" and later as "Rodney the Rocks".

Tony's Mission Log:

The 486th Bomb Group hit the refineries at Hamburg with 100 pound incendiaries. A grueling 7 hour and 30 minute mission flying into intense flak. 

The Me 262 jet fighter was a formidable foe. The top Me 262 ace, Franz Schall, shot down 6 four bombers and 10 P-51's. But the Messerschmidt wasn't invincible. The P-51 pilots developed tactics to fight them effectively using the impressive maneuverability of the Mustang. 


The Tuskegee Airmen distinguished themselves shooting down several Me 262 jets on a mission just a few days before this one (24 March 1945). Below is combat footage of the Tuskegee Airmen's feat. 

Eventually, the USAF came to realize that the best way to fight the Me 262 was near the ground. They made a point of waiting for them to come in to land at their airfields as they were very vulnerable at slow speeds. 

Fourteenth Mission, 23 March 1945   Target: Rail Yards, Holzwickede, Germany

Tony's Mission Log:

The Eighth Air Force continues bombing ahead of the Allied Armies going across the Rhine. This time, the mission involves destroying transportation targets in the Ruhr, including Holzwickede, a small town just 33 miles East of yesterday's target, Mulheim. 

On the following day, 24 March 1945, Operation Varsity started. It was the largest Airborne Operation ever made in one day. It involved more than 16,000 paratroopers and thousands of transport planes,gliders, and supporting aircraft. 

Target for the day in the context of Operation Varsity. 

This is a good documentary of the crossing of the Rhine and Operation Varsity. A costly operation that paid good dividends. 

Tony's crew did not fly another mission for about a week. It is possible that they got some R+R time. The destination of choice was London, which offered many entertainment opportunities and could be easily reached by train from Sudbury. Piccadilly Circus was particularly notorious for wild partying!  

The Rainbow Corner Club, operated by the American Red Cross. A must visit while in London.

Playing Pinball at the Rainbow Corner. 

One of many dances hosted at the Rainbow Club.

Thirteenth Mission, 22 March 1945   Target: Barracks, Mulheim, Germany

Tony's Mission Log:

Tony may have been confused with the details of this mission (I think he rewrote his diary in the 1950's and some details may not have been easily available to cross-check). The target for the day was a German Army barracks area in Mulheim, which is on the banks of the Ruhr River. This bombing attack was intended to support the Allied crossings of the River Rhine, which were ongoing. 

Allied Lines from 22 March to 28 March 1945. Allies are at or beyond the River Rhine.

This bellow is a simpler map that gives you an idea of how close this mission was to the friendly lines. On 25 March, the Allies launched the largest airborne operation of the war (code named Varsity) over the area of the town of Wesel, a few miles to the North-West. 

I found a good account of this mission in SSGT Kooi's diary. 

"Our target was an army barracks area just east of the Ruhr river near Mulheim. The Ruhr Valley which I saw very well to-day is the most thickly populated and highly industrialized area I have seen surpassing the English Midlands around Manchester or the Liverpool area. When you are over the center of the Valley, known as “Happy Valley,” you see one city after another so close that they could almost be classified as one city- Dortmund, Essen, Mulheim, Duisberg, Dusseldorf, Wuppertal, and near the southern end, Cologne. The small towns are too numerous to name. Now the western part of the Valley is one mass of debris as the Allies are moving in and we are bombing it."

This film clip below is a newsreel from 1945 about the crossing of the Rhine.

Twelth Mission, 21 March 1945   Target: Marx Airfield, Wilhemshaven, Germany

Tony's Mission Log:

This target was actually near the border with Holland, but actually in Germany. 

The 486th strikes the Marx Airfield near Wilhelmshaven, Germany, March 21st, 1945.

The unit stationed at Marx Airfield was the Luftwaffe Bomb Group KG 76, which flew the world's first Jet Bomber, the Arado Ar 234. During the raid KG 76 lost 10 aircraft and had another 8 damaged. They only had 11 were left on hand by April 1st.

The only preserved Arado Ar 234, which served with KG 76

The unit stationed at Marx Airfield was KG 76, which flew the world's first Jet Bomber, the Arado Ar 234. Two other airfields are bombed, both Me-163 Rocket Fighter units, at Zwischenahn and Wittmundhafen. Evidently, the 8th Air Force was on a tear trying to eradicate the threat of the latest wonder toys of the Luftwaffe.  

Me 163 Rocket Fighter 

Eleventh Mission, 19 March 1945    Target - Zwickau Motor Plants

Bombing the German auto industry into the StoneAge:

The original target for this mission were oil refineries in the Ruhr region of Germany but the weather conditions where horrible. Instead, the 486th Bomb Group ended up hitting auto-industry targets in Zwickau, home of major auto makers including Audi, Horch, VW, Auto Union, and others. Tony's log mentions small-arms plants being the target, but that's not correct according to the official records. 

Zwickau is a long way from Sudbury and ended up in the Soviet-controlled East Germany.

This video shows an interesting collection of Zwickau-made Horch military vehicles that were part of the German war machine. Starting in 1944, the Eighth Air Force started to pummel the German automotive industry. Aircraft, rail, oil, and war-materiel industries were all heavily targeted.

The fate of the German auto industry was not pretty. After the war, Zwickau ended up in the hands of the Russians and became part of East Germany. The Soviet Union was not one for superfluous consumer products such as cars and what "evolved" from the once proud German auto industry was awful. 

The cars below are freshly assembled Trabants coming out of the factory in Zwickau after the war. They were produced essentially without changes for 30 years. The quality of these cars was so unfathomably bad that there is widespread agreement among car enthusiasts the world over...the Trabant was the worst production car ever made!  Here's a link to wikipedia, The History of the Trabant .

VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau

After the re-unification of Germany, East Germans became painfully aware of the inadequacy of the Trabant. This is what happened to many of them!

Tenth Mission, 18 March 1945                        Target:  Railway Stations in Berlin




Jet Fighters in the Air - a terrifying development 

The Me 262 jet fighter was by all accounts a game changer in the war. Many historians debate the impact it would have made in the outcome of the war if its potential had been exploited properly. This is the first time that Tony's crew had met them in the air. By March of 1945, the Luftwaffe had been fielding them in numbers over important areas in Germany and had concentrated some talented pilots to fly them. The Eight Air Force had this to say on 18 March 1945: "the Luftwaffe makes its most concentrated and successful attacks with the Me 262 to date". 

The clip below shows footage of German fighters, including an Me 262
attacking B17 formations. 



The clip below shows more detailed footage of the Me 262 and 
has excellent commentary about it's historic role. 


The 486th's Bomb Group didn't have any major remarks about this mission to Berlin. But of the 495 bombers that flew the mission, 7 are lost and 268 damaged. There are 28 airmen wounded and 49 Missing in Action.  It's no wonder that Tony and his crew were scared, this type of mission had all the necessary elements of a nightmare: tight air defenses over the prized capital, flying to close to maximum range, jet fighter opposition, and a desperate enemy . The only saving grace was complete cloud cover, which made it a little harder on the enemy to find them.