Subject: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 18
From: [email-masked] (Michael Fitch)

SUBJECT: B-17 Boomerang Barbara, mission 18.

        From William J. Watson's diary:

February 6      Eighteenth raid - Target Air field at Romellile Sur Sein,
                France. The overcast was so thick we couldn't bomb. Saw
                about 20 German fighter. Four attacked the low group. One
                Fort blew up, one parachute. Little flak, but not too
                close. Milk run for us.

        From Albert Soriano's memoirs:

Mission No.     18                              Date    Feb. 6, 1944
Target          Romilly San Seine
Time            2:30                            Trip    6:25        
Altitude        26,300                          Temp.   (C) 40 below
Damage          One flak hole in the waist.
Memo            This time Jerry was not on the beam. We had very little
                opposition and we finished the job, we started the day 
                before. I don't think Jerry will be using this field for
                a long time to come.

        From James Baldock's log:

        No. XX - Feb. 6, 1944

Took off at 715 hrs. & climbed to bombing altitude of 23,000 before leaving
England. Crossed coast at Eastbrowne and entered France at Dieppe. Passed
north of Paris and could not bomb target briefed for, an airfield southeast
of Paris, because of overcast, so we roamed around for over an hour trying
to find an open airfield but were unsuccessful. Retraced course in and 
returned to England. Scattered flak, a little heavy at times. Four FW-190's
attacked our group & got a Fort. We landed at base at 1400 hrs. No damage to
crew or plane. Carried six delay-fuse 500 lb. bombs which we dumped in
Channel. Third cluster mission.                          Total Time 133:30
PILOT - LT. BAILEY, - R.M.- B-17-G - "BOOMERANG BARBARA".

        From a local British newspaper:

        Luftwaffe's Airfields For Invasion Defense Battered by Heavies
                                     -----
   Bombers, Out 9th Time in 10 Days, Pound French 'Domes and Secret Targets;
                        Opposition Reported Weak
                                 ------
        American and Allied air fleets smashed Luftwaffe airfields deep in
France and pounded secret targets along the coast in daylight yesterday as
the U.S. heavy bombers carried the war's most intensive bombing assault to
nine raids in ten days.
        While Fortresses and Liberators were giving the Luftwaffe's invasion
defense airfields their second battering in two days, almost endless relays
of other warplanes shuttled across the Channel in daylong sweeps against
military installations on the French coast. Some heavy bombers also hit the
secret targets which may be emplacements for Hitler's rocket guns. 
        Combat crewmen who have carried the assault against the Luftwaffe
through six major attacks and three lesser raids since Jan. 28, reported
generally weak opposition from the Luftwaffe's hoarded fighters as USAAF and      
RAF fighter formations sought in vain to lure the Nazi planes into combat. A
few bomber groups reported brief but bitter dogfights, however.
        From yesterday's American attacks, four heavy bombers and four 
fighters were reported missing. U.S. fighters claimed 13 enemy aircraft in
scattered dogfights, and the bomber gunners claimed four.
        The heavy bombers struck devastating blows at Nazi airdromes and 
depots at Evreux-Fauville, St. Andre de l'Eures Caen, Chateaudun and St. 
Aubin, adding to the destruction left by Saturday's heavy daylight assault on 
six German-held fields in central France. At least 30 Nazi planes were
reported destroyed on the ground in Saturday's blows at Chateaudun, Avord,
Bricy, Tours, Chateaurous-la-Martiniere and Villacoublay, near Paris.
        The Saturday attacks cost two heavy bombers and two U.S. fighters,
while bomber gunners claimed four enemy planes and the fighters, six.
        The American daylight blows over the weekend, in which Marauders
ran up their fifth mission since Jan. 29, were interspersed with RAF
Mosquito attacks deep into Germany, keeping the Luftwaffe defenses upset.
Friday night the Mosquitos slashed at western Germany, and on Saturday night
hit western Germany and Berlin, all without loss.
        The weekend daylight attacks, which brought the long offensive to a 
peak, began with an assault in force on Frankfurt, in Germany, Friday. 
Twenty-one heavy bombers were reported missing and one of the escorting 
USAAF fighters, while bomber gunners claimed four enemy planes and the 
fighters eight.
        On Friday the RAF kept up the assault on the Pas de Calais targets,
losing one plane in light bomber raids.
        While the heavies were pounding the six Nazi-operated airdromes
Saturday. RAF medium bombers hit the Beauvais-Tille field, and the Marauders
and Allied Mosquitoes and Typhoons kept up the offensive against the rocket
coast.
        Early Sunday morning, the Luftwaffe attempted a minor reprisal,
sending a small force of planes against southeast England in the predawn
murk, and London experienced another alert with gunfire.
        Through Saturday night and right up to takeoff time Sunday morning
ground crews groggy from overhauls and endless jobs of maintenance during
the long assault worked to fuel and adjust the bombers and fighters and with
the dawn the shuttle across the Channel began.
        Some groups of heavies going deep into France to hit the airfields
reported sighting as many as 40 or 50 German planes in formations, but most
returned to base with stories of moderate to no fighter interception and
slight to heavy flak. Some of the heavy bombers found solid cloud over the
targets, and in line with standing instructions against any but visual
bombing in occupied territory brought their explosives home. Others reported 
good bombing.
        Maj. Elzia Ledeoux, of Eunice, La., Fortress squadron commander and
pilot, said, "We were able to see the target and drop our bombs in a good
concentration. I believe that airfield will be non-oprational for awhile.
Flak was slight. Because of our excellent fighter escort we didn't have a
single enemy attack."
        Terrific explosions which sent some buildings flying in all direc-
tions were seen by 2/Lt. Frank H. McKibbon, of Los Angeles, navigator on
the Fortress Ohio Air Force.
        It was a nice trip for S/Sgt. Vernon E. Mayer, of Dusquesne, Pa.,
waist gunner on the Liberator Sooner Queen, who was flying his 25th mission.
"The Spits were near and the flak was far," he said, "and that's the way I 
like it."
        "We hit the target. I feel sure the pictures will show good results,"
said 2/Lt. William H. Ichper, of Ashley, Pa., bombardier on the Lib Old
Irish, which was on its 37th mission.

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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]