Subject: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 6
From: [email-masked] (Michael Fitch)

SUBJECT: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 6.

        From William J. Watson's diary:

December 22     Sixth raid - Target Munster - Crew Full House went down.
                Milk run - fighters hit B-24s behind us. Got two of them.

        From Albert Soriano's memoirs:

Mission No.     6                       Date    Dec. 22, 1943
Target          Munster, Germany
Time            2:24 hrs                Trip    6:15 hrs
Altitude        24,700                  Temp. (C) 41 below
Damage          Seven or eight flak holes.
Memo            This is the first time we have ever taken British made 
                bombs in our ship, and I hope it is the last time. We
                had more trouble with the bombs, than we did with the 
                rest of the mission.

        From a local British newspaper:

        Targets in Nortwest Battered in Month's Seventh Big Assault
                                ---------
                Raid Comes 48 Hrs. After 1,200-Ton Bremen Blow
                                ---------
        Large formations of Eight Air Force heavy bombers, striking a 
new blow in the area of Hitler's heavy industry and shipbuilding, attacked
targets in northwestern Germany yesterday in the newest raid of a growing
offensive estimated to have dumped nearly 6,000 tons of bombs on Germany
and France in the last three days.
        The heavies assault, their seventh operation of the month and the
sixth directed at the Reich itself, came 48 hours after Eighth Bomber 
Command Fortresses and Liberators loosed approximately 1,200 tons of high
explosives and incendiaries on Bremen.
        Reconnaissance photographs made within an hour after the bombers 
attacked showed numerous large fires burning in two port areas, and later
pictures showed them still burning, with high columns of smoke.
                        Railway Yards Ablaze
        The pictures showed fires and smoke clearly visible in the 
railway yards and direct hits on workshops and other installations in and
around Bremen's main ship repair yard. Several buildings were completely
destroyed in a warehouse area.
        In eastern Bremen, the industrial sector was heavily hit by high
explosives and incendiaries. Two of the three major factories of an armoured
vehicle works could be seen afire.
        Unofficial recapitulation of the air attacks from British bases
since Monday indicated the Anglo-American forces were in the midst of one of
the greatest combined air operations carried out against any country since
the war began.
        Monday's USAAF hammering of Bremen, Germany's most important sea
port, involved large fleets of Fortresses and Liberators and a record
fighter escort. Monday night's RAF raid was a 2,200-ton attack on chemical
plants at Frankfort. U.S. Marauders followed this up in daylight Tuesday
with attacks on military targets in northern France--possibly secret rocket
guns.

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