‘German fighters could be seen coming up from the ground and I have never seen so many at one time,’ Captain Robert K. Morgan, pilot of B-17 Flying Fortress Memphis Belle
A record 115 bombers were constructed for a raid on the Focke-Wulf plant in Bremen on April 17, 1943, after 8th Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress crews in eastern England received a warning for another strike. The 91st and 306th comprised the first large-scale combat wing, and the 303rd and 305th Bomb Groups made up the second. This was the first time that two such wings had been dispatched. Each wing had three group boxes of 18–21 aircraft flying in formation for mutual firepower and defense.
In Martin W. Bowman’s book On the Highways of the Skies: The 8th Air Force in World War II, Captain Robert K. Morgan, the 91st Bomb Group pilot of the Memphis Belle, which would go on to become one of the most renowned B-17s of the war, if not the most famous, explains:
“The Germans had got pretty hot on the B-17s. They started coming in from the nose of the ships and we had only two .50 caliber guns, which wouldn’t go straight forward. We were working on the problem but hadn’t solved it and hadn’t put any more guns in. We found that by flying all four groups very close together we could get good fighter protection. This worked fine for a while. We would set one group at 22,000, one at 23.000, one at 24,000, and one at 25,000, always about a 1000ft difference, on the same line with each other or behind each other. If the enemy attacked the middle Group the firepower of all the other Groups would be concentrated on the fighters. Trouble was, the Germans thought about things too. They worked out the best method of attacking our planes. They picked on the low front Group while all the back three Groups couldn’t help out. We solved that by moving the second group up in front, the first Group behind them. In other words, the lead Group was higher than the second was.
“The Bremen raid was about the most effective and successful raid we made from the standpoint of planning, efficiency, damage done, and losses. We were briefed as well or better than for any other. The Germans had 178 flak guns to be turned on us. We went in from the southwest to the northeast on a heading so they could never get more than 72 guns on us. We found the plant and turned off to the right and made a complete turn and came out. That is the long and short way around but if we had come out the other way we would have had to run through the other 106 guns. We assembled over England below 5000ft and went out below 5000 until we got ready to turn and come in. We began to turn and climb and when we reached the German coast we had our altitude. We tried to make them think we were going to Wilhelmshaven and it seemed to work.”
A German reconnaissance plane spotted the group of aircraft soon after they had left the English coast, and the Americans’ approach was radioed to fighter controllers along the enemy coastline. Although the Luftwaffe fighters were pointed in their direction just as the B-17s passed the Friesian Islands, the German defenses had no idea where the bombers were going. Once more, Captain Robert K. Morgan:
“The weather was pretty overcast below. It looked as though Wilhelmshaven was open and Bremen would be overcast, so I thought we might go back after Wilhelmshaven instead. But a few seconds later I found the target by flak. I looked over to the left and there was one black cloud sitting there and it was flak. I figured that must be Bremen. Sure enough, we could see Bremen when I turned. We went in from the southwest to the northeast. German fighters could be seen coming up from the ground and I have never seen so many at one time. I had to forget about the fighters because we started the run. We were the high Group. We made the run. The flak was pretty bad, bursting all around us. The boys in the low Group really caught hell from it. The Germans had set up the barrage and it worked well. When we turned off the target the fighters began to hit us. They had 109s, 110s, 190s and Ju 88s. But we found out that if you keep your Groups weaving, when the attacks come, you can nose down and turn into the attack and they won’t hit you.”
Waist gunner S/Sgt Casimer A. Nastal, who joined the Memphis Belle crew at the age of 19 and had previously worked mending washing machines, continues:
“At the target, the flak started. It was bursting outside the waist windows. I could have reached out and grabbed it. I kept thinking: ‘Let’s get the hell out of here.’ The fighters came in hunches of 20 or 30. I saw two or three fighters hit by their own flak. It was so thick you could hardly see the ground. The Focke Wulfs were even bursting through our formation.”
Finally, Captain Robert K. Morgan says;
“We lost 16 bombers, all in the low Group. That was the greatest loss we had sustained to date. But the bombing was successful. There were three factories and two were completely destroyed and a third about 60% destroyed.”
Six months prior, German armaments minister Albert Speer had already issued directives for dispersed fighter production. General Hansell, who was in charge of First Wing Headquarters, was certain as to what caused the large number of casualties during the Bremen raid. In his Operation Report, he noted on April 23, 1943: “Most of our losses were the result of poor formation flying, which resulted in aircraft becoming separated and easy prey to the fighters.”
Notably, in the 1990 movie Memphis Belle starring Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, and Harry Connick Jr., Memphis Belle, along with the rest of the squadron, is tasked with attacking a Focke-Wulf 190 manufacturing plant in Bremen to complete 25 missions, a requirement for the crew to finish their tour of duty.
On the Highways of the Skies, The 8th Air Force in World War II is published by Schiffer Publishing and is available to order here.
Photo by U.S. Air Force