Tour Through the Museum Part I
by
Andy Anzanos
We are intending to start a “Tour through the Museum”
series where we will cover two or three displays per Bulletin issue. This is
the first issue where we start our tour with the Mission Map and
attachments.
The Mission Map presents a comprehensive story of the
390th Bomb Group and the other Eighth Air Force bomb groups:
The map shows the location of all of the 301 target
locations for the 390th.
All of the Eighth Air Force groups are located on the
map.
Along the left hand side of the map is a tabulation of
the Eighth Air Force bomb groups indicating location town, number of
missions, aircraft losses and tail markings. This tabulation is also headed
with the very heavy loss statistics of the Eighth Air Force.
On the right side of the map is a presentation with more
detail of the 301 combat missions of the 390th. The mission number
correlates with the mission location on the map. The date, target, the
command and lead pilot, the number of aircraft lost and the number of
fighters destroyed by the group are tabulated.
The map is of considerable interest to our visitors and
an excellent orientation to the 390th and the Eighth Air Force.
Display conceived, designed and fabricated by Andy
Anzanos.
Marienburg Mission Display
The Focke-Wulf aircraft plant was moved from the Bremen
area deeper into Germany to Marienburg in order to escape the bombings.
This exhibit panel has been in a preliminary “paste
together” review status for some time. Finalization has yet to be done.
Presentation suggested by Bill Pennebaker
On the 9th of October 1943 the 390th participated in a
long range 1,570 miles, long duration 11 hrs. 47 min, low level (12,000 ft.)
mission to completely devastate the aircraft plant.
There were no fighter escorts and all bombs fell on the
target.
All 390th bombers returned safely.
Some observations on the mission:
George Arnold: “Results Devastating”
Air Marshall Sir Arthur Portal, RAF: “Most perfect
example in history of the accurate distributions over target” |
