| Ray- I have joted down a few note of my time at
Attlebridge hope they are of some help---
On the whole we of the active bomber crews on duty
at Attlebridge we really didn't have the time, the
means or the inclination to visit, tour, or get acquainted
with the area in which our air base was located ,
we were totally single phase guys...we were on duty
to fly and bomb Germany...the location we found our
self in didn't really matter much ... we lived from
day to day from one mission call to the next....some
times four or five days would pass by with out getting
a call for a mission.... and this was related to the
weather through November-December -and January .....we
suffered from boredom more than from fright ...fright
we did have as we were attacked over the German target
cities with heavy ani-aircraft barrages, and some
fighter plan attacks, although the flack was on the
whole our greatest fear ...cause it surrounded the
target area and we had to get to that target on each
mission, come hell or high water !!
There was no giving up on a target so we flew on
straight through the flack until we dropped our bombs
and then as we could we tried like the damned to get
our fanny out of there ...doing what ever evasive
action was permitable while still in combat flight
formation ---staying tight for protection from fighters
---get loose to evade flack if possible....we would
climb altitude after bomb drop, we would dive to increase
speed of flight to get the heck out of the flack area
as quickly as possible...and we knew there was some
damn good Scotch and water awaiting us when we landed
and as we were debriefed...those of us who drank Scotch
or any booze, for that matter, had the chance to have
some of the crew members who didn't drink...so that
very often ,after a particularly horrendous flight,
we would get pretty loose , which probably helped
loosen our tongues to tell the ground personnel many
things about the just completed mission!! We were
especially very chagrined at the weather in December
which prohibited our planes from getting up and in
action against the Nazi tanks as they were tearing
into the Allied Forces in the Battle of the Bulge...we
were hopeless..frustrated....hearing about the wavering
of the Allied Lines ...and not being given the chance
to do some thing about it !!Man when the weather broke
near Christmas and after that we were delighted(if
one could say you were delighted to fight ) to get
off the ground and get over the targets with our bomb
bays loaded with great antipersonnel bombs....250's
and 500's ....we did some 2 missions flown per day
some of those deep winter days to help the foot soldiers
and try to take the heat off them !!!
When not actually flying combat missions we did do
some other constructive things --- 1.in early fall
'44 we flew supplies to Patton and his forces as they
charged across France and headed for Berlin ...we
did a number of those with out any bombing mission
credit\ 2. some of us were selected to fly DECOY mission's
to come to the aid of the RAF, dozens of us YANK B-24s
would spend the night up in the sky over London and
southern England to fill the air mass with such blips
on Nazi radar they didn't know what direction the
night raids were coming acrosss.....one memorable
night we were at about 14,000 to 16,000 feet above
London and the October night sky was loaded with storm
clouds...lots of lightening...probable heavy winds
down near the ground, but that didn't bother us up
where we were ...our planes built up static electricity
-"St.Elmo's Fire " it was known as, didn't happen
very often but it sure scared the hell out of inexperienced
crew members on our bombers...old hands could act
very blasé" about the strange phenomenon and
fortunately the display didn't stay on the wings,prop
tips for too long...long enough to scare or enlighten
us ...but not long enough to be boring !! 3.Some of
us in B-24's were also chosen to fly Gasoline to supply
Pattons Tank Corps , we were on crew that did some
of that duty.(not mission credit either --but it was
interesting and we did get a whack at this French
Cognac....our planes assigned were outfitted with
2 huge rubber tanks that each filled one of our two
bomb bay areas, where normally would be hung oodles
of bombs( 250's, 500's, 1,000 ,ers or even 4 2,000
pound super sized bombs. Anyway we would fly from
our base loaded to the hilt,wing tip tanks filled
as well as the bomb bay special tanks so we could
off load our 2,000 gallons of gas for the Tank Corps.
And we did raise some cain with the French farmers
and their nice looking little farms and their farm
animals, as we would fly 'contour of the land' just
clipping tops of grain ---if there had been any...and
sometime we even clipped tree tops that quickly rose
by surprise in the small valleys forced in the crevices
of the rolling farm fields!!! We plowed through one
cluster of young willow like trees not far out of
St.Dizier and the place where we were to land and
the gas would be off loaded.
The smash scared the be-jeepers out of the whole
crew, especially the bombardier and the navigator
who had to ride in the nose of our plane, course the
other enlisted crew were back in the rear behind the
bomb bay and didn't know what the heck was coming
next ,until they would hear and feel a "THUNKPPPPP''-----But
we survived to fly another day ...it seemed that bad
weather had forced us to fly right down on the ground
under the clouds to get to St.Dizier...which we did
!! 4 And there were lucky escapes on regular bombing
missions --like in November we were heading for the
area of Osnabruck,Germany, flying in formation, having
been pounded by flack gunners across northern German
occupied Holland and the German land near Osnabruck....our
plane took a heavy load of flack, lost an engine,
were forced to drop out of the line of flight, still
with our bombs, had to try to hold altitude but couldn't
do so ...turned about and headed back to England,
forced to evade flack but couldn't help keep loosing
altitude, dropped our bomb load "safe" in the North
part of the Zieder Zee, then headed south for North
tip of France, dropping altitude all the way...lost
a second engine as we crossed Belgium(north to south)...finally
reached area of France where Allied Forces were in
control....and crash landed with 2 engines out on
one side...and the rate of decent was so rapid we
had created a heavy coating of ice all over the windows
of the plane...only view of the ground we had as we
tried to line up on the old French airfield as side
windows slid open and the two of us pilots hanging
our heads out to catch a glimpse of the ground That
was a thriller...but we walked away from the plane
..the whole crew....and hitched a ride on some supply
trucks that were rushing back to Brussels from the
French front, so they took us along and we had three
or four nice days while awaiting a plane from our
air base to come and fetch us !!!
Gosh Ray,look at the time...I just got carried away
...maybe these ramblings might be of some interest
to you and your artical on the old Attlebridge Air
Base...
Gosh;;;didn't mean to bore you ..and I have not had
any drink this day ....!!!
Good Luck to you and your efforts ...regards ...
Tom Mooney |
