Combat Crew by John Comer Page B

several pages somehow got away. Thus, I had no record of which men from the Gleichauf or Cahow crews were on the mission. The only men I was sure of were Jim Counce, Carroll Wilson, and Buck Rogers. In addition, Purus, Shutting, Abramo, and George Reese may have been involved. All of these men were flying as spare crew men where such were needed to fill in. Jim Counce wrote down quite a few notes for the journal and all of them are included. Therefore I decided that the best way to get across to the reader what happened was to take a writer’s privilege and tell the story in the first person, covering the highlights of the action. This is a composite from the accounts of the men of both crews as they told it after the mission.
    An ominous groan came from the Briefing Room. I knew then we were in for a rugged day. We were still groggy from the mission of the previous day, and not in the best physical condition. “The crew I was assigned to had a great deal of experience. They were all strangers to me, and I’m sure they would have preferred having a more experienced gunner. The radio operator cornered me and offered me some advice. ‘We got a peculiar pilot,’ he said. ‘He’s tops when the going gets tough, but he has the habit of cursing the gunners, and raising hell over the interphones. When fighters attack he will call you every kind of sonnuvabitch he can think of. He don’t mean a damn thing by it — nothing personal. It’s just his way of keeping his gunners under control. After the mission he won’t remember a word he said, so don’t let it upset you.’” (From an account by James Counce written for me the day after the raid.)
    The weather was so foggy that I doubted we would get underway, or if we did get off, it would be mid-morning. When the pilot arrived, he called us together. “All right, men. We’re in for a wild one today! We’re hittin’ some ball-bearing plants at a town called Schweinfurt in Bavaria. The route will force us to fly over the middle of Germany, goin’ in and returning. Those plants make more than half of Germany’s ball bearings, and if we destroy ’em, our raid will be a success — even if only a few of us get back.”
    There was an audible groan from the crew.
    â€œThe altitude will be twenty-three thousand feet and we will try to divide the opposition. The Third Division will go first, hit Regensburg dose by, and then fly on to North Africa. The other two divisions will hit Schweinfurt and return to England. Let’s hope the plan works, ’cause if we don’t fool ’em we could see three to four hundred fighters. The First Division will lead the attack on Schweinfurt and the 91st will be in front. The 381st will fly the low group position.”
    The hated word “low” prompted more comments and considerable bitching because the low group always caught the worst attacks.
    â€œKnock off the bitching! This is gonna be one hell of a raid, and I don’t want to see one Goddamned round of ammunition wasted! You gunners hear me? Not one wasted round! You’ll fire only when the enemy is close enough to hit, and only when they’re attacking our plane! We gotta make that ammo last, and don’t you forget it!”
    Either Hitler’s military staff, or the influential Albert Speer, had become alarmed at the continuous build-up of American bombers, and the prospect of an increasing flow of new bombers from U.S. factories. Unknown to the Allied High Command, General Adolf Galland, commanding the German fighter defense, had pulled back some of his crack fighter groups in France. He had also withdrawn some air units from the Russian Front to form a better defense system. Until then he had a fighter defense protecting Northern Germany, but little behind it. Now the Germans placed reserve forces strategically about Germany so they could battle the Fortresses coming into and