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THE UNIT
| # | Target Area | Date | Target | Lead Crew | Command Pilot | Ordinance | B-17s Lost | Claims |
| 3 | Regensburg, Germany | 17-Aug-43 | Aircraft Plant | Lt. R. Brown | Col. Wittan | 190 x 500lb General Purpose | 4 | 13-3-9 |
Of the 301 missions flown, the 390th Bomb Group had three that stood out above the rest. Regensburg, Munster, and Schweinfurt became sagas in the Air Force. On all three missions, units were awarded Presidential Citations, and the 390th shared in two of them.
Regensburg and its African aftermath was the first of the "Big Three." Its story is told in two teletypes:
"Regensburg
is the most important target to be attacked by any aircraft to date. The production is
estimated at 200 ME-109 aircraft per month, or approximately 25 to 30 percent of Germany's
entire single engine production. There had been a remarkable increase in production within
the last year of this particular type aircraft. There has been an increase of 120 percent
as compared to 2 percent for other types of single engine fighters.
"This plant is the second largest of its kind in Europe, the largest being at Wiener Neustadt, which was attacked by the Ninth Air Force on 14 August, and it is estimated that 72 percent of the increase which has occurred in operational strength on the western front has been derived from this plant alone.
"It is estimated that the complete destruction of the plant will entail a nine months' delay in production and that immediate results will be felt in operational strength within one and a half to two months."
The second teletype came from Colonel Curtis LeMay, the air leader of the mission, and the man who was later to head the B-29 force in the Mariana Islands. It came the following day from North Africa.
"Mission flown as planned. Fighter support poor. Wing under constant attack from Antwerp to thirty minutes after leaving target. Objective believed to be totally destroyed. Detailed report impossible at this time. Airplanes have landed at a number of fields other than those scheduled due to battle damage and gas shortage."
Between those teletypes passed a drama that was never exceeded in Air Force annals. It was the first attempt at a shuttle mission, it was the deepest penetration to date and, together with the diversion to Schweinfurt, was a bid to the Luftwaffe to fight it out plane for plane.
Exactly 146 planes left England 17 August 1943. Of this number 127 attacked the target and 24 were lost.
The
390th dispatched 20 aircraft. There was a delay in assembling the formation over England,
and gallons of precious fuel were wasted. Soon after passing the European coast, an
alerted German Air Force arose to battle. The group was under steady attack nearly to the
Alps, meeting upward of 100 planes. They attacked from all angles, usually coming out of
the sun, and using decoys on the opposite side of the main attack to make their tactics
more effective.
When our crews were over the Regensburg factory they reported that newly assembled planes took off, not to engage in combat, but to distract B-17 gunners.
Two planes were lost in the target area. A third had two engines knocked out and landed safely in Switzerland, where the crew was interned. A fourth plane, in trouble and out of gas, headed for Spain. It landed near Toulons, France, and the crew was made prisoner. Two other planes ran out of gas, and ditched in the Mediterranean Sea. The crews were picked up by Air-Sea Rescue Service.
It was a battered Group that collected at Telergma, in North Africa. Camping on the desert under the wings of their planes, eating nothing but K rations, bartering with stealthy Arabs - the week in Africa was unlike life in England.
To the crews, the hell through which they had hacked their way was soon lost in the realization of what they had accomplished. They had destroyed 13 planes, probably destroyed 3 more, and damaged 9 others.
The 390th bombing was excellent. As third Group in the formation over the target, 58 percent of the 390th bombs were in a thousand feet of the aiming point and 94 percent within two thousand feet.
General Anderson of Bomber Command put it this way, "Congratulations on the completion of an epoch I aerial warfare. I am sure the 4th Bombardment Wing will continue to make history. The Hun now has no place to hide."