13th mission: Donauworth

This was Daddy's last flight over Germany, though he still had two more missions to go:

Another milk run for participating crews and a bombing under ideal conditions for bombardiers. The 108 Fortresses of the 45CBW dropped 321 tons and thus left another massive space in Hitler's diminishing logistical network. -- Snetterton Falcons

We bombed airfields at Ingolstadt, Germany. We had a 6000-pound load of G.P. bombs. There was very little flak and none of it was close. Boy we sure bombed the hell out of that place. From the best I could see, we really did a neat job. Bombs scattered up and down the runways and several of the hangers got direct hits. We flew over several large cities. One of them was Brussels . It is sure a pretty place. We saw a lot of towns that were completely destroyed and miles of country that was a solid bomb crater and shell holes. It was a pretty long drag. We were up 7 hours and 15 minutes. -- Sgt Madison Parker, 486th Bomb Group

On April, 11 1945, the 357th FG was on an escort mission to Donauworth. After they were released from escort duty, they went looking for trouble and a few found it. They looked in on the Prague/Ruzyne Aerodrome, home of over 100 ME 262 jets. In spite of very intense light flak, they destroyed two ME262s, two JU88s and a big FW200. Three 364th pilots were shot down by flak during the strafing. Lts Monahan, Muller and Snedecker. I believe Lt. Irving Snedecker was the only survivor...On his first pass across the airfield, there was a loud bang, a jolt to his Mustang and he saw his prop going off across the field. A 20MM shell had hit the prop hub taking the prop with it. He managed to land the crippled plane inside the Aerodrome perimeter fence. The plane broke in two behind the cockpit in the process. Quickly getting out of the wreck, he sat on the ground a safe distance from it and lit a cigarette, thinking it might be his last one for a while. Told me it was a lonesome feeling watching the group leave for home... -- 364th Fighter Group