Evening star., 1944-04-09

planes.
1t takes a little time to say, but
what am telling you was over quite
literally before you could say rocket
gun" From these streaks of flame
fiery missiles about the size of spit
balls hurtled toward our formation
All of them at first appeared to be
heading directly at us. We were not
hit, though. During the entire battle
our ship was not scratched.
Mary was not so lucky. Two of its
engines were knocked out. Stagger-
ing, the battered ship held its posi-
ton in the formation for a few
minutes and then suddenly it was
gone.
A thing like that strikes close to
home. I remember that when we
were on the way up Mike was wor-
ried because at one time nobody
seemed to be beside us on the left.
When Mary showed up there after
few minutes, he had smiled and
waved across at the boy who was
flying her.
Hundreds of Foe Appear.
And SO it went for more than half
an hour. A long time to be out in
the cold blue, four miles above the
Alps. Tired, proud Americans spit
ting defiant steel at all comers, slug
ging it out on the long voyage home
The LuftWaffe'S best-hundreds of
them - the fast, deadly Messer-
| schmitts and Focke Wulfs and
Junkers 88s slashing in and out
between the groups, sometimes clos
ing to within Is yards, swarming
all over the formation, determined
to stop it.
In the course of the battle some
thing hit the lead plane of one of
the elements of the formation on
our right. The Liberator blew UP
flying into pieces before our eyes
Part of it-probably motor-struck
the ship on it's right, shearing off
the nose just forward of the wing.
The second plane went into spin
One wing and a part of its tail
came off. The wreckage of the two
planes fell on third, which sWerved
sharply to the left out of its forma-
tion and moment later started to
spin. We could see this third ship
all the way down. 1t did not dis
integrate or burnt simply spun
to the earth. When it struck the
ground, perhaps a minute after be-
ing hit, it was Immediately envel-
oped in a black cloud of smoke. 1t
n h of n
parachuteS emerged at the last
minute
Nazis Drop Combat Bombs.
The fighters left us for a while,
but before we got out of Austria
there was another clash in which
about 10 MesSerchmitts attacked the
formation ahead of us. At the
same time two planes dropped what
appeared to be aerial bombs into
our formation. Nobody went down.
So the LiberatorS rode home
through the blue afternoon sky. 1t
had happened pretty much that
way before. 1t might happen again
tomorrow. Another target was hit
another days work for the combat
crews.
And this is what the boys did in
days work to the ball-bearing
plant, which was the principal tar
get. One building was nine-tenths
destroyed. The picture showed a
little section of roof standing at
what once was the south end of the
building-the rest a Smouldering
Wreckage. Another building was
devastated. One quarter of it was
left but seemed to have suffered
substantial damage.
Half of third building was left
with no roof-the result of numerous
direct hits. The remaining two
buildings of the factory also were
damaged.
The raid that day cost us II
bombers. First reports show our
ThunderboltS and Lightnings in
their part of the battle got 33 enemy
fighters and suffered no losses and
the bomber formations-on their
way to the target and back again
knocked at least 80 Germany air.
planes out of the sky.