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   Arriving at North Pickenham, three miles south east of Swaffham near King's Lynn , Norfolk in April 1944 , the 492nd Bomb Group were one of the last Eighth AF groups in arrive in Europe. During eighty eight days through the spring and early summer of 1944 the gallant crews in their silver B-24 Liberators flew daylight missions to points of maximum penetration into Germany. There were no easy missions over Germany. But some were harder than others and the German fighter defences  were still able to inflict grievous losses. During this brief  eighty eight  day period the 492nd suffered heavier losses than any other B-24 Group which eventually led to the decision to remove the 492nd from daylight operations. And as part of the 14th Combat Wing, 2nd Bomb division , the 492nd were to find themselves on the 7 July mission on the end of the first mass Sturm assault carried out in Gruppe strength by a Luftwaffe Sturmgruppe . 

 The following extracts of the days events are taken from the Mission summary and the 492nd unit history  Fortunes of War with the permission of the author Al Blue. The book is still available and still selling after it's 1987 reprint  and can be obtained from Cliff Bishop at East Anglia books, nr Bishops Stortford, England.

".....Each month so far had produced one disastrous mission and July ran true to form. As was the case in May, it happened on a Friday. The date this time was the 7th. Again to establish the framework within which the action took place, the overall 8th Air Force attack was planned as follows...

.....The weather forecast indicated that vital oil installations and important aircraft component and assembly plants in the Leipzig area would be open to visual attack. Consequently a major effort was launched  and the five combat Wings of 3rd Division slated for the oil plants at Bohlen and Merseburg. The eight combat wings of the 1st Division were sent to greater Leipzig to hit the aircraft factories of the Erla complex, whilst the 492nd's Wing  (2nd Division) were briefed for the Junkers plants at Bernberg and Aschersleben..." 

All three Bomb Divisions were to depart the coast at separate points. Courses of the 1st and 3rd would converge, with the latter leading on a common penetration route to a point approximately 100 miles due west of Berlin. They would then fly to a point 40 miles southwest of the capitol, feint towards Berlin to provoke a fight, and then turn sharply west and south to their respective targets in the Bohlen/Merseburg/Leipzig areas. Meanwhile, 2nd Division was to fly a route somewhat north and parallel to the 1st and 3rd Divisions, turning southeast at Dummer Lake and, at the last moment, splitting for four separate targets. Time control was such that all divisions were briefed to be over their objectives at 0930 hours. It was felt that the 3rd and 1st Divisions, sweeping closest to Berlin, would evoke the most serious reaction, and the bulk of the available escort was assigned to these two forces.

The 14th Wing formation plan called for three squadrons of the 392nd Group to lead, two 492nd squadrons (lead and low left) and one additional 392nd squadron (high right) to "fly flat with the lead group, echeloned to the right and back", and the 44th Group of three squadrons to fly in trail of the leading 392nd.

Twenty-three B-24s left North Pickenham and assembled on schedule. Lt. Konstand, with Maj. Donald Heaton (857th CO) as Air Commander, led the lead squadron and Lt. Harding the low left. Two aircraft aborted before crossing the enemy coast.

The crossover of routes required by the mission plan was a little hairy, since the B-17s were later and lower than briefed and "produced hazardous conditions near Control Point 3". No collisions resulted, however - they came later.

By the time the 3rd Division spear-head reached Mulhausen it was 30 minutes late. The 2nd Division, according to plan, had already veered sharply to the southeast at Dummer Lake, and its spearhead was 20 miles east of Kassel. From this display of forces the enemy correctly deduced that the targets would be his great oil and aircraft complexes. He therefore completely ignored the 3rd Division, whose tardiness unmasked the plan, and made for the 2nd Division, running on time to the south.

The Luftwaffe, in fact, was well organized on 7 July 1944. Liberators especially equipped to monitor enemy fighter frequencies actually heard the attacking ZG 26 pilots ordered to hit the "third formation" (i.e., the 14th Wing) as the "first formation" had too many escorting fighters protecting it.

The main enemy concentration from Magdeburg plus reinforcements from Southwest Germany, as many as 175 single engine and 125 twins in all, unleashed their attacks against the center of the column. Although one squadron of the leading 389th Group moving into Halle lost three bombers to enemy fighters when it strayed from the parent force, and the 489th lost one over Aschersleben, the majority of the attacks were hammered against the 14th Wing attacking Bernberg. As noted earlier the 44th Group was flying direct-ly behind the 392nd at a three minute interval. At the IP (the 44th noted in its mission report) "FOUR GROUPS OF B-24'S CAME IN FROM THE EAST AND IT BECAME NECESSARY TO SWING TO THE RIGHT... FIGHTER SUPPORT WAS EXCELLENT." In other words, the 492nd was now exposed to attack from the rear, and all local escort had gone with the 44th. Thus was the fate of the 492nd again sealed.

From six o'clock the enemy fighters fell on the Group's low left squadron like a sledgehammer. Capt. Ernest E. Pelkey's B-24 was hit, spun and then exploded with everybody still inside. Lt. MacMurray and crew went down for the second time under an enemy fighter's guns but without a trace of the luck they had experienced on 15 June  ( MacMurray and his crew had been Priller's 100th victim   over Normandy in June but had been able to make their way back to American lines and home to   North Pickenham )                                                                                                                 

Three of Lt Dave MacMurray's crew KIA 07 July 1944

S/Sgt  Francis Larrivee, gunner, Lt Raymond Pascual, bombardier and S/Sgt Walter Schlosser, gunner. Three members of Lt Dave MacMurray's 856BS crew . A 'tough luck' crew, they had suffered much in the run up to 7 July 1944 . Losses amongst 856BS crews  had been  particularly heavy on the 20 June mission to Politz. The crew is still listed MIA and the wreck of their aircraft  which lies near Magdeburg has never been formally identified. (Info courtesy Russell Ives, photo from Bill Beasley's 492nd journal The Happy Warrior)
   

The battle raged up to and over and beyond the target, with the route marked by the wreckage of the Liberators of Watson, Harding, Jacks, Kilpatrick, Newman, Steneman, Frank Haag, Smiley and Bocksberger.                                                                                                                      

All twelve persons in Harding's lead aircraft managed to bail out but were badly beaten, and one killed, by German civilians when they landed. Everybody but the nose and tail gunners left Jacks' B-24. The latter was dead, but Sgt. Vince Bradeka, trapped in the nose turret by fire, was far from it.The aircraft circled for five minutes before it crashed, while enemy fighters continued to make passes. Bradeka was seen shooting until the end.                                                                        

Events aboard Frank Haag's aircraft were equally grim. The copilot and radio operator were dead on the flight deck, which was a total wreck. Two gunners were dead at their stations, and there was a fire in the bomb bay. Meanwhile in the nose compartment the following was taking place - quoted verbatim from what must be one of the classic action vignettes of World War II. This was written by Haag's navigator, Lt. Ralph Goloven, upon his release from POW camp in 1945:

"When leading a mission I always found it best, after definitely establishing the IP and target, to ride on the nose wheel doors, giving the bombardier complete freedom of the little space in the nose. We had always flown B-24J's whose nose wheel doors open upward. This time we were flying a B-24H, whose nose wheel doors open down-wards, and I had forgotten this, otherwise I would never have been on them. After bombs were reported away, I heard the pilot say rudder control was lost, and though there was much firing I didn't think it was anything serious. Interphone was shot out soon after, and about two minutes past the target I noticed that the nose gunner, who always was so careful about shooting in short bursts and handled his turret very smoothly, must have been hit for the turret suddenly and violently slewed around to the right and the ammo tracks leading to the turret from the ammo boxes in my compartment were running wild. I started to get up from the wheel doors when I noticed the bombardier look out one window, then the other, rip his flak suit off and snap on his parachute. I still didn't think too much about the matter but took my flak suit off in order to move more quickly into the nose to help the nose gunner. Something prompted me to reach for my chute which was on the catwalk to the right and (I) had just started to get from my knees to climb into the nose when the bombardier hit the emergency release, and out I went with chute in hand. Later the bombardier told me he saw the plane completely on fire in the wing section and, fearing immediate explosion, thought only of getting out fast.

"After falling I managed to hook the left side of the chest pack and, after pulling rip cord with no result, ripped the chute pack open by hand, coming down with only the left side fastened. I still believed nothing serious had hap-pened. Next day I found out our ship had exploded in mid-air."

George Haag, flying in the lead squadron, watched his brother's plane go down.

The 492nd lost one other at Bernberg - the only aircraft lost from the lead squadron. Small deviations in routes and timing  had placed the 453rd and 492nd on a collision course. As the formations, both under fighter attack, approached each other Major Heaton, sitting between the seats of Konstand's lead B-24 as Command Pilot for the mission, nudged the pilot and pointed to the on-coming Liberators. Lt. Konstand, an utterly dedicated officer whose only intent at that moment was to bomb his target, acknowledged their presence with a single comment: "They're empty and we're full. Let them move over!"

Just then the aircraft flying deputy lead for the 453rd, which actually was a PFF Liberator supplied by the 389th, was hit and veered toward the on-coming 492nd with its right wing on fire. The events that followed are again quoted from the mission diary of Lt. Crowley.

"Lt. Cary was flying on our right wing - his wing tip practically in our side window. I was called to the back of the plane by Sgt. McCarthy whose heated suit had shorted and was burning him. I tried unsuccessfully to fix it and finally sent him to the flight deck to keep warm while I remained in back to man his window gun. I took over the gun facing Cary. Suddenly Sgt. Coomer, the nose gunner, started quite a fuss on the intercom as he saw another plane thundering in on us head-on. We all floated about 2 feet off the floor as O'Sullivan put it into a steep dive. Just as he did I saw the two planes come together. It almost seemed like slow motion; Cary's wing was sheared off, the plane seemed to stay in level flight as the gasoline poured out of the wing just as though someone were emptying a tumbler of water. Then it started to go all directions at once."

Both B-24s spun in, leaving a single parachute in their flaming wake. Underneath the canopy was the collision's only survivor, the navigator from Cary's crew....".

 Mr William Squires uncle was a radio operator on the 389th PFF Liberator. Visit his site

http://members.stratos.net/wsquires