donaldbyers
10/29/2009 11:17:28 PM | When a 401st Bomb Group B-17 flying Fortress piloted by 1st Lt. frederick N. Maire, Honolulu., lost the use of one of its engines 20 miles inside of the front lines on a recent mission (March 45) to Germany. Lt. Maire was faced with a problem. With a full bomb load and only three engines, it was impossible to keep up with the formation headed for Munich.
Rather than return to the English channel and salvo his bombs or take a chance of hitting our own troops from his present position, Lt. Maire left the formation, decended to 19,000 feet, continued into Germany and told his Bombardier-Navigator 2nd Lt. Charles A. Momberger, to look for a target.
Without the aid of a bombsight Lt. Momberger went to work and while the pilot made several runs on individual targets, the Bombardier planned his course of action. Then he dropped four 500-pound high explosive bombs on a four-track railroad siding, four more were on another railroad crossing not far from the siding and the last four on a small marshalling yard at Braunlingen Germany.
Although satisfied he had scored hits, Lt. Momberger told his pilot he wanted to prove it and their bomber cruised back over the three "targets of opportunity." Pictures were taken by an aerial camera told the story. Every target had received direct hits and each was badly damaged. A four-mile colum of black smoke was seen coming from Braunling. indcating one of the bombs had hit an oil storage plant.
Lt. Maire flew back over the front lines, made an emergency landing in France where his aircraft was repaired and then flew bac to home base in England with his most unuusual story and best of all, pictures to clinch it.
A Story worth telling
Don
Sgt. Donald C. Byers, 613th Bomb Squadron, Togglier, 42-97344 Carrie B II, KIA 08/24/1944.
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