![]() ![]() ![]() "I always felt if you could hear it, you were a goner. The danger increased when "flak" from Germany's antiaircraft guns hit the aircraft. The greatest danger of being hit was along the flight path, Clark said. As our colonel used to remind us all the time, 'Fly a formation no matter what because the reason we're here is to put bombs on the targets!'" "The Germans learned our procedure quickly, so would place their antiaircraft guns along our flight path. Head-on attacks put the Germans at a disadvantage because they had three to five seconds before being within range of the formation. He attributed the tight formations with forcing German pilots to stop attacking squadrons from the rear. The lead navigator would confirm the bombsight was on the right target, and they went straight to it.Ĭlark said German pilots learned that coming close to a "box" of 12 Flying Fortresses was very hazardous. 50-caliber machine guns," said Clark.Ĭlark said the formations picked a fixed point on the way to the target and flew in tight formation, as close as practical to the aircraft next to them. That was done primarily so the gunners in the squadron would be in a compact group of aircraft and would be able to defend the squadron of 12 ships with something like 150. "We would loosen up a bit until we got over German-controlled territory, then we'd tighten up the formations and try to get as close as we could to the aircraft we were flying off. The airborne commander would allow the formation to loosen up because maintaining a tight formation at high altitude with oxygen masks and other equipment was physically tiring. Heading out over the North Sea, Clark's crew and other 100th BG B-17s followed the preceding aircraft as they held their combat formations. As soon as we left the ground, we would immediately take up a heading, usually to the left, and fly that for a specified number of minutes," Clark recalled. "We had no real, clear idea of where the other aircraft were, but, fortunately, every time we flew, the aircraft ahead of us made a successful takeoff. Several times, the 8th Air Force mounted a maximum-effort mission with four or five squadrons. The base commander told the group that a 100th BG mission would be made up of three squadrons, normally with 12 or 13 aircraft each. In flight, the group was usually composed of 12 aircraft, though sometimes they added an extra one. 10, 1943, only one B-17 returned safely to England.Ĭlark was assigned to the 418th Bomb Squadron, one of four squadrons there. When the 100th BG raided Munster, Germany, on Oct. Several times, the 100th BG lost a dozen or more aircraft on a single mission, as, for the first six months, it focused on German airfields, industries and naval facilities in France and Germany. On that mission alone, they lost three planes and 30 men, according to the British museum dedicated to the group. The Bloody Hundredth's legacy began when the100th Bomb Group flew its first 8th Air Force combat mission in a bombing raid on Germany's Bremen U-boat yards on June 25, 1943. We were greeted by an officer who told us, 'Welcome to the Bloody Hundredth!'" "About two other crews were with us, and we arrived around midnight. On a rainy night, the crew arrived by train in Diss, England, where they were picked up by truck and taken to the 100th Bomb Group at Thorpe Abbotts, England. In August 1944, they picked up a new airplane and flew to New Hampshire before heading to England. Clark's crew was sent to Tennessee, where they flew with other B-17 Flying Fortresses for two months. There, he was assigned to a 10-person flight crew in which he would go through 8th Air Force operational training before heading overseas to fly missions.Īfter their training, crews were sent to bases around the country. The next day, he said he began "learning by just doing" by going out on gunner runs, spending the next month learning to fly the B-17.Ĭlark soon built up 50 hours of flying time in the co-pilot's seat of the B-17 before being sent to Lincoln, Nebraska. "When I got in that aircraft in Las Vegas, it felt like sitting in the Grand Canyon - full of clocks! This four-engine bomber had twice as many instruments and much more complicated operational switches than those I had experienced before." We had a long life together from that day until she passed away in 2008."Ĭlark said he finished advanced flight school in a very small, two-engine airplane, which by comparison to the B-17 was almost like a toy. I ended up following her for the next 63 years. Marie was headed to the library to listen to a vinyl record of French composer Claude Debussy's "La Mer." Clark recalled, "She looked at me and said, 'You may come if you wish …' Of course, that was exactly my wish, so I put down my pen and followed her into the library. ![]()
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