10 Walter K. Davis, interview with the author, 28 July 2005.
11 John F. Homan interview, 25 July 2002, Tape 3, side A, Oral History Archives of World War II, Rutgers University.
12 Samuel P. Fleming, Flying with the Hell’s Angels(Spartanburg, 1992), pp. 49–50. In July 1943 the combat tour was still twenty-five missions.
13 Joseph E. Mutz interview, 9 February 2000, Tape 1, Side A, Reichelt Oral History Program, Florida State University. Mutz flew as armourer/gunner for the 95th BG in the Warnemünde wing on 25 July 1943.
14 The US Army was, of course, already engaged in Sicily and North Africa, but with nothing like the numbers that would be deployed the following year.
15 W. Scott Buist interview, 27 September 1995, Tape 1, Side A, New Brunswick History Department, Oral History Archives of World War II, Rutgers University.
12 The Luftwaffe Strikes Back
1 This is the popular form of the quotation. The actual quotation is ‘No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the main enemy force.’ See ‘Über Strategie’ in Helmuth von Moltke, Moltkes Militärische Werke, vol. II (Berlin, 1900), p. 291.
2 Philip P. Dreiseszun, 381st BG website, http://www.381st.org/stories–dreiseszun.html (last viewed 5 April 2006).
3 Ironically, the Klöckner factory had already evacuated before these raids took place, so it was a much less important target than the USAAF thought. The plant had become a repair shop, with some continued production of gears and screws. See USSBS, Economic Effects of the Air Offensive against German Cities: A Detailed Study of the Effects of Area Bombing on Hamburg, Germany(November 1945) p. 45, UK National Archives, AIR 48/19.
4 Quote and estimate of AA guns from 303rd BG ‘Mission to Hamburg, Germany: Estimate’, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 678, Folder 9. Martin Middlebrook lists the numbers of heavy flak guns in the city as 88mm, 166, 105mm, 96, and 128mm, 16 guns although he does not reveal his source for this information; see The Battle of Hamburg(London, 1980), p. 84. His numbers are backed up by the website http://www.lostplaces.de/flakhamburg (last viewed 1 December 2004), which says that in addition twenty 128mm guns and forty-eight 105mm guns were brought in on seventeen railway flak batteries.
5 Howard L. Cromwell, quoted in Middlebrook, Battle of Hamburg, p. 183.
6 Philip P. Dreiseszun, 381st BG website.
7 Edward Piech interview, c/o Shaun Illingworth, Oral History Archive of World War II, Rutgers University. Piech flew on the second Hamburg mission the following day, but his comments are relevant to both missions.
8 Sometimes it took even longer. For example, the 91st BG took off at 1320 but did not finally cross the English coast until 1437. See 91st BG immediate narrative, 26 July 1943, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 541, Folder 11.
9 Donald Hillenmayer interview, Oral History Archives of World War II, 11 September 2003, Tape 1, Side B, Rutgers University.
10 See Philip Dreiseszun, 381st BG website.
11 Albert S. Porter Jr interview, 9 February 2004, Tape 2, Side A, Oral History Archives of World War II, Rutgers University.
12 Edward Piech interview.
13 Lieutenant Darrell Gust, quoted in Brian D. O’Neill, 303rd Bombardment Group(Oxford, 2003), pp. 61–2.
14 See Donald L Caldwell, The JG26 War Diary, vol. II (London, 1998), p. 121.
15 Ibid.
16 Walter K. Davis, interview with the author 28 July 2005.
17 Ibid.
18 381st BG War Diary, 25 July 1943. See 381st BG website.
19 Charles R. Bigler, quoted in Frank L. Betz and Kenneth H. Cassens (eds), 379th BG Anthology(Paducah, 2000), p. 17. Bigler mentions this as happening on the Sunday raid, but it appears these events took place on the Saturday; see Derwyn D. Robb, Shades of Kimbolton: A Narrative of 379th Bombardment Group(San Angelo, 1981), 25 July 1943.
20 Major Kirk Mitchell, quoted in message from 303rd BG to 1st Bombardment Wing, 25 July 1943, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 678, Folder 9. For Mitchell’s more realistic estimate, see US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 406, Folder 9.
21 Staff Sergeant F. C. Thurman, quoted in PRO Report, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8. As the lead group, the 379th BG was supposed to drop its bombs first, but it was not uncommon for whole squadrons or groups to drop their bombs slightly before or slightly after they were supposed to. For example, within 303rd BG, the 360th Squadron dropped its bombs about fifteen seconds before their own group leader (see 303rd BG’s mission report, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 406, Folder 9).
22 VIII Bomber Command Report of Operations, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 941. As the lead group, 379th BG should have been the first to drop their bombs, but it appears that the low group (384th BG) dropped fractionally earlier on this occasion.
23 As always, accurate numbers are difficult to pin down: different sources say different things. I have chosen to use the Reports of Operations of VIII Bomber Command and 1st Bombardment Wing as my main references here, and have used Roger Freeman’s The Mighty Eighth War Diary(London, 1990), the standard work on the US Eighth Air Force, to fill in any gaps. Out of the ninety-four B-17s that managed to bomb Hamburg and return home, forty-six sustained flak damage.
24 See intercepted German radio messages for 25 July, UK National Archives, AIR 40–425.
25 Enemy Aircraft Attack Data for 103rd Provisional Bombardment Combat Wing, Mission, 25 July 1943, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 678, Folder 9.
26 See the Report of Operations for VIII Bomber Command, and for the 1st Bombardment Wing, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 941; and especially the Enemy Aircraft Attack Data for 103rd Provisional Bombardment Combat Wing, Mission, 25 July 1943, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 678, Folder 9.
27 See pencil charts, detailing attacks on each individual aircraft in 384th BG, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8.
28 Brad Summers, quoted in Ken Decker, Memories of the 384th Bomb Group(New York, 2005), p. 15.
29 Ibid., p. 16.
30 Philip Dreiseszun, 381st BG website.
31 Ibid.
32 Again, there are some slight discrepancies in the numbers. The 103rd Provisional Bombardment Wing data show that 379th BG was attacked only fifteen times, but the pencil charts prepared by the bomb group suggest that there were twenty attacks, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 940, Folder 14. Likewise, the 103rd Wing data show eighty attacks on 384th BG, but the bomb group records suggest that there were 122, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8. The lower estimate in each case is more likely, since there was a tendency for double-counting in the bomb groups.
33 While this legend cannot be confirmed, Robert C. King, a B-24 pilot with 485th BG, claims he witnessed an instance where an American bomber from another group did this, and ‘from that mission on the Luftwaffe targeted that group and annihilated it’. See Robert C. King interview, 30 November 1994, Oral History Archives of World War II, Tape 1, Side B, Rutgers University.
34 This man was believed to be the navigator in aircraft 075, flown by Lieutenant Hegewald. See the story of the attack on aircraft 883, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8.
35 Ibid.
36 Staff Sergeant George Ursta, Story of Attack, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8.
37 Unteroffizier Friedrich Abromeit, IV/NJG I, quoted in Middle-brook, Battle of Hamburg, p. 215.
38 See the summary of intercepted German radio messages, 25 July, UK National Archives, AIR 40/425.