Group Mission 76 - Brunswick, Germany - March 23rd, 1944. Daniel was in Crew #6, and flew in A/C 42-32026 "Tis a Mystery".
18 B-17's from the "A" Group and 12 B-17's from the "B" group of the 390Th participated in the mission to Brunswick on March 23rd 1944. The Bomb run was made with path finders. The "A" group dropped 180 x 500lbs GP bombs and the "B" group dropped 432 x 100 lbs frag bombs. The 8TH airforce dispatched 768 A/C, in which 707 attacked and 28 went missing. Casualties were 1, with 16 wounded and 288 crewmen missing. The target that day was a aircraft factory, with Munster being a secondary target.
The General Narrative for the "A" Group is as follows.
The 390Th "A" Group formation which was the lead Group of the 13TH "B"Combat Wing took off at 0620 hours- 0636 hours and assembled over the field at 9000 feet. Assembly was completed as scheduled and proceeded to climb to Wing assembly altitiude. Arriving at Colchester 3.5 minutes late and did not locate the low group at that point. Swung around toward Buncher 9, arriving there about one minute early, Contacted the low Group leader on VHF and gave him out heading and altitude, also fired flares at his request. However low Group did not locate out formation. As this left us on individual Group we followed closely behind the 13TH "A" Wing for the remainder of the flight. Primary target was covered and the secondary was bombed on PFF. Bombs were away at 1037 hours. Route back was as briefed and all planes had landed by 1255 hours.
Aircraft Not Attacking: (21) A/C including (2) PFF left the base in formation. A/C 114 crash landed at Horham and was not dispatched Thus (18) A/C not including the PFF were dispatched. All (18) are credited with sorties. All (18) attacked the target. Aircraft lost, none.
General Narrative for the "B" Group is as follows.
The 390TH "B" Group Composite formation which flew high group on the 13TH "A" combat Wing took off at 0605 hours - 0625 hours and assembled above the overcast at 12,000 feet over the field. 9 A/C from the 95TH Group formed the high squadron. Proceeded to Wing assembly altitude arriving at Manningtree on time. Assembly with lead and low groups accomplished without difficulty. Except for a change in the wind that all times to be early, no difficulties were encountered on course into target. Primary was overcast and bombs were dropped on secondary at 1038 hours. Route back was flown as briefed. All planes had landed by 1304 hours.
Aircraft Not Attacking: (13) A/C including one spare left the field in formation shown in diagram. Spare A/C 971 was not needed and returned to base. (12) A/C were dispatched, are credited with sorties and attached the target. Aircraft lost: none.
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