WWII Memories: Flying into a cloud of flak

Continuing my coverage of the input offered to the New Bern Sun Journal by veterans of WWII.

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We were awakened about 5 a.m., had a quick breakfast and rode to the Dijon airfield in the back of 6 x 6 trucks. It was cold but we were wearing our winter flying gear so it was bearable. As we entered the briefing room our eyes focused on the large maps in the front of the room where we saw that the mission would be to Scheinfurt. We all knew that 60 B-17s were recently lost in one day. The target was a railroad marshaling yard that had heavy flak and fighter coverage. Seventy-two B-26 aircraft in six flights of 12 consisted of two to three ship V’s; each tucked closely behind the other. When we approached the target we were to drop back into a line of 12 flights for the bomb run.

The whole assembly took about 30 minutes of circling before going on course for the target. Flying formation while turning and maneuvering makes it very difficult to stay on target. The bombardier in the lead ship of each flight then took over to guide the formation to the target and they dropped their bombs when they saw the lead plane drop their bombs. We usually approached targets on random courses but the straight path taken on this mission made it easier for the flak gunners to line us up quickly.

While maintaining my position I could see the flak opening up ahead of me off to the left and the next flight was off to the right. They then hit the fourth flight right on target and opened up with a full barrage. The fifth and sixth flights disappeared into a black cloud that was right in our path. A burst between the left engine and fuselage was a little high so most of the shrapnel went just above us. I learned later from our crew chief that shrapnel had pierced the intake manifold of the left engine but I had no indication of damage as we turned toward home. We were surprised that we only lost two aircraft on the bomb run because the flak was so intense. Some chutes were seen but I didn’t get a count.

Another tough mission involved an attack by the ME262 jets that, at that time, were not known to exist. I was flying No. 2 in the high flight where I could see the low flight as well as my leader. Suddenly, with no warning, I saw what I thought was bursts of flak moving through the low flight hitting a couple of them and flight seemed to be heading right toward us and just before it would have started to hit us, it quit. I discovered later that it was not flak but was the 40 millimeter cannon on the ME262. We lost five ships on this mission and no chutes were seen but some could have come out after we passed them.

Taken from the accounts of Mr. John Auer.