Issue 51.11
Here it is the year 2010 and something is bothering me as it has for the last 65 years. I was the lower ball turret gunner on Robert Parnell’s crew number 5383. We had been flying our required number of bombing missions into Germany and on December 19th, 1944 we were briefed to bomb the railroad marshaling yards at Kall. We took off that morning in normal weather (for England) but the weather that moved in was so bad at our home base of Polebrook that all three squadrons of the 351st group that flew that day were diverted and landed at a deserted paratroop base near the city of Bath. We were so socked in that we camped there for four days. We then took off as a group so that we could load and prepare for another mission where we were desperately needed to help our beleaguered ground armies at the battle of Ardennes (Bulge). Again the foul weather prevented us from reaching Polebrook but we were able to get to another American air base. We stayed there overnight and slept in our planes as the ground crews toiled through the night to load our thirty-six bombers with bombs, gasoline and all the rest of our needs to get us ready for take off the next morning. On December 24th, the home group of at least 48 B-17’s plus our 36 and some from other groups all took off to bomb everything the enemy could use to get supplies through.
Our three squadrons each had separate targets but all three squadrons flew over all three targets. One target was an enemy airfield but, the 508th target was a village built around the intersection of the railroad and the autobahn. We were flying at 9,000 feet on this bright cloudless day so from my position in the ball turret, I could see clearly even the individual houses. I’m sure that up to this time, the war had left that town untouched.
Normally when hitting a heavily defended target, as soon as all had bombs away, the whole group would bank sharply to get out of the ground fire as soon as possible. On this day the whole three squadrons flew straight ahead for the next target. As a result, I was almost directly above when our bombs hit that intersection with the village around it. I watched as that whole town was turned into a boiling cloud of yellow dust by our 72 tons of high explosives.
Time after time we heaped more explosives with greater destruction upon greater cities but visibility from 30,000 feet and through clouds, battle smoke and contrails I could see little detail. But what happened on that December 24, 1944 was such a vivid, stark scene that burned into my brain like a hot iron. For the next fifty years, I watched those houses turn into yellow dust many times each day and each night. Even sixty five years later, I can still see that picture so vividly that I can almost count the houses.
At the conclusion of my combat tour of 35 missions we were each given a list of our missions, the targets and the dates. My list shows an airfield at Biblis, Germany. All that information is available on the internet that also gives the target for all three squadrons as that airfield. Even to this day, I would like to know the name of that village that I witnessed disappear into a cloud of yellow dust. I saw a village disappear, not an airfield.
Sam may be contacted at 801-707-2666.