Subject: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 11
From: [email-masked] (Michael Fitch)

SUBJECT: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 11.

        From William J, Watson's diary:

January 14      Eleventh raid - Target French coast - Same as before -
                Milk run. No fighters or flack. Two bomb runs. Supposed
                to be Hitler's secret rocket guns.

        From Albert Soriano's memoirs:

Mission No.     11                      Date    Jan 14,1944
Target          Pas De Calais, France
Time            12:48                   Trip    4:00 hrs
Altitude        24,600                  Temp. (C) 43 below
Damage          Several flak holes.
Memo            There was a big difference between this and the first
                raid we made on this target. There were no enemy fighters,
                but there was plenty of flak. We were close to England
                and we had plenty of our own fighter escort.

        From a local British newspaper: 
                
                 U.S. Planes Blast French Coast Again
                                ----------
        RAF and Allied Craft Join Streams of American Heavies, Mediums
                                ----------
        Large formations of USAAF, RAF and Allied bombers--including heavy, 
medium and light bombers and fighter bombers--smashed at military objectives 
in northern France yesterday.
        The official announcement late last night did not specify the
targets, but throughout the afternoon huge formations of all types of planes
were seen shuttling between England and the coast of France-- variously
described as the "invasion coast" and the site of the so-called rocket-gun
installations so widely publicized by Nazi propagandists in recent weeks.
        Both Fortresses and Liberators were among the heavy bombers
participating. The B17s and B24s were escorted and supported by P47s and
P51s, the official communique said.
        RAF, Dominion and Allied fighters escorted the rest of the units,
which included American Marauders and Dominion and Allied medium and light
fighter-bombers.
        "This was my group's 100th mission, and it was 100 per cent perfect
in more ways than one," said Lt. Col. William S. Raper, of Wheeling, W.Va., 
who led one combat wing on yesterday's operation.
        "All ships took off, all bombed the target and all returned safely.
The navigation was excellent and the bombing could not have been improved,"
he said.
        Lt. Col. Raper also flew on the group's first mission over enemy
territory on Oct. 9, 1942, when it took part in a daylight raid on Lille,
France.
        One navigator, 2/Lt. Sid Colthorpe, of Toledo, Ohio, who completed
his operational tour on this mission, said: "It was a dandy finish. We saw 
no enemy fighters and little or no flak, and we took our time, making 
three bomb runs to be sure that we had it right. Practically every bomb in
our formation hit within the target area."
        One puzzling dispatch came yesterday from Stockholm. Quoting
dispatches from Malmoe, in Sweden, it said that Allied planes flew over
parts of Germany, including Stettin, at great height soon after noon. No
bombing was reported.
        Meanwhile, more information became available on the scope and
success of the gigantic operations carried out by the USAAF over      
northwest Germany and the fighter factories in central Germany on Tuesday.
        New photographs of the pattern that American bombs left across
major elements of Germany's aircraft industry in Tuesday's battle over the
central Reich showed even heavier damage to Nazi warplane factories than 
first announced, it was revealed last night.
        After a second check on combat reports had put at 152 the number of
enemy planes shot down in the vast, scrambled dogfight which reached 
virtually to the suburbs of Berlin, USAAF intelligence cheifs yesterday 
issued a detailed assesment of bomb hits on airplane factories in five big 
Nazi industrial centers, as well as on other targets.
        The report on the bombing, as well as combat scores, was not final;
crewmen of the 700 and more bombers and some 500 fighter pilots still were
filling out the picture of what probably was the most bitter air battle in
history.
        Present claims stand at 125 enemy aircraft destroyed by the
bombers, 27 by the fighters. A final figure of 60 on U.S. bombers lost has
been issued by USAAF headquarters, while U.S. fighter losses stand at five.
        The reconnaissance photos showed that the AGO Flugzeugwerke at
Oschersieben, beleived to be the most important producer of FW190 fighters,
was blanketed with high explosives and incediaries. Nine direct hits were
reported on the main machine shops; huge fires were started. Other
assembly shops and plant buildings caught direct hits or near misses.
        Great fires still were burning in the plant when later 
reconnaissance photos were taken.
        At Brunswick, the Waggum fighter and bomber assembly plants which
turn out ME110s received a group of bombs on the sub-assembly shops, stores,
boiler houses and offices, and seven direct hits on the main assembly shops.
        At Halberstadt, the Junkers factory turning out wings for JU88s and
JU188s, was pounded by bursts on six large workshops, direct hits on other
shops and a blanket pattern across offices and other buildings.
        At Bielefeld, rail and engineering center, at least 15 bombs 
battered the storage yards, while the bomb pattern extended through
railway yards and into the business area of town.
        The armaments manufacturing town of Meppen, on the Dortmund-Ems
canal, was hit by high explosives and incediaries from Liberator bomb bays,
photos showed. Three and possibly five direct hits cut the railway south
from town, and the vulnerable locks of the canal system near Huntel, a
few miles north, were caught in a bomb pattern which registered near misses
or direct hits on at least one lock.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 DO SOMETHING!!!  Lead, follow, or GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!                   
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 E-mail:        [email-masked]