Target: Ludwigshafen - 30 December 1943 - Mission #20

This target complex, located on the west bank of the Rhein River across from the twin city of Mannheim, was highly industrialized with major chemical production as the chief factor. The combined target areas of Ludwigshafen-Mannheim presented a formidable, heavily defended challenge to any attacking bomber force. The 392nd launched twenty-five (25) Liberators against a chemical plant target on this mission with the 576th Squadron leading. Two (2) aircraft were pre-target aborts due to equipment malfunctions with the (23) remaining striking the target employing PFF methods due to poor target weather. Bombing results were good with 1,211 100# weapons impacting. Enemy reaction was heavy. Approximately 20-25 single and twin-engine fighters pressed their attacks in a running air battle though no B-24 losses were sustained. One B-24 was lost, cause listed as unknown with flak damage being the most probable reason. Eight (8) other aircraft had flak battle damage upon landing. The Group suffered (10) aircrew members MIA in the one aircraft lost. Mission time for this raid was one of the longer ones for a total of 8:15 hours.

MISSING AIR CREW REPORT SECTION

30 DECEMBER 1943 - TARGET: LUDWIGSHAFEN

MISSING AIRCREW REPORT: #01677 AIRCRAFT: #42-7588 (NO NICKNAME) "R-Bar" 2nd Mission

AIRCREW: SIBLEY    *    SQUADRON: 578th

CREW POSITIONS AND STATUS:

P   2/LT Sibley, James M.        POW
CP  2/LT Volet, Leonard (NMI)    POW
N   2/LT Olsen, William L.       EVD
B   2/LT Boyle, Edward W.        POW
R/O S/S  Garris, Peter (NMI)     POW
EnG SGT  Satterly, Everett F. Jr POW
TTG SGT  Carusone, Nicholas M.   EVD
WG  S/S  Wald, Frederick M.      POW
BG  SGT  Sullivan, John L Jr     EVD
TG  SGT  Schmitt, Fred I.        EVD

MISSION LOSS CIRCUMSTANCES: No eye-witness accounts of returning aircrews exist on loss particulars about this aircraft and crew. A 20 January 1944 dispatch from U.S. Army War Section-London, Spaatz to Arnold #KU3193, related that Lt. Sibley’s aircraft was flying in the number two position in the second squadron High Block and was last seen with the formation over the target. Later, it was missed from this bomber formation over the Channel on the outbound leg and when last seen all engines were operating.

In his Escape & Evasion report (#344-345), Sgt Schmitt gave this additional information: "Just over the target there was a tremendous jar, and I hit the ceiling. I did not know what had happened to the plane. Number one engine started throwing oil. The vertical stabilizer was thick with it. We flew on for about half an hour. The oil pressure was way down on number two engine, and the pilot decided to feather it while he could. I understood later that he thought the cylinder had been hit. We flew on under two engines but had to drop out of formation. The pilot was trying to make the Channel, and for about 170 miles he flew on a slant because of the missing engines. About ten minutes from the coast he said that we were losing 500 ft a minute and ordered us to throw everything we could overboard in order to lighten the ship. In the confusion I made the mistake of throwing out my GI shoes which I needed later very much. Something went wrong with the other two motors, and the pilot ordered us to bail out. The plane was then in a slow spin."

INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS OF CREWMEN FATES: After repatriation at war’s end, the Co-Pilot Volet rendered a ‘Casualty Questionnaire’ report, summarized as follows: that the entire crew had bailed out and landed about (22) miles southwest of Dieppe, France. All crewmen were accounted for on the ground. The ship had left formation just after the target for reasons never given in this account. Subsequent damage enroute outbound is suspected to have been from anti-aircraft fire? (Ed’ Note: According to a French historian correspondent in 1996, this ship crashed much closer and to the west of Rouen, France, as verified by local inhabitants and aircraft debris, according to his recent and exhaustive research).

POW & EVADEE ACCOUNTS: The Pilot, Lt. Sibley, was apprehended according to German report #KU569 of 18 January 1944 and shipped to the Luftwaffe Investigation Center of Dulag-Luft, near Frankfurt, at 1330 hours. This German report emanated from the German Army Prison in Paris. Wald, Satterly and Volet also were identified as prisoners on this report, place of capture and date not given. The other members taken as POWs are not recorded in any German accounts. Later, on the evading members, USAAPE-London message to the War Department, Anderson to Arnold, Number K3935, dated 28 February 1944 stated that Sgts. Schmitt and Sullivan had returned to the Zone of Interior and were assigned to the Assistant Chief of Staff, First Air Force, A-2 (Intelligence) Mitchell Field, Long Island, New York. These are the only accounts existing in this crew MACR file.

NEXT OF KIN DATA IN WWII: No record or trace exists in the MACR attachments.

CREW LOADING LIST - MISSION #20