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Joe Sandford bombardier 465th BG . His account of the Friedrichshafen raid, August 3 1944b



"...........At briefing, August 3, 1944 we learned that the target was to be Friedrichshafen. That was not as bad a target as some others we had survived. And I had been over Friedrichshafen only a week or so before. With no serious difficulty. I calmed down..".

Aircraft - B24H, SN 41-29377

Pilot :Wilbert Elliot

Co-pilot :Fay C Bailey

Nav :James L Connell

Bomb : Joseph C Sanford

Eng : Alvin M Murphy

Radio : Robert J Griffin

Gun : Gilbert D Kapp

Gun : Earl L Cutler

Gun : Robert L Valentine

Gun : Jack Bernstein

".... The flight across the Brenner and over the beautiful Inn valley was awe-inspiring but uneventful. However, as we approached the target I could make out muddled black and white flack. Unless I was hallucinating, and we all do, a giant chess board lay ahead inviting us to enter..

We were following the Inn valley toward Innsbruck and the Brenner on our return from Friedrichshafen when we were hit by a number of German fighters. We shot down many of them and eight of our B-24s (465th BG) fell prey to the attackers.

Willi Unger in his account did not mention that we were without fighter cover. Our group leader fell back to cover a wingman who had lost an engine. Our cover were the Tuskegee boys who had remained with the main formation. It did not take them long to return and enter the battle.

The attack was mostly from the rear. It seemed that there were more than a few 190's. Looked like thirty or forty. Although our gunners did shoot down a few, I believe that most of the German losses were from our red tailed 51's...".

"....I was in the nose at my post looking for fighters. As soon as I saw the 190s coming in I felt a few thuds as we took fire. Our pilot's side wing was holed. The ship on our left wing began to burn. It seemed that only our nose gunner was firing and he very little. I tried to use the intercom but it was dead. Looking through the astrodome I could see the pilot and the navigator who was in the co-pilot's seat. I tried to attract their attention but neither responded. As I was not sure of our survival ability I crawled through the tunnel and up to the flight deck. The bomb bays were densely filled with spraying fuel. We were not survivable. I firmly tapped the pilot's head and said we had to bail out. He sat there. Wanting to know if we were burning externally, I climbed into the top turret and looked aft. We had a long flaming tail. Again I went to the flight deck and screamed into the pilot's ear that we were burning. The navigator jumped down to the command deck and reached for the handle to open the bomb bay doors in order to bail out. I jumped on top of him and told him to go out the waist, which he and the pilot did. I thought that the only reason we had not yet exploded was that the mixture in the bomb bay was too rich to burn at 20,000 feet. I went back to the nose to get the gunner out. I mention these things to illustrate what I mean by time expansion. Even though it seemed that a long time had elapsed from the time we were first attacked till the time I returned to the nose I believe only a minute or so had elapsed. I was moving fast. As I re-entered the nose I had a premonition. I backed against the nose wheel and looking to my left I saw a projectile push its nose through the side of the ship and enter my space. I had time to decide that German ammunition was inferior as it travelled so slowly. The shell exploded between my face and the nose turret door. The gunner threw up his hands. He was hit. I opened the doors and he fell out holding his rear end and shouting. I felt his rear. No blood. Told him he was OK. I released the nose wheel door and out we went. A few seconds later I watched as our ship exploded, broke in half, and tumbled burning toward the earth. I latter saw the gunner in a German First Aid Station, leaning against a medical cabinet with his rear end uncovered. He had the biggest, by far, blood blister I have ever seen on his left cheek I had only a small puncture in my lip. I decided that the round had been inferior.

As I released the nose wheel door to leave the plane there was a reluctance to exit even though I knew we were burning and the plane was ready to go. I was stepping into a brand new life.

From the target to we had been flying over one of the most beautiful valleys on earth and had just begun to fly over the mountains when we got hit. Perhaps you know that many sailplane records had been set in this vicinity although it was very dangerous flying because of turbulent air currents. These currents carried me many miles back to the west I was in my parachute a long time. The trip was inspiring. At that time I enjoyed singing and yodelling and that was the perfect locale. So I sang and yodelled much of the time.

As I was in my chute a very long time the harness began cutting into my legs so I opened the leg snaps and hung from my arms (and chest). As my arms began to numb I re-attached the leg straps and released the chest buckle. I repeated this exercise two or three times.

I was in the air so long and enjoying it somewhat that I failed to realise that the ground was approaching. I was facing the wind and that is a bad way to land. I spilled air from one side of the chute and rotated. I was heading directly into high voltage lines. I spilled the rest of the air and plunged. When I awoke I was surrounded by a number of people. They hauled me to the Burgermeisters home which was a mile or two away......".