Combat Mission News Articles The combat mission articles below appeared in The Stars and Stripes U. S. Armed Forces newspaper on the day following the mission. The articles describe details about the targets of the mission, the types of aircraft involved, casualties, battle strategies, and often include personal experiences of crew members. Mission 1: La Rochelle (La Pallice), France Click the link for the full account. Mission 1: La Rochelle (La Pallice), France September 16, 1943 [SIZE=+3]Forts Resting After One of Busiest Days [/SIZE] ----- [SIZE=+1]Sub Pens, Airfields, Rail Points Hit; Mosquitoes Attack Berlin[/SIZE] ----- The Eighth Air Force was grounded yesterday after striking U-boat pens, airfields and railroad yards in one of the heaviest days of USAAF operations in the ETO. Sustaining the offensive on vital German war targets, however, was a Mosquito raid on Berlin early yesterday. Fortresses attacking airfields at Cognac and submarine docks at La Pallice in France flew more than 1,600 miles on their 11-hour round trip Thursday and landed at their bases after dark. In other assaults on German targets in France, the Forts damaged airfields at LaRochelle and blasted Nantes.
Combat Missions - Mission 2 Mission 2: Kerlin-Bastard, France September 23, 1943 Mission 2: Kerlin-Bastard, France Click the link for the full account. [SIZE=+3]Forts Pound Nantes Sub Base Twice [/SIZE] ----- [SIZE=+1]British Smash Hanover In Record Raid; France Hit by Marauders[/SIZE] ----- American and British bombers left German factories, airfields, ports and important rail and highway communications smoldering last night following a sweeping 24-hour aerial assault spread all the way across northwestern Europe, from the North Sea to the Bay of Biscay. The operations included Flying Fortress attacks twice yesterday on naval installations at Nantes, France, and airfields in occupied France, three Marauder raids on France, and an RAF night attack on the German rubber and rail center of Hanover, which was probably the most intensive bombing job ever carried out by British forces.
Mission 4: Emden, Germany October 2, 1943 Read the link for the full article: Mission 4: Emden, Germany [SIZE=+3]Air Assault on Reich Mounts As RAF Strikes at Frankfurt 12 Hours After USAAF Attack[/SIZE] ----- [SIZE=+1]11 Big Raids in 8 Days Hints Record Load In October[/SIZE] ----- The Allied aerial onslaught against Germany gave every indication yesterday of rising to a new peak of fury during October as the Air Ministry announced that RAF heavy bombers had struck in force at Frankfurt less than 12 hours after American Flying Fortresses had delivered their precision blow on the big war production center Monday. Large fires were left burning in the city as the heavy bombers turned homeward early yesterday morning. It was the RAF's first blow at Frankfurt in which more than 500 tons of bombs were dropped. While the main attack was going on, a force of Lancasters bombed Ludwigshaven and Mosquitoes attacked other objectives in northwest Germany.
Mission 5: Saarbrucken-Saarguemines, Germany October 4, 1943 Read the full article at the link: Mission 5: Saarbrucken-Saarguemines, Germany [SIZE=+4]Great New Air Offensive on Reich Begun [/SIZE] ----- [SIZE=+3]RAF Block-Busters Blast Berlin; Forts Hit Targets in West[/SIZE] ----- [SIZE=+1]350 Two-Tonners Cause Fires, Explosions In Capital; Ludwigshafen Hit Again; U.S. Blow at Western Germany [/SIZE] ----- Striking a new blow at the Nazi homeland only a few hours after RAF heavy bombers had cascaded more than 350 two-ton blockbusters on Berlin in a record-breaking assault on the Reich, U.S. Fortresses yesterday blasted their way into western Germany to carry the Allies' growing air offensive into its third straight day. The Eighth Air Force communique, identifying the B17s' objectives only as "targets in western Germany," announced that all planes returned. The Forts, escorted by P47 Thunderbolts, met little flak and no fighters. The quickening pace of the Anglo-American air blows suggested that the winter campaign to bomb Germany out of the war, delayed for a month by bad weather over the continent, had at last begun in full force.
This one with addresses of combatants: Mission 5: Saarbrucken-Saarguemines, Germany October 4, 1943 [SIZE=+3]Press Release -- Beriont Crew Saarbrucken-Saarguemines Mission [/SIZE] AN EIGHTH AAF BOMBER COMMAND STATION, ENGLAND -- The Fortress "Green Fury II" made a perfect landing on one engine at a nearby airdrome following the return trip from Saarbrucken-Saarguemines during which the crew was warned three times to be ready to bail out. No one was injured. Piloted by 1st Lt. John Beriont, 25, of 223 East Price Street, Linden, New Jersey, the ship lost two engines over Germany due to mechanical failure and a third conked out over the Channel. "But the Fortress kept going somehow until it got us to England," Beriont said. "Coming in we saw an airfield and came down out of the clouds at the rate of 4,000 feet a minute. We just sat right down without making an approach." Beriont and the co-pilot, 2nd Lt. Thomas W. Dempsey, 25, of 648 S. 12th Street, San Jose, Cal., nursed the ship along on the trip back home from Germany, though it fell far behind the formation and lost altitude sometimes at the rate of 4,000 feet a minute. Dempsey said the No. 4 engine went out a half hour before the formation reached the target, but it was decided it would be safer to continue than to turn back. "Just after we went over the target and dropped our bombs -- and what a plastering the burg got -- all the engines seemed to start kicking up." Dempsey said. "Then the No. 3 engine went out and the prop had to be feathered. "We fell back and just tagged along hoping the fighters wouldn't give us any attention. Twice over Germany and once over the tip of France we gave the order for the men to go to the exit stations because we would lose lots of altitude suddenly, sometimes as much as 1,000 feet a minute. But the sturdy old ship seemed to catch its breath and kept limping on. "Over the Channel the No. 2 engine went out because of a defective oil line and it, too, had to be feathered. At that time we thought we would have to ditch. Everybody was told to go to ditching stations, but to our amazement the ship kept going though it lost altitude rapidly. "Somehow we made England, found a break in the clouds and came on down -- but fast. It was as good a landing as we've ever made," he concluded. Other members of the crew include: 2nd Lt. Marshall E. Stelzriede, 24, navigator, of Orient, Ill., 2nd Lt. Nevin D. Beam, 28, bombardier, of 442 W. Main St., Palmyra, Pa., Sgt. Ross J. McKelvey, 25, radio operator, of 7939 NW 6th Ave, Miami, Fla., T/Sgt. Armando Cetin, 22, top turret, of 255 10147 Drive, Rosedale, N.J., S/Sgt. William Comfort, 20, ball turret gunner, of 411 W. Cedar St., Arkansas City, Kan., S/Sgt. Albert F. Everhart, 22, right waist gunner, of R. #2, LaFayette, Ohio, S/Sgt. Kenneth McCann, 19, left waist gunner, of 31 Houstead Dr., Old Greenwich, Conn., S/Sgt. Joseph J. Dwyer, 24, tail gunner, of 853 Parker Ave., Indianapolis, Indiana.
Mission 6: Bremen, Germany October 8, 1943 Read the full article at the link: Mission 6: Bremen, Germany [SIZE=+3]Vast Damage Caused By Record Raid on 4 Targets Deep in East[/SIZE] ----- [SIZE=+1]Gydnia, Danzig, German Plane Plants Are Blasted in Great Weekend Blitz; Bremen, Hanover Get It Again[/SIZE] ----- American Flying Fortresses and Liberators, flying from Britain on the longest mission yet carried out over the world's most heavily-defended territory, inflicted heavy damage Saturday on vital German military targets in East Prussia, Poland and northwestern Germany, it was announced officially last night by Eighth Air Force Headquarters. In one of the war's most spectacular bombing operations -- which carried the American heavies in some cases to within 400 miles of the Russian front -- the Forts and Libs achieved the following results, according to an announcement by Brig. Gen. Frederick L. Anderson, Bomber Command chief: The huge Focke-Wulf assembly plant at Marienburg, in East Prussia, 200 miles beyond Berlin, was described as virtually destroyed. Four ships in the Polish port of Gdynia, including the 550-foot liner Stuttgart, were set afire. Docks, railway yards and workshops were hit. An aircraft component factory at Anklam, north of Berlin, was "severely damaged," and at Danzig, a large Baltic port, bombs struck oil storage tanks, buildings, a stores dump and railway communications.
