20 DECEMBER 1943
GERMANY: US VIII Bomber Command
Mission 159: The port area at Bremen, Germany was hit again. 357 of 407 B-17s, 103 of 127 B-24s and 12 of 12 PFF aircraft hit the target and claimed 21-14-23 Luftwaffe aircraft; 21 B-17s and 6 B-24s were lost; 3 B-17s were damaged beyond repair; 213 B-17s and 34 B-24s were damaged. Window-metal foil strips which, when dropped from an airplane, provided an echo which confused radar locating equipment, was used for the first time on an Eighth Air Force mission. This mission was escorted by 26 P-38s, 418 P-47s and 47 Ninth Air Force P-51s who claimed 19-3-6 Luftwaffe aircraft; 2 P-47s and 4 P-51s were lost; 1 P-47 was damaged beyond repair and 5 P-47s were damaged. The Luftwaffe sent fighters from JG 1, JG 11, JG 26, JG 54, ZG 26, JG 2, JG 3, JG 27 and EKdo. 25. The first pass by the Germans was just at the IP southeast of Delmenhorst and bombers were hit by flak over the target. A second fighter attack began just after bombs away. Flak was heavy and accurate. I. and III./ZG 26 were very active with WR 21cm rockets, protected by single-engined fighters. The chaos was so great that B-17 crews reported that He 111s had attacked them as Bf 110G-2s were sitting out of bomber gunner range, lobbing rockets then closing in on the cripples. The 445th Bomb Group suffered it's first combat loss when 2Lt 'Buck' Patterson's aircraft was downed.
The mission would have been recorded in the logbooks as just another mission if not for a unique event that wasn't revealed until decades later. Lt. Charles Brown was a B-17 pilot with the 379th BG and this was his first combat mission. After the bomb run, Brown and his B-17 - named 'Ye Old Pub' - were in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters. Before 'bombs away', Brown's B-17 took hits that shattered the plexiglass nose, knocked out the #2 engine, damaged #4 - which frequently had to be throttles back to prevent overspeeding - and caused damage to the controls. Coming off target, 'Ye Old Pub' became a straggler. Almost immediately, the lone and limping B-17 came under fire from a series of attacks from 12 to 15 Bf 109s and Fw 190s that lasted for more than 10 minutes. The bomber's 11 guns were reduced by the extreme cold to only the 2 top turret guns and one forward nose gun. The tailgunner was killed and all but one of the crew were incapacitated by wounds or the frigid air. Lt. Brown had taken a bullet fragment to his shoulder. With 3 seriously injured onboard, he rejected bailing out or crash landing with the alternative a thin chance of reaching England. While nursing the battered bomber toward home, Lt. Brown noticed a Bf 109 flying off his wing. The pilot waved then flew across the B-17's nose and motioned for Brown to land in Germany, which Brown refused to do. After escorting them for several miles out over the North Sea, the Luftwaffe pilot saluted, rolled over and disappeared.
Earlier, after Brown's B-17 had flown over his airfield, Oblt. Franz Steigler of 11./JG 27 was ordered to take off and shoot down the B-17. When neared the bomber, Oblt. Steigler couldn't believe his eyes. In his words, he;
"...had never seen a plane in such a bad state."
The tail and rear section was severely damaged and the top gunner was all over the fuselage. The nose was smashed and there were holes everywhere. Despite having ammunition, Franz flew to the side of the bomber and looked at Lt. Brown. Brown was scared and struggling to control his damaged and blood-stained plane. Aware that they had no idea where they were going, Franz waved to Lt. Brown to turn 180 degrees. Franz then escorted the stricken plane over the North Sea towards England. He then saluted and turned away, back toward Germany.
'Ye Old Pub' did make it across 250 miles of storm tossed North Sea and landed at Seething near the English coast, home of the 448th BG, which had not yet flown its first mission. When Franz landed, he told his CO that the plane had been shot down over the sea and never told the truth to anybody. Lt. Brown and the remainder of his crew told all at their briefing but were ordered never to talk about it. More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown and Franz Steigler met in the USA at a 379th BG reunion, together with 25 people who were alive - because Franz never fired his guns that day.
650 RAF aircraft - 390 Lancasters, 257 Halifaxes, 3 Mosquitos attacked Frankfurt at night. The German control rooms were able to plot the bomber force as soon as it left the English coast and were able to continue plotting it all the way to Frankfurt. There were many combats on the route to the target. The Mannheim diversion did not draw fighters away from the main attack until after the raid was over but the return flight was quieter. 41 aircraft - 27 Halifaxes, 14 Lancasters - were lost, 6.3 per cent of the force. The bombing at Frankfurt did not go according to plan. The Pathfinders had prepared a ground-marking plan on the basis of a forecast giving clear weather but they found up to 8/10ths cloud. The Germans lit a decoy fire site 5 miles south-east of the city and also used dummy target indicators. Some of the bombing fell around the decoy but part of the creepback fell on Frankfurt causing more damage than Bomber Command realized at the time. Part of the bombing somehow fell on Mainz, 17 miles to the west, and many houses along the Rhine waterfront and in southern suburbs were hit. Luftwaffe night-fighter Major Wilhelm Herget claimed 8 victories in 50 minutes during the battle. 44 RAF Lancasters and 10 Mosquitos of 1 and No 8 Groups carried out a diversionary raid on Mannheim but most of the bombing fell outside the city. No aircraft were lost.
UNITED KINGDOM: Convoy JW.55B departed Loch Ewe with 19 ships intent on making for the Kola Inlet. The convoy escort was comprised of the destroyers HMS
'Onslow', HMS
'Onslaught', HMS
'Orwell', HMS
'Scourge', HMS
'Impulsive', HMCS
'Haida', HMCS
'Iroquois', HMCS
'Huron', HMS
'Whitehall', and HMS
'Wrestler', minesweeper HMS
'Gleaner', and corvettes HMS
'Honeysuckle' and HMS
'Oxlip'.
A Vickers Wellington XIV from RAF No. 304 (Polish) Sqn hit mountain at night returning from U-Boat patrol over the Sea of Biscay on the slopes above Slieveglass, above Brandon village, Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. The whole crew perished: F/Sgt Adamowicz, Sgt Kuflik, Sgt Pietrzak, Sgt Kowalewicz, Sgt Lugowski and Sgt Czerniawski and were buried in Northern Ireland.
WESTERN FRONT: The unescorted
'Phemius' (Master Thomas Arthur Kent OBE) was torpedoed by
'U-515' about 30 miles south of Accra, Gold Coast and sunk by a Gnat coup de grâce. Three crew members, one gunner and 19 passengers were lost. The radio officer was taken prisoner by the U-boat. The master, 67 crew members, ten gunners and 14 passengers were picked up by FFL
'Commandant Drogou' (J 3040) and landed at Takoradi.
'U-850' was sunk in the mid-Atlantic west of Madeira, Portugal, by depth charges and Fido homing torpedoes from 5 Avenger and Wildcat aircraft (VC-19) of the American escort carrier USS
'Bogue'. 66 dead (all hands lost).
8 RAF Lancasters of 617 Squadron and 8 Pathfinder Mosquitos attempted to bomb an armaments factory near Liege but the Mosquito marking was not visible below the clouds and the Lancasters did not bomb; 1 Lancaster was lost. 6 Mosquitos to Rheinhausen and 5 to Leverkusen, 8 RCM sorties, 2 Beaufighters on Serrate patrol, 23 Stirlings minelaying in the Frisians, 38 OTU sorties. 1 Stirling minelayer lost.
EASTERN FRONT: Spanish dictator Francisco Franco ordered the "Blue Division" disbanded and returned from the Russian front to Spain. Over 40,000 Falangists (Spanish Fascists) fought beside their German comrades during their two years in the Soviet Union.
MEDITERRANEAN: Allied counter-intelligence forces arrested 28 Nazi spies in Italy including the ringleader "Grammatico".