Interesting sortie record - 306th Bomb Group - July 1944 / January 1945

[Wapping]

Something popped up on my Facebook account this morning, which might interest some here.

It is the sorties record of a navigator flying with the 306th Bomb Group over a seven month period.

What struck me, was not so much the number of flights, but the mixture of targets. With the exception of a consecutive three day battering of Munich in January (and a return again later in the month) there are very few repeats; this shows the widespread pounding of Germany, just by this one Bomb Group alone.

Similarly, the places themselves. Stralsund, right up on the north east corner of the Baltic coast is, today, a holiday town, close to Germany’s largest island, Rugen. I bet it wasn’t too attractive a destination for holiday makers on the morning of 6th October 1944, when elements of the 306th Bomb Group arrived in the sky overhead.

PS I Googled up the 306th’s potted history:

https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/unit/306th-bomb-group-reich-wreckers


And some other pieces:

https://www.306bg.co.uk/

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/306th-bombardment-group/

 

[Barnoe]

interesting,

thanks for sharing.

 

[Greg Masters]

As always, it's fascinating to read about this sort of history.

Thurleigh, it appears, is now used for storing scrapped cars but its 6,000ft runway remains intact for possible future use.

 

[Wapping]

It is also the home of Bedford autodrome track thing, which I have done a track day at.

Also interesting is how early the raid scheduled for 24th August was cancelled.

 

[Wapping]

I found this, which references the three days of raids on Munich in July 1944:

On 11 July, a break in the overcast seemed likely to develop around Munich, where abundant aircraft engine plants and marshalling yards offered attractive targets.

It was a mission of considerable length and it was expected that the GAF would attack at the point of greatest strain for the fighter escort. But the Luftwaffe was not at all in evidence. Nor was a break in the overcast. The bombers had to employ H2X on all the targets; Munich and Augsburg received 2,353 tons from the 1,048 attacking bombers.

On the next day the Eighth hoped to revisit Berlin, which the RAF had recently bombed, but weather conditions were too forbidding. Accordingly, 1,117 of its bombers returned to Munich, where 2,708 tons fell on the center of the city. Again the bombers used H2X and again they encountered no GAF fighters.

For the third successive day, on 13 July, the Eighth dispatched more than 1,000 heavies to Munich and bombed it by H2X methods and attacked marshalling yards at Saarbrücken as well. While forty German fighters showed up on the 13 July mission, they made only reluctant and ineffective efforts to intercept the bombers. 55 Losses of the Eighth Air Force on all three of these Munich attacks amounted to fifty heavy bombers, most of which were victims of antiaircraft guns and operational troubles.

When the weather cleared up sufficiently to make assessments, it appeared that the railway facilities in the city and the great Bayerische Moterenwerke aeroengine plant were very severely damaged.

50 heavy bombers were lost going to Munich and the associated other raids, over the three day period. It is tricky to imagine 50 bombers lined up today at an air display and then imagine them vanishing; a simple statistic that re-emphasises the scale of the destruction suffered each day for years. It’ll give something to think about when wandering around the BMW museum.

It seems that the raids on Stralsund on 6th July and Ruhland on the 7th July 1944, were part of the offensive to destroy Germany’s oil production capabilities:

In October the campaign went ahead with as much force as operating conditions permitted.

The Eighth Air Force was able to carry out no more than four extensive oil missions. The best flying day was 7 October, when more than 550 heavy bombers attacked Pölitz, Ruhland, Böhlen, Lützkendorf, Merseburg-Leuna, and Magdeburg. Except for Pölitz, which evidently was put out of operation for about three weeks, the results of this mission from the standpoint of bombing were only moderately good.

The supervising oil committee of the Combined Strategic Targets Committee deduced soon after this attack that bombs would have to be placed more concentratedly on the plants in order to achieve worth-while damage

Had this been my school report, it would doubtless have said “Could do better”.


PS Source: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/III/AAF-III-18.html

 

[AndyB_11]

As always, it's fascinating to read about this sort of history.

Thurleigh, it appears, is now used for storing scrapped cars but its 6,000ft runway remains intact for possible future use.

Well they’re often scrap after a bit of a run out at this place

https://www.bedfordautodrome.co.uk/

That whole area is a bit confusing when it comes to deciding which base was where because RAF Thurleigh and RAF Twinwoods Farm almost overlapping and for a long time both formed part of RAE Bedford.

 

[Northern jock]

On a similar vein I have a part copy of a fighter pilots logbook from the first war. He became a dentist after the war and lived near my parents.

His logbook shows his first solo in 1917 was after 4 hours of flying which is unheard of now.

Then, after 49 hours he was operational and after 182 hours posted to France. One page from his logbook includes the casual phrase "brought Hun raider down".

Not many of them survived.

 

[Wildfowler]

Thanks for sharing

 

[Si Yates]

Interesting thanks guys!!

 

[Boxerboy55]

I recently enjoyed a library book about The Pathfinders.

Selected top tier bomber crews, with great focus on navigation.

For years the WW2 bombing accuracy was atrocious, but Bomber Harris continued throwing vast numbers of bombers and crews at it.

The Pathfinders improved the accuracy significantly, but it wasn't a joy ride for sure.

 

[Wapping]

Pathfinders, is indeed an excellent book.

 

[The Other PaulG]

Not a wartime book, but if you want a glimpse of how challenging airborne navigation was before satellites, Wind Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery provides a fascinating insight.

Uncertain where you are, night, cloud cover obscuring any landmark lights on the ground, low on fuel...

 

[Posh Pete]

On a similar vein I have a part copy of a fighter pilots logbook from the first war. He became a dentist after the war and lived near my parents.

His logbook shows his first solo in 1917 was after 4 hours of flying which is unheard of now.

Then, after 49 hours he was operational and after 182 hours posted to France. One page from his logbook includes the casual phrase "brought Hun raider down".

Not many of them survived.

A very, very lucky pilot, as you say Alistair. A bit puzzled at the MFS type which is a two seater, it seems. There's no mistaking the Camel though! I'll need to dig out my old Biggles books!

Incidentally, there's a famous aviation related anniversary today and tomorrow ...