USAAF disaster over Friedrichshafen

18th March 1944: A dramatic account of being under attack 20,000 feet over Germany as the 392nd Bomb Group loses half its planes

Three B-24s in a test flight over England, probably 1943

B-24s in formation on a mission

A heavily damaged 392nd plane stays in formation later in the war. Consolidated B-24's of the 392nd Bomb Group over Salsbergen, Germany. 16 February 1945.

O March 1944 the USAAF were out again for another daylight raid on Germany. Every effort was being made to knock out as much of Germany's aircraft industry as possible in the run up to D-Day.

'Big Week' - when the 8th Air Force had put on maximum effort - had come and gone. The USAAF 392nd Bomber Group had won a Unit Citation then. For most of the crews it made little difference, they had more missions to complete before their tour of duty was over.

This time they flew out passing the snows of the Alps in bright sunshine and then swung round to begin their bomb run from a position over Lake Constance, which was a deep blue marker 20,000 feet below them.

The target was the Friedrichshafen and they fully expected to be able to bomb the Manzell Air Armaments factory accurately in these conditions. Then, as they approached the target, the 392nd Bomb Group was hit by some very accurate flak, which damaged several planes and disrupted their bombing. More trouble was to come as they turned for home.

Vernon Baumgart¹, now a retired colonel, remembers:

I remember that we had hardly taken stock of our situation when the waist gunner called: Fighters at 3 o'clock!" There they were, a whole "gaggle" of them; ten to twelve in close formation, paralleling our course about a half mile on our right -and climbing. I got on the radio and began calling for friendly fighters.

Just like the "book" said, they climbed up to a one o'clock high position into the sun about two miles out, made a wing-over turn in unison and dived at us with guns blazing. It was a fearful sight but was over in a few seconds as they dived through our formation. Of course, all of our nose and top turrets responded with long bursts from their twin 50-caliber guns.