Second Mission, 2 March 1945   Target Dresden, Germany

In this mission the 486th Bomb Group participated in the bombing of the rail yards in the city of Dresden. Mind you, by that time, Dresden had fallen victim to the infamous firestorms delivered by the RAF and the 8th Air Force between 13-15 February. But it continued to be an important transportation link to the Eastern Front. So it was visited again on March 2nd to destroy the marshaling rail yards. Visible in the bottom of the photo below.

Tony's Mission Log entry:

A small inaccuracy I notice in this entry is that Dresden was more of a conduit for German materiel going East to the Eastern Front and the bombing campaign on Dresden was done to bolster the advance of the Russians.  

I think it's worth making a note of the comment about leaving the formation on the way back. 

The fuel consumption of the B17's could vary depending on many factors (tuning of the engines, wear and tear, etc) and some ships had a reputation for being fuel hogs. His ship on that particular mission must have been one of those and to make it home they probably had to reduce speed. 

There is no mention of whether fighters escorted them back over Germany, but flying alone was extremely dangerous as you could become easy prey for an enemy fighter. So that flight home must have been VERY stressful.

History of the Bombing of Dresden:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II


Bombing of German Transportation:

The USAF made it its business to destroy the German rail system. This had serious consequences for the German war economy as it not only disrupted communications, but it also crippled the movement of coal, their greatest energy source.  The strategic bombing of the rail yards was a major annoyance, and the Germans dedicated large numbers of slave laborers to the task of repairing them. 

Here's some footage of the devastation at a German rail yard: 





On top of that, by 1945, the USAF had released the fighters escorting the bomber formations to cause havoc by attacking targets of opportunity on their way back to base. 





  

Maybe this is what Tony's the return flight from Dresden was like, flying over The Channel, #1 engine out: