Second mission: Berlin

Daddy's second mission was to the capital city of Berlin, a heavily-defended target that gave bomber crews the shudders. Berlin finally fell a month later, following a year of steady Allied bombardment.

Although it had flown 10 missions in the past 14 days, the 96th set out on this long haul to these marshalling yards near Berlin. And although it was a visual attack, the fact that they dropped delayed-action bombs prevented the crew from witnessing the effects of their success down below. The Group dropped 402 DAs which certainly gave German bomb disposal units a frightful workout. Today the 96th was but one unit represented in the 467 plane armada launched by the Third Division. Oranienburg received almost 1327 tons of bombs. More V-2 rockets were witnessed launching from Zwolle by returning crews. One of the 96th attacking A/C received major damage; another received minor. There were no casualties, although bad weather made landing very dangerous for the returnees. -- Snetterton Falcons

We bombed Oranienburg, Germany (just outside of Berlin) we carried two 2000 pounders and two 1000 pound bombs. All of us had a very close call. Mottola, our lower ball gunner was slightly wounded in the arm but his turret had several holes in it and a piece of flak tore through his flying boot just missing his ankle. The optic head on the upper turret gun sight was torn completely off just inches from my face. I don't know how I escaped injury unless the flak came through just as I was thrown to the floor of my turret as the plane lurched upward as a result of a direct hit in our left wing by an 88 mil, shell. We were on the bomb run and were hit just after we dropped our bombs. The bomb bay doors hadn't had time to close and were frozen open. Flak struck where Pike stood but didn't penetrate the flak curtain he was standing on. We had over 400 holes in the airplane. Flak hit window in front of Willems penetrating it and passing about two inches from Robbie and missed me by about a foot. We had a huge hole in our left wing where the supercharger had been. The shell hit just behind No. 2 engine. The supercharger was hanging by the exhaust connection. Flak had penetrated the gasoline tanks on both sides of the supercharger location. Robbie went back and used the lower turret to check the damage. We were still flying and he couldn't see just how bad we were damaged. We had lost power in the No. 2 engine, because of losing the supercharger but we regained power when we reached lower altitude so the decision was to fly home. When we landed we had no brakes but we also had a Bat tire that helped slow us and Robbie was able to ground loop the plane. Except for Mottola no one was injured and we brought our plane home. They told us later that we had the record of bringing back the most shot up plane that had ever been brought back. They also told us that we should have hailed out and let the plane crash. It was truly a miracle that we made it back. The plane, No. 998 was put in the scrap yard for parts that might be used. It would never fly again. Our flying time was 6 hours and 50 minutes. The regular crew had named this plane "Miss Irish." Following our fourth mission we received a 48-hour pass and most everyone is taking the time to rest. Believe me, we are tired. -- Lyman R Huffman, Jr, 832 BS, 486th BG

Thirty seven aircraft led by Capt Carpenter took off at 10.00 hrs and bombed marshalling yards at Oranienburg, Germany. These yards handle all traffic from the port of Stettin and were a high priority target. Bombing was done visually from 23,500 ft and photos showed excellent results. Flak over the target was meager and inaccurate. However, upon withdrawal, near Wittenburg, Germany, considerable flak was encountered. Lt Carpenter’s ship received a direct hit in the waist and considerable damage to the ship. Following this he was unable to keep up with the formation and fell back. He was able to land at an RAF Emergency Landing Ground, at Woodbridge, Suffolk. On landing the gear collapsed causing unrepairable damage to the aircraft. The waist gunner, S/Sgt Walter J. Ahl was killed over the target with severe flak wound in the chest, and two others were wounded. Lt Muffley, bombardier on Price’s crew, received a severe flak wound involving nose, left eye and hard palate, a large piece of flak embedded in the pharynx. All other ships returned to base but several had battle damage... -- 381st BG Medical Detachment

Daddy's third mission was one week later, on March 22.