14th mission: Royan

Daddy's next-to-last mission--they hit Royan two days in a row:

It was an early wakeup at 0030 for an 0200 briefing which led to take-off at 0425 for the long over-the-water haul down the French Atlantic coast to end these last desperate pockets of resistance near the massive gun emplacements in the Bordeaux area. All three air divisions woke British civilians with the drone and roar of over 1,000 four-engined bombers. Assembly, unlike the old days, was made over France. Royan was a town situated on the mouth of the River Gironde in which a stubborn German garrison was still holding out thus preventing the Allies from use of the port of Bordeaux. All A/C carried fragmentation bombs and strike photos were only fair to good. No losses. -- Snetterton Falcons

The target assigned on this mission was one of the most unusual types ever given to the 14th Combat Wing. Enemy ‘pockets of resistance’ were still prevalent in various parts of France and on this date a gun emplacement on the Giraud Estuary, just north of Bordeaux, was slated for attack. The bombing formations were unusual, as well, with six ship squadrons flying in waves across the target. Also, since enemy fighter reaction was not anticipated this late in the war for a mission to be flown almost entirely over friendly territory, .50 caliber machine guns and ammunition were not loaded and most Waist Gunners did not fly with their crews...A tragic accident occurred on take-off to one of the 578th aircrews - the last 392nd crew to be killed-in-action in combat during World War II. The aircraft, # 446 (R-Bar), piloted by Lieutenant Charles Warner crashed just after breaking ground in the pre-dawn take-off. He, and (6) others of his crew were killed in the crash but (1) Gunner survived, having been thrown clear of the burning bomber after impact on the northeast end of Runway 05. The cause of the crash was attributed to the loss of two engines on the left side just as the ship was breaking ground on take-off. Tower observers saw the pilots vainly struggling to keep the crippled Liberator in the air and gain some altitude, but the left wing would not come up and the bomber crashed in an open field, bursting into flames immediately. This grim tragedy was a somber spectacle for the remaining (26) crews which took off over the crashed bomber’s site to continue the mission... -- 392nd Bomb Group

April 14, 1945 was the number 5. We bombed gun batteries at St. Palais. That is down in southern France. The Germans had about 100,000 men down there and they had the entrance to the Harbor at Bordeaux. We had a bomb load of small frags. Boy oh boy, we really plastered that place. When we got over the target, it looked like it was raining bombs. We didn't see any fighters or get any flak. We flew over Paris on the way down so we didn't see the city. We passed over LaHarve and it was really tore up. It has so many bomb craters that it looked like it had the smallpox. That was a pretty nice mission, but as far as I'm concerned none of them are milk runs...You have to fly level and straight no matter how thick the flak is. Brother, it gives you a creepy feeling to see a wall of flak in front of you and you know you have to fly through it. You just sit there and hope to hell you don't get knocked off... -- Sgt Madison Parker, 486th Bomb Group