Kassel Mission of 27 September 1944

[drgondog]

Bill, Who was Priest? He's not on our roster of 445th men who flew that day.

Linda - Royce Priest was flying wing to Henry Brown leading Yellow flight of the 355th and the first to reach the 445th and attack the Fw 190A8's. Henry Brown shot down the last of his total 14.2 a/c destroyed in the air that day. Priest got his 4th and 5th over Hannover on the 26th November - a very familiar date for Erich - while also in the area of the 445th BG.

I would like to see the 8th AF Mission Summary if you have it. The 355th History has the lead box of the lead combat wing taking the heading toward Gottingen. As the 355th was in the lead of 2AD, the report has some credence as the 'middle of the stream' would be sevral miles behind the 355th.

Is it possible that the lead CW was late and the 445th proceeded to the lead of 2nd AD?

 

[drgondog]

DR, I'd be interested in seeing sources on some of this. The 445th led the 2CW, but the 446th is the group leading the entire Division. The 2CW was the center of three wings that day. The 453rd and 389th were supposed to follow the 445th, even if they made a wrong turn, and they did not. If they had, perhaps they would not have been hidden by those towers.

This is the first I have heard of cumulous towers. From which source did that come? This is very good information and makes sense. Also, the information on the 355th group.

The first planes the 445th saw was P-38s. We have not yet ascertained which fighter group that was, although we do know the groups covering the 2nd Division that day.

Linda - sorry for the staggered replies on this. First Mike simpson is my source for the 445th side of the story and I could have missed some of his comments. Second the 355th assignment was the first box of the 2AD B-24's and were leading the escort. The post mission debriefing and flash report from the 355th reports a box leaving the formation and heading eastsoutheast alone.

Simpson's feedback to me is that the 445th mission commander specifically ordered the 389th and 453rd to Not follow him - which lends credance to special orders. The cloud cover/cumulus clouds to the southeast was from a conversation I listened to bewteen Everett Stewart (355th Gp CO and mission commander), Priest, my father (355th Deputy CO) and Henry Brown at a Fighter Aces Convention in 1982 when I was researching my book Angels, Bulldogs and Dragons. I did not include the recount as I didn't see possible significance at the time

Below is an extract from my new book which may be useful in piecing the puzzzle together. The source data for the 355th role is the combination of 354/357/358 summaries and the 355th Mission summary... as well as encounter reports and personal notes from Brwon and Priest and Stewart discussions.

September 27

F.O.590. Lieutenant Colonel Stewart led a Ramrod to Kassel.

The 355th provided penetration, target and withdrawal support to 315 bombers attacking locomotive fabrication targets. The 355th was assigned to the first two combat wings (Vinegrove 3-1 and 3-2) but told that the 445 Bomb Group of 35 B-24s would depart the bomber stream northwest of Kassel at the IP and attack Gottingen separately. The rest of the 2nd AD were to RV with the Gottingen strike at the rally point south of Eshwege, where the 445th would rejoin the rest of the 2nd Bomb Division. The 355th and the 4th FG and 361st FG's were to maintain escort to the rest of the 280 B-24s attacking Kassel and Henschel

Rendezvous with the bombers was accomplished at 0850 between Zwolle and Apeldorn. The IP west-northwest of Kassel was reached at 0928. At that time the 445th BG departed the formation and proceeded northeast toward Gottingen while the rest of the 3rd TF and escorts turned southeast for their target runs on Kassel.

As the main bomber stream departed Kassel toward the rally point, the fighters received a plea for help from the Gottingen force to the north at approximately 1003.

A very large gaggle of Fw 190s and Me 410s, escorted by 109s, had intercepted the unescorted 445th BG between Gottingen and Eschwege, south-southeast of Kassel.

Green flight led by Captain Henry Brown sped to the Eisenach-Eschwege area and made contact with a section of Fw 190s, now diving away from the B-24s. When Brown led his flight to the attack approximately 30 Fw 190s diving for the deck Brown caught two to raise his combined air/ground total to 27.7.making him the highest active scoring ace in the ETO. His wingman Lieutenant Priest got another FW 190 in the same fight..

The 336FS of the 4th FG spotted 100 plus German fighters and joined the fight. They shot down five to cross the 700 destroyed milestone and pass the 56th FG.

The 361st FG also heard the cry for help from the distressed 445th BG and engaged in a huge scrap with 75+ Fw 190s, Me 410s and Me 109s sweeping through the 445BG.

Before the 355th 4th and 361st could intervene, II./JG4 Fw 190 "Sturmbocks" armed with 30mm cannon had already shot down 25 B-24's between 1003 and 1009. Sevrl more would not make it back to England.

The 361st shot down 18 Fw 190A8s, then destroyed three Me 410s on the ground. Lt. Beyer of the 376FS got five in the air to become 'ace in a day".

The rest of 355th stayed with the bombers to provide cover for the now lightly guarded rest of the force.

On this day the 376th FS/361st FG broke all previous ETO records for the most aircraft downed by one squadron in a single mission and probably saved the 445th from complete annihilation. Their total loss of 25 bombers was the highest single loss of any USAAF bomb group during World War II.

After escort was broken, Red flight of the 354FS strafed an airfield near St. Vith around noon.. Stewart and Lieutenant Mann destroyed a shared Ju 88 and Captain Williamson destroyed a Fw 190 on what was believed to be the Eschwege airdrome. The Fw 190 blew up as Williamson flew over in the 'borrowed' WR-F "Lorie V" and the rudder and tail section were badly damaged but he made it back to Steeple Morden with Stewart flying escort.

To this day the mission objective of the 445th BG remains shrouded in mystery but one of the more prominent theories is that they were tasked to destroy the Horten 229 facilites at Gottingen. Following return of the survivors, the mission notes were taken by 8th AF HQ personnel and allegedly instructed to remain silent.

Final score 5-0-0 for no losses.[/I]

Hope this is of some use to you

Regards,

Bill

 

[drgondog]

The first planes the 445th saw was P-38s. We have not yet ascertained which fighter group that was, although we do know the groups covering the 2nd Division that day.

The only 8th AF FG flying P-38s that late were the last of the transitioning 479th FG. I'll have to research to see if they were escorting the 3rd TF that day. Having said that, the 479th was part of the 65th Fighter Wing assigned to 2AD - along with 4th, 56th, 355th and 361st FGs.

 

[Erich]

Linda

~ the IV.Sturm/JG 3 Fw 190's made the first attack en-masse and made it through the 445th bg taking hits by the B-24's only they had already left the scene of carnage with the JG 300 and JG 4 Fw's following together behind, these are the units the 361st fg took on and shot up. The losses that JG 3 SturmFw's took were not by fighter action but by the Bombers. And with that first action the reason why the 445th lost 18 B-24's in just milliseconds it was that intense.

E ~ yes would love to have the 361st fg report(s) to help confirm.

secondary note : Truthfully most ETO authors and interested parties still do not know in truth about September 27, 1944 nor the almost identical disaster on the 28th of September when two Sturmgruppen almost did it again to two US 8th AF bomb groups glad-fully for them the US Mustang escorts were in place but still the destruction was done.

 

[drgondog]

Linda

~ the IV.Sturm/JG 3 Fw 190's made the first attack en-masse and made it through the 445th bg taking hits by the B-24's only they had already left the scene of carnage with the JG 300 and JG 4 Fw's following together behind, these are the units the 361st fg took on and shot up. The losses that JG 3 SturmFw's took were not by fighter action but by the Bombers. And with that first action the reason why the 445th lost 18 B-24's in just milliseconds it was that intense.

E ~ yes would love to have the 361st fg report(s) to help confirm.

E - Mike William's site should have 9/27 encounter reports - I still haven't unpacked my library or I would send them to you.

 

[Erich]

I have had nothing but probs Bill getting onto Mikes dedicated site, in fact one time he had a virus floating around so stayed shy of it.

 

[drgondog]

E - thanks for corrections to units engaged on 9/27

 

[stephanie_brown1981]

Quote from Stephanie Brown:
"It came to pass that I heard from Stephanie Brown and Diane Glase that Wilbur Brown became the top gunner for his aircraft; but Donna Jeppi relates that he was the flight engineer."

Stephanie,
Thank you so much for posting Brianna's wonderful account of your grandfather's (?) story. We'd like permission to post this on the kasselmission.com website. We would need permission from Brianna as well as from her parents, since she is a minor.

For the most part, it is amazingly correct in its facts, as far as the 445th Bomb Group in general is concerned. Many parts of the Wilbur Brown story, we never have known, as our organization has not been in contact with your family. (The "Brown" name is hard to find, even in these days online!) I'm writing a book about the mission, and wonder if Wilbur Brown ever wrote down what happened, other than the narrative report he made at the time for the Air Force. Did he write about his treatment at the hospitals, etc?

By the way, the flight engineer doubled as a top turret gunner, so there is no discrepancy.

I'm so happy to read that Wilbur did finally get his diploma. I'd be interested to know of the conditions spoken of when he regained his eyesight. Do we have an original account from him? Please contact me [email protected]

Thank you for sharing this, and congratulations to Brianna on a wonderful paper.

Hi Linda!!

I know it's been a while since I contacted you about my grandfather Wilbur Brown. You definitely have my permission to post his story on the kasselmission.com website. I'm sure you have written your book already but I wanted to let you know that he did write down his original account but he did not go into lengthy detail. I have a hand written, short account of what he experienced and one picture of him and others standing at a French soldiers gravesite. He didn't start talking about it until the early 90's and he never really went into too much detail. I think that's because it was very traumatic for him and he didn't want to relive it. I do know that while he was blind he could hear someone having their leg cutoff while in the POW hospital, that's all he really told us about. He also said that he was treated very well in the hospitals that he was in.

He was really excited to get his diploma finally in 2001. He had said that he hated his English class while in High School so when he was drafted he told the teacher he didn't care about his studies anymore because he was being drafted anyways LOL. But it was always something that he wished he had despite working at Bethlehem Steel as a foreman in Southeast Baltimore.

You can email me if you would like to have the picture and his hand written notes for your records.

 

[fubar57]

S stephanie_brown1981 Unfortunately Linda hasn't been here since 2011. Try and Private Message her. It might end up in her gmail. You might want to remove your gmail address above....hacker thang