Saturday April 8, 1944

This day was an eventful one and one long to be remembered. At 0500 we were awakened for a briefing at 0620. Again at 0545 I received another message that I was to be at group operations for a pre-briefing at 0520. Thinking it too late for the pre-briefing, I started for the regular briefing and stopped for breakfast on the way. I had just finished eating when I was paged and off we went in a jeep to group operations. The staff left, so I went over to briefing. Colonel Fielding called me and I reported to a captain who was waiting with a jeep. He said the colonel was waiting for me in a command car and that we were going to Hethel field for a pathfinder ship. I quickly gathered my flying clothes and navigation equipment and the captain drove me over to where Colonel Isbell and Major Jamison were waiting in a command car. We had a half hour to cover the nine miles to Hethel, so our driver really burned up the roads. At Hethel we were briefed on the mission. As I was preparing my flight plan I wondered who was looking over my shoulder and almost died when I found out it was a brigadier general. The small room we were in was full of big brass and me only a lowly lieutenant.

Our target was and airfield about two miles north of Brunswick. This was a new experience for me as I was selected to be in the lead ship, which was leading the entire 96th Combat Wing. Lt. Locke was pilot, Col. Isbell was command pilot, Lt. Reed was DR and Gee navigator, another Lt. was a radar or pathfinder navigator and my job was to do pilotage navigation. Col. Isbell kiddingly promised me a swift kick in the pants if we missed our target. We took off at 1000 and proceeded to Horsham and buzzed the field several times at 100 feet. We then proceeded to assemble with all the groups and left the coast of England at 1202. We crossed the coast of Holland at 1239 and proceeded on course. Heavy flak was coming up from Quakenbruk, Osnabruck, Hannover and other towns along the route. Then as we approached the wing I.P. enemy fighters - ME-109's by the hundreds were seen attacking our ships. As many as four Lib's at a time were seen to go down - which made us allsick. Our own fighter support wasn't enough to take care of the Germans as they weren't in the vicinity of the target when we received the brunt of the attack. Our bombs were dropped on the airfield at 1516 and we really hit and smashed the airfield - but good.

We had to battle our way all the way home as excessive heavy flak was being shot at us coming too close for comfort. ME-109's kept picking off one ship at a time, jumping on those that were easiest to get. The enemy fighters followed us all the way to the channel. Many dogfights could be seen with our own P-38's, P-47's, and P-51's with the ME-109's. Many crippled ships could also be seen flying over the channel back home. It was surprising to see our own fighters come seemingly out of nowhere in reply to a distress signal from one Lib. The English coast never looked better as we crossed it and proceeded for Hethel and landed at 1700. The colonel left the plane immediately and sent a car after me. The rest of the crew went back together on a truck. I felt quite important riding in the command car alone and thankful to the colonel for thinking about me.

We were interrogated by Hethel's intelligence officers and we were picked up by our car and driven back to Horsham. The boys in the Pathfinder ship patted me on the back and complimented me many times on the nice job of navigating. They wanted me to join their crew. It was a good job of navigating for we were always on course and hit our target dead on. Of course the weather was good, which was a helpful factor. Battle damage to our ship was mainly a large hole in the wing and numerous smaller holes in the fuselage. After all the missions we have been on without seeing a single German fighter - it was surprising to see the Luftwaffe up in such great numbers. We weren't prepared for it and I believe our own fighter support was outnumbered. The German radio claimed they stopped us from going to Berlin. That's a lot of "poppycock", we went to our target with no deviation or altering of our briefed mission.

I can't help but feel somewhat proud of the fact that I had so important of a part to play as lead navigator in the lead ship - leading some 100 or more airplanes to the target. The responsibility was resting heavily on my shoulders, but I trusted in the Lord for help and I know He was with me. It's a wonderful feeling of accomplishment to fill so important a position. At least we didn't take them to Switzerland like they did last Saturday. This was by far the toughest and eventful mission so far. We were fortunate in our group. Out of thirty ships we lost only one, Sievers crew. Lt. Sievers, Lt. Driver, Lt. Dayson, and Lt. Slaughter were in that crew. One boy from another ship was shot up in his legs and died late tonight in the hospital.

Thanks,

Darin Scorza

Here is my father's account of the big raid on Berlin March 8th. If you will note, Chris, he does refer to his plane as "Round Trip Ticket", but also states that it was a "war weary" that went on the Ploesti mission. Could this be a different plane than 42-63963? If so, could the records be wrong about this plane being the one my father flew that day? Jeff Jobson.

Walter P Jobson Jr.

March 8, 1944

As February progressed we began to take longer and longer trips into Germany. As March 8th approached, we knew that something really big was in the wind. All planes, even the "war wearies", were being got into shape. Word got out that it was going to be a "Maximum" effort. As it turned out it was to be the first 1000 plane daylight raid on Berlin.

I drew an old B-24D that had been on the Ploesti raid, called "Round Trip Ticket". It had a big green ticket painted on its nose. We had never been able to fly all at once as a crew, so I had a green co-pilot and a bombardier who was finishing up his 25th mission. He got all dressed up in his full dress uniform for the occasion. "Round Trip Ticket" was a "war weary", and wouldn't ordinarily have been sent . However, this was a maximum effort and they wanted to be able to say that 1000 planes made the raid. We had a load of Fire bombs and Frag bombs. The Fire bombs were to start the fires and the Frag bombs were to discourage the firemen!

We got off and formed up High Rear, the last of three in our group. On the way we were to be covered by Spitfires at the Channel, P-51s and P-47s till I.P., and P-38s over the target. The P-38s were the only fighters able to make distance, but could only stay over the target area a couple of minutes. We were warned not to straggle. Nothing spectacular happened on the way in. We could see the Autobahn stretched out before us like a road map. We did notice some fires on the ground that must have been planes from the groups before us that had crashed. We got into the turning point for the target and found that we couldn't keep up. In jamming the throttles forward, I must have blown a couple of the superchargers. I couldn't maintain altitude.

Ahead of us, however, I could see Berlin. The city was marked by a big oil refinery fire that our predecessors had started. What I did was start a slight descending course so that I could pick up speed. That way I could stay under the umbrella of our planes and not get picked off by fighters. In this attitude I went into the target. My bombardier picked a target on the way in and dropped his bombs. That helped us lighten our load and keep up speed.

As we were crossing the center of Berlin the crew threw out "Window", tin foil tassels that were to confuse the enemy radar. Just about then someone said, "We're all out of Window. What do we do now?" I said, "Sit tight, we will get the German reaction in a minute". Just then, BALOOEY! All the sky seemed to erupt in a series of giant flashes! This was no ordinary Flack! In fact it was the largest anti-aircraft guns the Germans had!

I could see several of the planes above us begin to trail smoke and lag behind. The #3 engine started giving me trouble. As the formation turned toward home it began to let down all at once. I feathered the #3 engine and was able to pick up speed, keeping just under the formation. As we got to lower altitude, the #1 engine picked up power and I could resume flying with the group. In this manner we headed for home.

After we crossed the channel I could see there was solid cloud cover from about 5000 feet to the ground level. The rest of the group started the standard letdown, a race course oval that was supposed to bring you back to base one at a time. I wasn't having any of that. I got the radioman to set the radio compass on the home base, and I followed it into the "cone". Just as the needle flipped to my left, I started a tight turn . I began a 500 foot a minute letdown, keeping the needle pointed at my left wing. This is the quickest and best way to get down through an overcast. I wasn't about to fly out to the channel and follow everybody back to the base. As a result, I popped out of the overcast about a half mile from the end of the runway.

I lowered my flaps and landing gear on the power in the hydraulic accumulator reservoirs. With the #3 engine out of commission, my regular hydraulic power was knocked out. Just as the welcome words "Gear down and locked" came over the intercom, I touched down on the runway. When I taxied in I left the flaps down. We found a chunk of iron as big as my two hands could hold that had cut through the controls of the #3 engine. It was sticking up in the floor of the flight deck. I made a safe but unorthodox return, thanks to the training I received from that old airline pilot at Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson.

March 2, 1944

At last we were notified that a new ship was to be assigned to us. It was S- (or as Peeper Martin called it, S for Snakebite) and we were looking forward to flying it. However, another practice formation was called and just as I was going to go out to my plane S-. I was called over and told to go with another crew (Billy's, I think) to practice for formation lead so I could be leader in a group of three. Another man was told to take my plane instead. We took off, and I got my position which was above and slightly to the rear of the group of three that my new plane S- was to be flying in. While we were in position, our wing men were to come up and form on us, so all we did was hold our assigned altitude and keep an eye on the lead plane for changes of direction. We were watching the form up of the group of three ahead and to the left below us. We noticed S- trying to take its position on the left wing of his leader. The formation was making a wide curve to the left and S- was having trouble getting into position. He would skid in and out, all the time bobbing up and down like he knew where he was supposed to be but couldn't make the plane behave. He kept skidding in and out; on one of the skids in towards his leader, it seemed like the formation took a sudden jog to the left. In trying to follow this the leader made a sharp left turn just as S- was making his sloppy skid towards him. S- was out of control and on a collision course with his leader. S- made one tremendous effort to avoid the collision and actually stood that big heavy airplane up on its tail. It hung there for an instant, then fell with a tremendous crash right on top of his leader. The two right hand engines of S- bit into wing of the leader just like a couple of buzzsaws. I could actually see the propellers bite into the metal. With that the outer panel of S- folded back and both planes wrapped together in an embrace of death. S- went down at once, the leader flew on a few moments and the crew mostly bailed out. I missed it by a quirk of fate at the last minute.