Subject: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 4
From: [email-masked] (Michael Fitch)

SUBJECT: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 4.

        From William J. Watson's diary:

December 16     Fourth raid - Target Bremen - Left wing to lead ship.
                We missed most of the flack but the rest of the 
                squadrons got shot up pretty bad - 17 heavies lost.
                Jerries hit us at the coast but didn't stay with us long.
                Four ships went down. The overcast was so low we had to
                land at a RAF Base. Truck picked us up the next day.
                Went through a Sterling.

        From Albert Sorian's memoirs:

Mission No.     4                       Date    Dec. 16, 1943
Target          Bremen, Germany         
Time            11:57 hrs               Trip    7:15
Altitude        25,700                  Temp.   (C) 47 below
Damage          Just two flak holes, this time.
Memo            This our second time to this target, but Zuckelli is no
                longer with us. He was grounded because of his back. The
                doctor said, he strained too much in pulling Sudol out of
                the bomb bay on our first mission. We have an extra gunner
                in his place and this guy is a dope....

        From a local British newspaper:

                Heavies Pound Reich in West; B26s Hit France

        American heavy bombers attacked scattered targets in western
Germany in daylight yesterday after Marauders and other medium bombers
had resumed their pounding of secret targets along the invasion coast of 
northern France.
        First offical announcement of the heavy-bomber attacks did not
list targets or figures on losses and enemy aircraft destroyed. The
heavies were escorted by Thunderbolts, Lightnings and long-range Mustangs.
        Vichy radio claimed that ten villages in Normandy were bombed in
the attacks.
        The Marauders opened the day's air offensive with a hammering of
the invasion coast, followed by RAF formations. It was the 19th day this
month that Allied planes had been over the mysterious Nazi installations
in the Pas de Calais area.
        Just after sunrise the first wave of Marauder medium bombers,
escorted by fighters, opened the second consecutive day's assaults on
targets which may be emplacements for Hitler's secret rock guns.
Mosquitoes, Mitchells and Bostons picked up the attack as the Marauders
came home, and while the early-morning good weather held, RAF
Hurribombers and Bombphoons hit other targets. One RAF fighter-bomber
was reported missing.
        The attacks came after a night in which the RAF sent Mosiquitoes
to harass western Germany, starting Nazi sirens for the third time in
four nights. Other aircraft laid mines in enemy waters, all without loss.
        Meanwhile, a recapitulation on Sunday's daylight attacks showed
the loss of one Marauder and one fighter of the big force of light and 
medium aircraft which hammered Nazi airfields, as well as the secret 
targets in the Pas de Calais area. American fighters at the same time
were sweeping French skies without opposition.
        Marauders alone dropped more than 300 tons of bombs in Sunday's
raids; no bomb tonnages were given for the RAF bombers which also were
out. Fighter escorts destroyed four Nazi planes, Marauder gunners one.

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