Subject: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 16
From: [email-masked] (Michael Fitch)

SUBJECT: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 16.

        From William J. Watson's diary:

February 4      Sixteenth raid - Target Frankfurt - Very rough. Got off
                course and into flack valley. The flack was very heavy and 
                accurate. Right oxygen line shot out, three holes in the
                tail. No fighter support because we were 100 miles off
                course. We were glad to get back.

        From Albert Soriano's memoirs:

Mission No.     16                      Date    Feb. 4, 1944
Target          Frankfurt, Germany
Time            2:37                    Trip    6:30
Altitude        26,500                  Temp    (C) 48 below
Damage          Seventeen medium size flak holes, one large flak in the
                tail. Our main wing spar was damaged. One could get the 
                feeling that these people don't like us.
Memo            Seems as though Jerry finally decided to have it out. They
                came up in numbers and attacked us as though they were
                crazy, In fact we shot a lot of them down as if they were
                clay pigeons. We had fighter protection but, this is one
                time there were more Jerry fighters than there were ours.
                We had a nice fight, but we lost 59 bombers. We did a good
                job on the target, this trip.

        From a local British newspaper:

        3 Plants Pulverized At Cost of 59 Heavies In Greatest Air Battle
                                ---------------
          U.S. Aircraft Shoot Down More Than 100 Enemy Ships in Raging 
                        Dogfight With Swarms of Germans
                                ---------------
        American bombers dealt Germany's fighter-plane production a major
blow Tuesday afternoon as what probably was the greatest air battle in
history raged over the heart of Germany.
        Smashing through Nazi fighter defenses desperate with the need for
stopping the white-stared bombers at any cost, Flying Fortresses and
Liberators escorted by U.S. fighters, shattered three principal factories
producing German fighters and showered bombs on other plants.
        Fifty-nine American bombers were reported missing from the vast
assault which spread from central Germany to the northwestern approaches of
the Reich. It was the second highest bomber loss ever recorded, tying the
joint figure for the Regensburg-Schweinfurt attack last Aug. 17, and one
under the record high of 60 at Schweinfurt last Oct. 14. Germany claimed
136 U.S. planes had been shot down, 124 of them heavy bombers.
                              Five Fighters Lost
        Five American fighter planes also were reported lost out of the 
swarms of P38s, P47s and new long-range craft (presumably new versions of
the P51 Mustang).
        Incomplete reports put the number of German planes destroyed by
bombers and fighters at more than 100. Fighter planes claimed a better
than five-to-one ratio.
        Prime targets for the day, which also saw lone U.S. bombers over
Berlin, according to neutral reports, were fighter aircraft plants at
Oserschleben, Halbenstadt and Brunswick. Neutral sources also said
Magdeburg was attacked.
        All of the targets lie in the Saxony area approximately 100 miles
west of Berlin, and it was obviously a feinting move by the bomber fleets
toward the German capital that set sirens there wailing in a panicking 
daytime alert.
        Eighth Air Force officials announced that the delay in assessing 
results was caused by the fact that fog unexpectedly had settled over U.S.
fields before the planes returned and that the bombers had been compelled
to land at distant airdromes.
        It was beleived that some of the 59 missing bombers may have landed
at distant points in the British Isles and would still be reported safe.
        Tuesday's operation was a multipronged attack, with some task forces
of large formations using the secret bombing technique, attacking their  
targets through clouds.
        All buildings at the Oserschleben plant, beleived to be the greatest
producer of FW190s, were severely damaged or destroyed. It is beleived that
almost one half the total of FWs produced come out of the Oserschleben
plant. The factory does assembly work and also produces the major portion
of the plane components, such as wings, tail assemblies and fuselages.
        Tuesday's attack, which left the main machine and assembly shop
blazing, was the second time U.S. Eighth Air Force bombers hit the plant.
The previous attack was on July 28, when severe damage was done to the
northeastern section of the plant.
        At Brunswick, the Waggun Me110 main assembly plant was blanketed 
by high explosives, causing the probable destruction of every building
with the possible exception of one.
        The Junkers plant at Halberstadt, principle producer of wings for
the fighter version of the Ju88, was severly damaged. Two large workshops
and two smaller buildings received direct hits. The Ju88 has recently
figured prominently when equiped with rocket guns in attacks on U.S. bombers.
        The Ju88, also produced in Halberstadt, is Germany's newest medium
bomber, and is equipped to carry radio-controlled glide-bombs, used against
shipping.
        As the U.S. Air Forces in the ETO last night sorted the claims and
combat reports of the vast bomber and fighter fleet which hammered targets 
across the Reich, and as the Germans told their version of the aerial battles, 
it became apparent that the Flying Fortresses and Liberator crews, with
their fighter escorts, had taken part in the largest air conflict of the war.
        More than 24 hours after the bombers shattered the noon-hour quiet
in the industrial heart of Germany with a cascade of high explosives and
incendiaries, the complete story of the major assualt was yet to be told,
but preliminary figures indicated that in exchange for a near-record loss
in U.S. bombers, shattering blows had been delivered to Nazi war industry,
and a large portion of the Luftwaffe's air defenses had been wiped out.
        One long-range fighter group shot down 14 enemy planes without loss
in the dogfights, bringing its score to 32 enemy destroyed for the loss of
three U.S. craft in three missions.
        While the American losses were high, on a percentage basis they
were probably less than half those of the Schweinfurt attack last Oct. 14,
when a record 60 U.S. bombers were reported missing.
        The combat crews of those formations which took part in the big
battle came home with descriptions of massed, almost suicidal frontal 
attacks by German fighter pilots who bored straight in at the bombers.
        Some told of broadsides of rocket shells fired by fighters which
cruised in formation resembling a naval line of battle. Virtually every
type of Nazi plane was in the air, from the latest Ju188s to old Stuka
divebombers and obsolescent Me 109s. Even heavy bombers were pressed into
the defense, U.S. crews said.
        Apparently certain the attack was to be the long-awaited major
daylight blow at Berlin, the Luftwaffe commanders sent up task forces to
lay smoke screens from which rocket-firing planes hurled their missiles at
heavies.
        Bombs dangling from cables towed by medium bombers, barrages of 
flak, rockets, and every known kind of anti-aircraft fire were used against
the bombers as they slammed towards their targets.
        Airmen said they were certain the Nazis had been forced to bring
out several types of defense they had been saving for extreme emergency.
        Fortresses and Liberators spun down to the ground, or exploded in
flames, but the other planes closed formation and pressed on, flight
leaders said.
        Meanwhile, other combat groups had come back from the northwest of
Germany after virtually negligible opposition and were startled as the
German radio began to give first descriptions of the battle over the heart 
of the Reich.
        The Nazi story of the attack began with admissions that U.S. heavy
bombers had penetrated central Germany but had been beaten off in lengthy
engagements. By early evening, the tone of the story had begun to shift and
the Germans were claiming a "defensive victory for the Luftwaffe," and 
describing what they said was the rout of American forces.
        From that point, they went on, as the hours passed, to put in
increasing claims of the number of bombers shot down. By early Wednesday the
figure was at 123; by noon it was 136, including 124 heavy bombers and some
fighters.

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    Michael R. Fitch    DISO/UNRIA    (DSN) 850-9961    (614) 692-9961    
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 E-mail:   [email-masked]   -or try-   [email-masked]