# Funny story in bombing Bonn



## ShootingStar (Feb 6, 2009)

I'm going to quote this from the book I read it from:

...Harry Crosby was unable to sight his primary target through a thick cloudbank. Both backup targets were socked in as well, freeing the squadrons to bomb a "target of opportunity," an Air Force euphemism for anyplace that could be conveniently creamed. Sighting a large German city through a clearing in the clouds, Crosby gave the OK sign to the pilot. Just as he heard the bomb doors opening, he looked down at his map and discovered that the city was Bonn.
He immediately hit his mike button. "All positions from navigator, I have another target. We can't bomb Bonn."
"Command to navigator. Why not?"
"That is where Beethoven went to school."
Crosby happened to know this because he had read it on the cover of the phonograph record he had played in his room the night before the raid, Beethoven's 5th, a fitting musical prelude, he thought, for a mission into Germany. He had also read on the cover that Bonn was a university town, one of the most picturesque places in Europe.
After an outburst of "Oh, ****s" from the crew, the pilot went along with Crosby and sixty-three Forts passed over the city, some of them with their bomb doors open. Minutes later, they found a marshaling yard in the Ruhr and obliterated it.

There. Not meaning to offend any Germans, it's from the book I'm reading...


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## sturmer (Feb 8, 2009)

lol i would hate to be that navigator when they got back at base


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## RabidAlien (Feb 9, 2009)

Heh. At least he had a good marshalling yard to back up his passing over Bonn! Still, I can understand why he'd want to bypass such a place if he didn't have a specific target set out for him to clobber. Indiscrimiate bombing would've given Hitler alot of publicity to exploit.


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## Aaron Brooks Wolters (Feb 9, 2009)

If I may ask, what book are you reading Shootingstar?


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## ShootingStar (Feb 11, 2009)

Aaron Brooks Wolters said:


> If I may ask, what book are you reading Shootingstar?



_Masters of the Air_, by Donald L. Miller.


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