Subject: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 10
From: [email-masked] (Michael Fitch)

B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 10.

        From William J. Watson's diary:

January 11      Tenth raid - Target Brunswick - Long raid deep into
                Germany. Mission scrubbed 20 miles from target. We
                picked out some little town and dropped our bombs.
                Don't know what we hit. Flack was very accurate. One
                piece hit near our number 2 supercharger. Fighters
                didn't bother us much. Good escort. Lt. Hoen's crew
                missing. 59 bombers lost. 50 to 100 fighters were
                sent to attack our formation but escort drove them
                back. Clouds saved us. 152 enemy fighters shot down.

        From Albert Soriano's memoir's:

Mission No. 10                  Date    Jan. 11, 1944
Target  Brunswick, Germany
Time    2:48                    Trip    6:30 hrs
Altitude        26,100          Temp.   (C) 49 below
Damage  Eighteen flak holes and two 20 MM holes in Fuselage.
Memo    This is the first time we have been attacked by German fighters
        in such large numbers. ME 109's and FW 190's attacked us as
        soon as we got the coast. We lost more ships on this day, then
        I would care to say.

        From a local British newspaper:

                U.S. Crewmen Speak in Awe Of Giant Battle
                                -----------
        Fought 'Whole Damned Luftwaffe,' Some Say; Yet Others Saw None
                                -----------
        American bomber crews--from wing-leading generals to tail-end 
Charlies--yesterday told their stories of what Germans and Yanks alike         
described as the greatest dogfight of the war.
        Of the vast air battle which sprawled across hundreds of miles
of German sky, some Fortress and Liberator crews could speak in awed
terms such as "the whole damned Luftwaffe," or "they never stopped
coming," or "planes were going down everywhere you looked."
        Yet at the same time, crews who came back to base unscathed
and unsighted by the Nazi interceptors described a comparatively 
quiet tour through thick cloud as they searched for targets of
opportunity in almost fantastic contrast to the bitter combats over
central Germany.
                        Came In 'in Bunches'
        Brig. Gen. Robert F. Travis, of Savannah, Ga., who led one
formation in the Fort Eight Ball, piloted by Lt. Col. William R.
Calhoun, of Birmingham, Ala., said: "The fighters started to attack
at the Zuider Zee, in spite of our escort, and came in at us in bunches.
        "Our first attack was from four FW190s, the next from 30
FW190s, then 12, and then they just kept on coming. They attacked
straight through the formation and from all angles without even
rolling over. They seemed to let up just a little when we started our
bombing run.
        "There was a period of three minutes only, from the time the
fighters first started to make their attack until they left us, when
they were not around."
        Testimony that the Germans used everything they had in an
effort to bring down the bombers was given by many airmen. A gunner
from Brooklyn said that "the Nazis had three of everything in the sky,
including old Stuka dive-bombers and even a twin-engined job that 
looked like a transport."
        However, little opposition was reported by Sgt. Loy Humphreys,
of Van, Tex., a waist gunner. "Our fighter escort was so good," he said,
"that only two enemy fighters could get near enough to be seen, and
they stayed well out of the range of our guns. A pillar of smoke came
out of the overcast after 'bombs away.'"
        But an hour-long attack by about 75 German fighters was reported
by the crew of the Fortress Belle of the Bayou. "We thought the whole 
Luftwaffe was after us," they said.
        "Those Messerschmitt pilots were crazy," one gunner said. "They 
even pressed their attacks to within 25 yards--one exploded that distance
from the tail of a Fortress."
        "Another one coming down from above, was nailed by the top-turret
gunner, who held his fire until the last moment, in spite of the
warnings from the other members of the crew over the intercom.
        "Then the FW109s--so many of them that I could not count them--
came out of the haze at us. The MEs broke off at first, but came back 
later and, with the 190s, began hitting at us from every side. They used 
no tracers, but the 20 mm. shells were bursting all ariund like tiny 
stars."

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