Lamentations: Dusseldorf
September 9, 1944
By Robert L. Longardner
Pilot, 570th Squadron, G.I. Wonder
The 390th suffered one of its greatest losses on a mission to
bomb an obscure factory at Dusseldorf... six crews and nine airplanes.
The saga of G.I. Wonder, the forceful B-17 manned by the Longardner crew was leading the
low squadron on this eventful day. G.I. Wonder was well experienced with combat before we
arrived at the 390th shortly after D-Day. This rugged B-17F had been modified to a
"G" model at Cambridge. When she was assigned to our crew, she had already
logged 38 successful bombing missions.
Probably this modification and the fact the cockpit had been shrouded with at least 1,500
pounds of special steel armor was the reason she survived the blast effects of the bomb
explosion in Hobbie's airplane which was flying directly behind us.
Though she outweighed her sisters, there was not a better rigged and balanced aircraft in
the Group. Phil Chute, our crew chief, knew her special place in the sky and intimately
attended daily to her needs and cultured her spirit. After our crew had completed
seventeen missions, we were selected to lead the low squadron. Our patter of flying the
low lead was to swing the squadron back and forth under the Group lead squadron in a
fashion to evade the barrage of flak that those 88s would agonizingly throw at the Group.
Clay Perry, a 43J classmate of mine, assigned to the 568th Squadron of the 390th, and I
studied the German 88 and calculated a probability of accuracy that their rifle had at
various altitudes. At 25,000 feet the 88 was most deadly with accuracy of better than 50%
chance of hitting the target with four rifle batteries firing sequentially. At 28,000
feet, the accuracy of the 88 fell arithmetically and was rendered to firing a barrage
pattern. Based upon the muzzle velocity of the 88, a four-barrel battery firing
sequentially to 25,000 feet would explode in track approximately 100 feet apart.
Therefore, by kicking the rudder at the first flak shell explosion away from the burst,
the following burst would trail off target. With this knowledge, and by swinging the
squadron back and forth under the lead squadron, we had been successful I avoiding any
serious battle damage in the low squadron position since we started leading August 16 on a
mission to Liepzig.
At the briefing on the morning of September 9, 1944, we were given a bombing altitude of
26,000 feet. The combat crews erupted in vexation, grumbling about the severity of such
altitude I "happy flak valley," Surely the targeted factory could have been hit
from 28,000 feet as well as from this defenseless altitude of 26,000 feet which meant that
the low squadron would be flying at 25,000 feet until the initial point of the bomb run.
The following chronicle is lifted verbatim from my mission dairy, and without edit, it
depicts the intensity of the battle and the impossible attitude that G.I. Wonder was
thrown into by the exploding bombs in Hobbie's bomb bay that was hit with an 88 shell:
Something different for the Eighth Air Force today. We had our
early morning briefing as usual. The target was Dusseldorf, Germany, in the center of
"happy flak valley" where there are 1,000 flak guns but only 150 guns could be
brought to bear on us provided we stayed on the briefed course in and out. The target was
a small arms and tank factory 4 miles east of the city, employing 35,000 workmen. Everyone
dreaded the target, including me, because of the low bombing altitude.
We were to bomb with the pathfinder, provided the target was 9/10 to 10/10 covered, if
not, we were to bomb our secondary to keep from being shot up too badly. We reached the
bombing altitude of 26,000 feet just before the I.P. and started a run in toward the
target which was 6/10 covered. The flak didn't look to bad. Over the target before
"bombs away," a direct burst caught Hobbie's ship in the bomb bay which was
loaded with 12 x 500 pound bombs. It blew him and eight other ships out of formation.
Hobbie was flying the element directly below G.I. Wonder.
When the explosion occurred from the direct hit, we had not yet pulled the low squadron
out from below the lead in order that we could bomb on the pathfinder drop. At the instant
of the explosion, G.I. Wonder was tossed tail high, riding the ball of overpressure while
the bottom of our aircraft was battered by debris and shrapnel. The intense heat and noise
of the explosion drowned the senses of the crew, and it seemed an eternity before I was
able to command control of G.I. Wonder. After righting the aircraft from the dive
attitude, I observed an engine nacelle at ten o'clock to our aircraft. The sky was full of
other exploded aircraft debris that was avoided by some of the wildest maneuvers ever
flown in a B-17. Had G.I. Wonder not been shrouded with all of the armor steel, the
cockpit would never have withstood the effects.
It was dreadful. I won't try to go into details for it's too horrible to recount. There
were many buddies of mine in those nine crews.
It was a sorry sight. Of the twelve ships that went in, only three ships of our low
squadron were left. We pulled into formation on the pathfinder aircraft. The battle damage
was intense among us.
Immediately we got the hell out of there. Nothing really seemed to effect us, for we were
in a trance all of the way home. I know that one time on the way home we were in flak for
nearly ten minutes, but due to the disastrous previous moments, it did not phase me.
Out of the nine ships that were knocked out of formation, one managed to get to Paris,
another landed in Belgium and one struggled into our field after we had landed. The battle
damage cost us six complete crews and nine aircraft. I was never so shocked in all of my
life, losing 55 buddies in one second was more than I could take. Because I was in a
trance, shocked because of the loss I did not write this until September 10. That made us
twenty-four missions, but only by the Grace of God will we complete the tour.
Epilogue
The shock of the mission caused great mental stress for our crew,
but most of us regrouped and flew to Liepzig on September 11 in a replacement ship while
G.I. Wonder sent in for two weeks of intensive battle damage repair.
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