Raid on Regensburg

Flight Journal, Dec 2001 by McCollester, Roger

In 1944, I was a 21-year-old kid and a long way from my hometown of Southport, Connecticut. The U.S. government had invested a ton of money, and one and a half years in training, and now entrusted me with a 10-man crew and a battle-ready B-24 Liberator that, in 1944 dollars, had cost $210,943 to build and equip. From the day I enlisted as an aviation cadet, until I found myself flying combat missions out of Italy, my life passed in a whirl, and I was dragged ever further from my youth. It seemed as if one moment I was trying to make gas money so that I could borrow my father's car for a date, and the next, I was pushing the throttles forward on more than 5,000 horsepower and was enveloped in a daily "game" of kill or be killed.

I was just one of the hundreds of thousands of airmen who knew we were part of a huge effort. As is the case in warfare, however, individual vision seldom sees the big picture. Our world was one small cockpit, and we could see only as far as our own squadron. I imagine it was the same for the ground pounders, but their cockpits were foxholes and their horizon was their rifle company.

It was hard for us to completely understand the enormity of what we were involved in. Heavy strategic bomb groups were poised in the north and south of Europe, like pit bulls eager to get at their prey. Hundreds of airfields in Britain and Italy were rapidly being supplied to equip the largest armed armada the world had seen before or has seen since. The goal was to smash Germany's ability to supply its war effort by obliterating oil refineries and major manufacturing and shipping centers.

One of the Allied Forces' prime targets was Regensburg, Germany. Regensburg and its environs were among the most strategically important areas in the entire Third Reich. It was a major manufacturing center of all types of military equipment, including ball bearings, fighter and bomber aircraft, tanks, trucks and artillery. In addition, the area harbored one of the largest syntheticpetroleum plants in Europe, and it was also a major railroad hub, with marshaling yards that were among the largest in Europe.

In addition to its large cadre of skilled labor, Regensburg was also a major center of higher learning and culture, especially in the performing arts. From every perspective, Regensburg and its suburbs were important to the Reich's war effort and, for this reason, the city was heavily defended with fighters and heavy antiaircraft batteries.

It was amazing how quickly we learned Germany's geography. A few months earlier, although I knew where Germany was, I bad never heard of Regensburg. After a few weeks, however, I knew the names and locations of most of Germany's major towns and many of its smaller ones. That knowledge was part and parcel of being a round-trip tourist who couldn't stop to see the sights.

While we slept

The maintenance and ordnance boys almost never knew where the squadron would be headed. All they knew was that they would have to spend the night before every mission working their butts off. While they slaved, those who would fly the mission were also blissfully unaware of the next day's target. The 724th Bomb Squadron engineering officer and his men fueled and serviced the 20 aircraft of our squadron that were all parked in revetments on either side of the perimeter taxiway. This was a huge job that had to be done very carefully because they dealt with tens of thousands of gallons of high-octane aircraft fuel. Every aspect of each airplane had to be attended to, including the oil tanks for each engine; there were four on each aircraft so, 80 engines in the squadron had to be topped off.

Once the aircraft had been serviced, the squadron armament officer and his detail took over. With heavy-duty prime movers and bomb trailers, they began the delicate process of loading the aircraft bomb bays with 12, 500-pound general-purpose (GP) bombs that carried instantaneous fuses that would explode on impact. Of course, these bombs weren't armed when they were loaded into the aircraft; once we were airborne and on the climb out to bombing altitude, the bombardier would arm them.

While the bombs were being loaded, other crews would thread the required thousands of rounds of .50-caliber ammunition into the gun turrets. It was backbreaking work for the ground personnel teams. They worked feverishly all night, right up until the aircrews boarded their aircraft, which was usually around 0430 hours, one hour before start engine time.

Time to wake up

On February 25 at 2:30 a.m., the duty officer stuck his head into our tent and yelled to wake us up.

"McCollester, we're ordered out on a maximum effort today; breakfast will be at 0300 hours; briefing in the War Room at 0400 hours."

"OK; thanks, but no thanks, Charlie. Can't we just sack out for another hour or so?"

"Come on, Mac; up and at 'em!"

We all grumbled quietly as we struggled out of our cots in the dark. I looked over at my copilot, "Ev" Johnson. Lt. Evert M. Johnson was from West Hartford, Connecticut; prior to joining the Army Air Force, he majored in engineering at the University of New Hampshire. Our bombardier was Olin E. "Notch" Hotchkiss from Oneonta, New York, and he was a teaching major at an upstate New York college. Navigator Bernard "Dibi" DiBattista from Cranford, New Jersey, was a graduate of Fordham College and Fordham Law School and was a practicing attorney before his National Guard unit was called to active duty in early 1941; he later transferred to the Army Air Force and graduated from navigation school. Our radio operator, and the oldest man on our crew, was Harold F. "Slim" Hughes, age 33. The engineer and top-turret gunner was Walter A. "Georgia" Harris, from Atlanta, Georgia, and he had the most pronounced Southern accent that I had ever heard. Our two waist gunners, John M. Hannon from Indianapolis, Indiana, and John L. Stack, from Phoenix, Arizona, the ball-turret gunner, Francis D. Hynes, from Portland, Oregon, and our tail-turret gunner, Troy O. Sprott, from Corsicana, Texas, completed our 10-man crew.