Issue 47.13
At each of the more than two dozen Eighth Air Force bomber bases in England, there were similarities. The main east- west runways were almost always at least one mile or a little longer in length. There was a point on each runway that was the critical point. This was usually marked by bright colored pylons set by the runway. This was the point where if the fully loaded B-17 had not yet reached the speed of 88 miles per hour, then the pilot must do everything in his power to stop that B-17. Those Fortresses were loaded so heavy for a mission that they counted the rounds of machine gun ammunition. In order for the pilot to get that critical speed, each Fortress at his turn in 30 second intervals would lock the breaks and run those four Wright Cyclone engines as fast as51 inches of mercury manifold pressure would take them. At the 30 second mark he would release the brakes and his bomber would shoot down the runway. We all wished the runways were one half mile longer. Robert Parnell, our pilot had thousands of hours at the controls of B-17’s and he knew what to do. If a too heavy of a load was deemed a little too much for us to leave the ground by the time the end of the runway came up, he would bounce old “Queenie” a couple of time and help her out. As each bomber sped down the runway, you could see the off colored blue flame coming from each engines exhaust to indicate that full plus a bit more power was used. Not every bomber made it off the runway in time and occasionally one bomber would crash beyond the end of the runway. 2,780 gallons of gasoline and three tons of bombs make an awful big hole and no one walks away from that event. On October 14th, a Thursday 1943, 257 Flying Forts took off on mission number 115to the ball bearing manufacturing city of Schweinfurt, Germany. On that mission, Jerry was waiting for them in great fighter plane numbers. Their bombing was a great success. Ball bearings were an integral part of all military machines. Those 257 bomber crews paid a terrible price. On the way to the target, the Germans shot down 28 B-17’s.
After bombing the target and are on their way home all crewmen say or think “Up to now, we flew for our country, but from this point on, we are flying and fighting for ourselves”. On the way home, the Germans shot down another 31 bombers. One more bomber ditched in the channel and five more landed but were so damaged that they never flew again. The losses for the day were a total of 65 bombers with another 17 more damaged but repairable. Of the 2,570 men sent out that day, 594 were missing in action (MIA), another five dead, 10 critically wounded and 33 wounded. The losses were devastating and many wondered if the days of daylight precision bombing were over. No more deep penetrating missions into Germany were flown for the rest of 1943. The organization at that time was the Army Air Force. In 1947, that organization was no longer a part of the Army but was now equal to the other branches of America’s military service. This year 2013 the Air Force still reverences that day that is known as Black Thursday.