The Eighth Air Force At Night?

Researched and written by:

Robert Darcangelo
Museum Volunteer

At 2146 hr. on 22 APR 44 the 390th control officer Lt. Buckman noted that the last aircraft had returned from the mission to Hamm Germany. Two B-17s were missing. A/C 2107041 had landed at Manston with one engine out and the other A/C 238130 had been confirmed lost over the target, the Hamm marshalling yards. The Mission was in support of the pre-invasion plan to attack German infrastructure and to isolate Northern France before the coming cross channel attack. At 2205 hr Lt Buckman, Cpl’s Murray and Foss saw an aircraft go down in flames in the direction of Leiston north of Framlingham. They all agreed it had been shot down. An air raid warning alert was declared and all airfield lights were turned off. No sooner had this been done than a second aircraft was seen to go down. It was apparent that foxes were in the hen house.

So what was happening? The mission seemed simple enough. 824 B-17s and B-24s would bomb the Hamm marshalling yards, the largest in Germany. The Mission was launched very late in the day because of bad bombing weather over the target. The attack was led by the 3rd BD (B-17s), departing at 1750hr, followed by the 1st BD (B-17s) at 1802hrs and finally by the 2nd BD (B-24s) at 1821hrs. To stay away from the heavy flak concentrations of the Ruhr they were routed east of that area. They would bomb north to south with the return to England flying across France. The problem with the plan was that most of the aircraft would be returning to England at dusk or after dark.

In addition to heavy flak over the target and attacks by enemy aircraft, the Germans were to change their policy of not infiltrating bomber streams on their way back to their English bases. This policy had been directed by Hitler who saw little propaganda value in Allied Bombers being destroyed over England. One reason for the change was that the Second Squadron KG 51 had trained for this tactic under night fighter leader Major Dietrich Puttfarken. The Major would lead 4 ME 410s into the bomber stream as they headed for England.

The four German aircraft caused a maximum amount of damage by waiting and attacking the returning bombers as they were about to land. With landing lights on and air base runways alight, the returning aircraft were sitting ducks. The B-24 Groups would suffer all the losses. Four Groups would lose fourteen aircraft: 467th BG two, 448th BG eight, 453rd BG two, and the 389th BG two. The German losses were two ME-410s. Unfortunately for the Germans, one of the missing pilots would be the squadron leader Major Puttfarken; otherwise, this was the most successful intruder mission of the war.

The total cost to Eighth Air Force was eight B-17s, sixteen B-24s, five P-47s, one P-38, and four P-51s. German losses were eight FW-190s, two ME-410s, and fifteen ME-109s. Damage to the target was moderate; however, the Germans were able to repair the damage quickly and the yards were operating at a reduced level after the attack.

The Eighth Air Force high command had learned a painful lesson. They would never fly another large magnitude mission that would return in the dark for the rest of the war.