Target: DZ-Wesel & Stormede - 24 March 1945 - Mission #268 & #269

Target: DZ-Wesel

The mission on 24 March 1945 was in support of Allied troops engaged in Operation Varsity. The 2nd Air Division's Field Order stated:

It was the largest single-day airborne operation in history. Paratroop and ground troops from the US, Britain, and Canada were delivered behind enemy lines by nearly 1,600 aircraft and gliders. Dropped with them were equipment and supplies such as artillery, weapons and vehicles. Fifteen minutes later came 240 B-24s from the 2nd, 14th, and 20th Combat Wings to drop bundles with ammunition, ordnance, grenades, rations, blankets, medical supplies, etc. Half the bundles were for American troops and half for British use with the drop zones about four miles apart.

Mission briefings were quite thorough, lasting nearly four hours at each of the nine Groups involved. Squadrons were to be flown as loosely as possible without straggling, by both element and wing men. Positions should be maintained fairly well abreast with maximum spread laterally. The formation was to close up for dropping and spread out again on climb and withdrawal. Planes were not to begin their climb until after crossing the Rhine; units withdrawing were to give way to units penetrating.

Pilots were instructed to uncover at the turn after hitting the French coast; to hit the Initial Point (IP) at 500 feet, let down to the deck, and then pull up. They were warned not to exceed 150 mph indicated air speed at time of dropping lest parachutes be destroyed and the supplies lost. Bundles were to be released from a height of 300-500 feet. Pilots could use 10-15 degree flaps as needed, but wheels were not to be lowered.

On the Group's previous low-level supply mission (to Holland on 18 Sep 1944), Army Air Transportation Technicians were responsible for dropping the bundles. This time, the 392nd's crews would throw out or release the bundles.

Men from the 490th Quartermaster Depot Co. went to the 8th AF to demonstrate loading and dropping with five samples of each type of bundle. Bomber crews were also given intensive courses in loading and ejecting bundles. Loads would be dropped from the bomb bays, the ball turret well, and the emergency escape hatch near the tail.

Bundles in the bomb bay had a static line attached to the bomb shackle so that a parachute would be deployed when the cylinder was released. After the pods were dropped, a crewman would have to go into the bomb bay and pull the static lines back into the airplane so the bomb bay doors could be closed. Due to limited space in the bomb bay, that person could not wear a parachute. Bundles at the other two locations would have to be pushed out by gunners. To land in the drop zones, all bundles had to leave the plane in less than 20 seconds.

It was stressed to all crews that the warning bell would be used to signal the release of bundles, not as a bail-out signal. Gunners were warned repeatedly not to fire at ground positions, for fear of hitting Allied troops.

It was hoped that intense anti-flak operations preceding the drop would put most of the German flak guns out of action. With an estimated 25,000 German troops on the ground, mission planners thought that the greatest danger to the bombers would come from small arms fire. Pilots were told that the best defense against flak after the drop was to fly as close to the deck as possible and to re-cross our own lines as quickly as possible. However, the turn back should not be made too sharply as an aircraft presents a larger target to the gunner when it is banking steeply.

The 44th BG would lead the 14th Combat Wing with three 9-aircraft squadrons carrying loads for US troops. The 491st would fly in train with three 9-ship squadrons with supplies for British troops. The 392nd split their force, flying one 7-plane squadron and one 6-plane squadron with both the 491st and 44th Groups.

A few practice missions were flown in France and special intelligence briefings were held with sandbox mock-ups of the Rhine River and drop areas.

392nd BG take-offs began at 0930 on 24 March. As they neared the landing zones, crews saw chaos on the ground. Gliders and tow planes littered the terrain. Buildings were on fire and troops were moving quickly on the ground. Haze and smoke were everywhere.

In the air, the mission was uneventful for the 13 bombers with bundles for American troops. For the other ships, it was far from easy.

Peter Loncke's book, The Liberators Who Never Returned 24 March 1945, has this information from 2/Lt Carroll Russell, copilot on the Proctor crew in #476:

"Our B-24 had been altered by removing the floor panel where the belly gun turret would have been. This left a gaping hole just back of the bomb bay section of the plane. Around this hole were the crates of supplies. George [Kouzes] and his partner (Jessie Gill from Texas) were to push them out over the target area.

When our group was assembled after take off, we made a low level flight over the North Sea to the drop zone. I remember the scene clearly because we were so low. It was much like a scene in the movies with much smoke and with the ground littered with parachutes and gliders askew. Some gliders were upside down, others were missing wings. With our load out, we turned back immediately, but one doesn't turn a B-24 around quickly. The beachhead was small and we necessarily flew over German held territory as we turned. At our low altitude we were an easy mark for German ground fire and we were hit immediately. One engine quit and as soon as I could feather the propeller, we were hit again back in George's area of the plane. I called back for a damage report but received no answer. I feared everyone was dead. I tried several times before Jessie answered and reported that they had been fighting fires-too busy to answer. There were no injuries. The fires were likely burning hydraulic fluids from lines pierced by the shots. Meanwhile Proctor had asked the navigator (Stanley Plagenhoef) for a heading to the nearest airstrip. Stan found one some twenty minutes away. Just then a second engine died from fuel starvation due to the ruptured lines from the shots. We could not gain altitude with one engine gone, and with two out we were not able to maintain what we had. Proctor called for more power and I shoved the throttles through the safety wire into and past the red line. It didn't help. Obviously, we were not going to reach the airstrip, so we both began searching the ground for an opening-any clearing in the woods. Mind you we were just a hundred meters or so above the trees. I notified the crew to assume their crash positions. None of them, other than the flight engineer on the deck with us, had any idea of our situation. Our radio operator (Denver Kerfoot) was on his radio and had not heard my order to prepare for a crash. He was also on the flight deck directly behind me, but he was totally unaware of the situation. After I realized he was still on deck, I ordered him to his station. By then it was too late, as I will explain later. Proctor spotted a field just ahead and ordered the wheels down. I questioned him believing a belly landing might be safer. He repeated his order and down went the landing gear and then the flaps. In this entire low-level ride, perhaps thirty minutes in all, I don't remember seeing a town or even a house. But then we were pretty busy and not sight seeing.

As we came to a clearing I spotted a rock wall we had to clear before reaching the field. I used that wall as my benchmark to pass over before I threw the crash bar (a switch to kill all circuits to lessen the chance of fire.) Once over the wall we touched down with as nice a landing as Proctor ever made. The ground was soft which slowed and shorted our roll. I remember a brick house at the far end of the field, which was looming larger by the second. Then the nose wheel broke back and we stopped abruptly, some good distance from the house…

On the ground we gathered away from the plane and ministered to Kerfoot who suffered a broken leg when he was thrown out through the cargo hole. He didn't quite make it to his position in time."

George Kouzes recalled that they "did manage to get out, and two of our crew was hurt badly and as best as we could we got them out because we were sure the plane was going to explode or start on fire. But we were saved of that possible problem. Many people gathered by their homes and our plane. One was within 75 to 100 yards of going into the houses if we hadn't come to a stop! Then many gathered out around the plane. Among them a 3 to 4 year old boy and his mother. The boy was crying because our radio operator lay on the ground hurt badly and the boy's mother could not speak English, but managed to tell us the boy was crying for our crewmember that was hurt so bad."

Thankfully, Gas House Gus had gotten them as far as Allied-controlled Belgium.

Read John Matishowski, Navigator, 576th Squadron, first hand account of this mission by CLICKING HERE

Gashouse Gus after it crash-landed at Hechtel-Eksel, a village in northeast Belgium.

Gashouse Gus after it crash-landed at Hechtel-Eksel, a village in northeast Belgium.

Bombers returning from the supply drop to Wesel recovered safely around 1500 hours while the second mission of the day was already in progress. When interrogated, 392nd crews reported dropping their bundles at altitudes ranging from 100 to 500 feet. 2/Lt Mathew Ansbro in plane #477 was so low that he saw a couple of British soldiers escorting German prisoners back toward the Rhine.

Nine 392nd planes were hit by small arms fire but only two additional men were injured. Aboard 2/Lt Campbell McKellar's ship (#875), both radio operator Sgt Nicholas Bova and waist gunner Sgt Theodore Hodge had been wounded in the legs.

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

Click on image to enlarge.

Upon returning from Wesel, #41-28875 overshot the runway due to brake failure. This ship had received small arms fire that wounded two crewmen, and the damage to the brakes may have occurred at that time. The aircraft was salvaged at Wendling.

During the Wesel re-supply mission, the 14th Combat Wing dropped 4,856 bundles of supplies weighing 598 tons. 100 percent of the American loads were dropped in the target area. Intense flak near the British drop zone resulted in only 85 percent of those loads being on target. A mission planner at Wendling later wrote, "To sum this up, it was an unusual mission for the 392nd but went off very successfully."

The 392nd's chart track for the Wesel re-supply mission.

(NARA files).

Bundles of supplies for American troops are being loaded at Wendling.

Bundles fall toward awaiting troops.

Collapsed parachutes dot the ground as far as the eye can see.

Bundles being dropped was taken by cameras in the Cohn crew's plane.

42-50650, with 2/Lt R.K. Crowell's crew aboard, during Operation Varsity.

(Photo from Peter Loncke).

This memorial plate at the town hall in Hamminkeln, Germany, honors the men from the 2nd Air Division who lost their lives during Operation Varsity. Peter Loncke was the driving force behind this memorial, and he was present when it was dedicated on 19 September 2001.

Target: Stormede

An airfield for German night fighter aircraft,. a so-called ‘landing-ground’, was scheduled as the second strike on this day with (10) crews being committed. Briefings were held at 1130 hours with all beginning take-offs at 1350 hours. A total of (440) 100# bombs were released on the target with excellent results. A total of (86) percent of the weapons impacted within 2000 feet of the aiming point. No fighters were engaged and flak was meager. No ships were battle damaged unlike the earlier mission on this day when (9) bombers had been hit by small arms fire. The returning crews landed safely back at Wendling around 2000 hours.

Gen William E. Kepner, commander of the 2nd Air Division, sent this teletype to his units a week after this mission:

MISSING AIR CREW REPORT SECTION

24 MARCH 1945 - TARGET: WESEL - DZ (SUPPLY DROP)

MISSING AIRCREW REPORT: #14177 AIRCRAFT: #42-50709 (NO NICKNAME) "E" 38th Mission

AIRCREW: HUMMEL    *    SQUADRON: 576th

CREW POSITIONS AND STATUS:

P   2/LT Hummel, John R. Jr   RTD*
CP  2/LT Reynolds, James E.   RTD*
N   2/LT Knudson, Bernard L.  KIA
NG  SGT  Morse, Ellis H.      RTD
R/O CPL  Deaton, James A.     KIA
EnG SGT  Finney, Herbert H.   RTD*
WG  SGT  Milchak, Elmer A.    KIA
WG  PVT  Keagle, Paul E.      RTD*
TG  SGT  Powell, Hollis (NMI) RTD*

* captured momentarily; freed by U.S. troops.

MISSION LOSS CIRCUMSTANCES:

According to an account by 2/Lt Reynolds in The Liberators Who Never Returned:

INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNT OF CREWMEN'S FATE. Surviving crewmen agree that Elmer Milchak was killed by a German sniper as he was leaving the plane via the waist window.

Tail gunner Powell recalled that after the plane finally came to a stop:

In his report, now part of the MACR, nose gunner Sgt. Morse related:

It should be noted that Pfc Stuart S. Stryker, 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his action this day. His citation reads, in part, "His gallant and wholly voluntary action in the face of overwhelming firepower …so encouraged his comrades and diverted the enemy's attention that other elements of the company were able to surround the house, capturing more than 200 hostile soldiers and much equipment, besides freeing 3 members of an American bomber crew held prisoner there. The intrepidity and unhesitating self-sacrifice of Pfc. Stryker were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service."

Sgt Milchak is buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery at Margraten, The Netherlands, in Grave E-3-1; he was awarded an Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster. 2/Lt Knudson and Cpl Deaton were later returned to their home towns for burial.

NEXT OF KIN DATA IN WWII: Knudson (Mother, Mrs Alfred J. Lateer, Wolbach Nebraska); Milchak (Mother, Mary H., 815 East 10th Avenue, Munhall, Pennsylvania and Deaton (Mother, Teatus S., Box 18, Argonne, Wisconsin).

CASUALTIES NOT LISTED IN MACR

S/Sgt Hamment, Raymond E. LW 576th KIA

There was one final casualty this day, aboard aircraft #42-52770, Ruptured Duck. This ship had received heavy ground fire and two of the crew were wounded. Pilot 2/Lt Lester Frazier landed at a U.S. airfield at Sint-Truiden, Belgium, so his men could get medical attention. He later said the bottom of the B-24 looked like a sieve from all the gunfire.

The injured airmen were treated at the 40th Field Hospital. Radio operator S/Sgt Hervy V. Latour had been wounded in the arm and back while waist gunner S/Sgt Raymond Hamment's arm was badly shot up. S/Sgt Hamment died of his injuries later that day at 298th General Hospital in Liege, Belgium. He was buried on 27 March 1945 at the US Military Cemetery at Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium, but was returned to the US after the war for final interment in Flint, Michigan. He had been awarded the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters.

CREW LOADING LIST - MISSION #268

CREW LOADING LIST - MISSION #269