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EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS

(Note: The following paragraph seems to have been written by the group commander or someone in group headquarters.)

    On the 2nd of November mission to Merseberg the group experienced a vicious fighter attack 15 minutes after it had dropped its bombs. The sky over the target for several minutes was an inferno of falling, burning planes. It was a day that will be long remembered by those fortunate to come through that holocaust unscathed.
When the din of air battle had subsided, several of those who had taken their toll of enemy fighters crystallized in writing those few fleeting moments of death in the sky. Following are their accounts:

   It was the Merseberg area today, and the last words said in the briefing room were "Watch out for enemy fighters."
    We got to our plane, which was old 021 "Mission Maid". 1st Lt. Salzer "The Wheel", the nickname that our crew gave him, was the pilot and Commander of our ship and crew. We had been through several tough ones together and this was to be another one to talk about later.
    The assembly and the trip over were as usual and everything looked okay until we noticed that there was only light flak over the target. You could just sense that trouble was brewing. On the bomb run everything went well and our fighter escort were with us.
    Just after bombs away, enemy jet propelled planes appeared in a big group at nine o'clock high. At that time I was cranking up the bomb bay doors; hearing the report coming over the intercom "Bandits at nine o'clock high", just as I finished, I quickly returned to my turret. At that time enemy fighters were called out at eight o'clock level and high, sliding toward the tail. I was watching the dogfight at nine o'clock. When as the jets led our escorts away, I glanced towards the tail and saw a company front of about 15 or 20 enemy planes coming in high from about 5 or 7 o'clock with another front just behind them about level. The planes were identified as FW 190's.

    Every man on the ship was at his position, T/Sgt Elbert D. Conger of Liverpool, Ohio was in the tail, S/Sgt Dick Mitrenga of Chicago, Illinois was in the ball, S/Sgt Pen W. Hamrick of San Diego, Cal. manned the left waist gun, T/Sgt Vincent Toth of Gary, Ind. was our radioman, and I was in the top turret. Lt William Steffen of Greensburg, Pa. our bombardier, was on the chin turret, while our pilot, Lt Ernest T. Salzer of Philadelphia, Pa. and copilot, Rex R. Monson of Galesburg, Illinois, had to sweat it out over the controls.
    "Pilot to radio, you had better man the waist gun" were the very next words over the interphone. "I'm here", was his reply.
    I picked one out at five o'clock high, the tail gunner had one picked for himself at about six o'clock and the ball turret picked one out of the third wave, the only wave in his view.
The first two waves came in wiping out most of our box, but most to them were also wiped out. The plane I was shooting at went over our tail and tore off his left wing on the right horizontal stabilizer of our left wingman. I saw that our left wingman was on fire behind his number three engine and that he had begun to peel off. I swung my guns back to five o'clock again as the pilot, using evasive action, dropped the plane about 25 to 50 feet, leaving the FW190's shooting over us at the spot that we had just vacated.

    The next plane that I fired at went over the top of us and straight down in front of our nose. "There's one for you, Stef," I called over the interphone and the bombardier poured lead into him as he went down in flames. At about that time five FW190's were falling around us as the third and last wave started to come in. They were more broken up than the first two waves because some of them were picking out the straggling forts as they fell in flames.
    Our low box now consisted of only two forts. The rest were scattered all over the sky. There were both forts and bandits falling down all around us.
    As I brought my guns back to 6 o'clock two more were coming in close to our tail, one high at 5 o'clock and the other directly on our tail under us. I could hear the ball turret gunner firing away. I started firing at the one at five, and the radio gunner was also firing at him. He started to smoke as he fell off our right wing, and down under our belly he burst into flame. The other one lost his prop and blew up about 25 feet from our tail.

    It was over: What had seemed like hours, had only been between 3 and 5 minutes. Nine of our forts didn't come back, but we took our toll of the FW190's. We are sure of the planes credited to us and know that many of the gunners on the unlucky forts took their toll of enemy planes with them. The other boxes had their share of kills too.

    It's a great satisfaction to have been able to help reduce the striking powers of the Luftwaffe. Our crew worked like a clock, due to our other rough missions together, but actually the good Lord rode with us and protected us.

(Note: The Salzer crew described in this report was the other surviving plane from the low box and must have been the one flying directly below us as described in my story "Merseberg and the FW 190 attack". Their plane, S/N 42-38021 was named "Mission Maid" and was from the 751st squadron with the letter K.
While, reports are that the fighters also attacked the lead and upper box, I find the records show that all losses came from the low box. The low box was made up of only 9 planes from the 751st and 2 planes from the 750th and one from the 749th. Six planes from the 751st were lost, two from the 750th and one from the 749th squadron. One plane from the 751st landed at an emargency field in England)
 
 

    Everything happened pretty fast that day as it usual does when Germans offer any opposition. We had been off the bomb run about 10 minutes when vapor trails from fighters started to fill the sky. "Friendly or enemy aircraft?" was the question in every one's mind. But we soon learned the answer. They were Fw 190's and Me 109's forming for one of those wolf-pack attacks.
    At first it appeared they were on the same level as our box, but as they came closer they lowered themselves for an attack on the low and lead boxes. Everyone of them followed his course except the leader who must have liked the looks of on of the planes in our box.
    I got my sights on him from about 600 to 700 yards as he made his attack from 7 o'clock. I could almost see the bullets hit home. As he got closer I could feel his 20 mm bursts around me. At about 200 yards he seemed to stop dead. The ship rolled over, and the pilot came out. In a second later the plane burst into flames and broke into several pieces. The pilot didn't wait long to open his chute as I could see a chute open not too far beneath me. The chute attracted my attention because of the peculiar color.

    Other gunners had quite a day too, as I could see several other enemy aircraft burning and exploding beneath us.

(Note: Sgt. Sitek flew as ball turret gunner in the crew of Lt Robert Kelly flying ship number 42-32101 and named "El Lobo II". They flew in the upper or lead box.)

    I am the tail gunner on our crew. That day we were flying ship #167. C. P. Sundbaum was pilot . We were deputy lead in the high box.

    We had already hit the target and started for home. At 6 o'clock I could see a lot of planes coming our way. At first I couldn't tell if they were fighters or bombers. As they came closer I knew they were fighters and coming our way. I called out over the interphone "Fighters at 6 o'clock low to level". I then called up the lower ball and told him to watch them because I had never seen our escort come in that way and so many planes together. I also called the top turret but his interphone was out and so was the pilot's.

    Just as they came close enough for me to tell they were enemy planes, the co-pilot cut me off the interphone to tell us there were bandits in the area. By this time the fighters were attacking the lead and low box. I saw two B-17's go down, then the fighters came up to get us.
    As the first Me 109 came at us, I started tracking him. He came up from about 8 o'clock low on up to level with us. I shot a short burst at him when he was at 7 o'clock but had to stop as he moved in behind a B-17. As he came on over to 6 o'clock I opened up on him again. I never let up on the triggers till his engines started burning and he pulled up as if he were going over on his back. He was now at 5 o'clock. The way it looked to me, he went into a high speed stall then started down. I watched him till one of his wings came off then I knew he was gone.

    I don't know much more about the fight because I was too busy with that one ship. I did see several more enemy planes firing at our squadron and saw on B-17 go down. When the 109 was firing it looked as though the leading edge of his wing was all ablaze.
    After the mission the ball gunner (Ed J. Zeitz) told me that he had seen the wing come off the plane just as I called up that I had knocked one down.

(Note: S/Sgt Estes was tail gunner on the crew of Lt Carl Sundbaum. They flew plane number #44-6167 in the high box.)

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This account, written by her uncle, was given to me by the niece of  George L. Branstetter, 748th Squadron. The Pilot of their plane was Lt. William Biracree.  The plane was
s/n 43-38583 C.

        NOVEMBER 2 WOULD BE THE SIXTH MISSION FOR OUR CREW.MY MEMORIES OF THAT DAY BEGIN AT THE MESS HALL, FOR AS WE WERE LEAVING I SAW ONE OF MY BOMBARDIER CLASSMATES.  HAD A BRIEF CHAT WITH HAROLD DOERR WHOM I HAD NOT SEEN SINCE OUR JULY GRADUATION.  HIS CREW WAS IN THE 751ST SQUADRON AND THIS WAS THEIR SECOND MISSION.  WE MADE PLANS TO GET TOGETHER AFTER THIS MISSION.

        WHEN THE CURTAIN WAS DRAWN BACK AT BRIEFING, THE REACTIONS MADE IT EVIDENT THAT MERSEBURG WAS A ROUGH TARGET.  THE 457TH HAD LAST BEEN THERE IN LATE JULY.  I REMEMBER A BRIEFING OFFICER SAYING THE LUFTWAFFE MIGHT SEND UP A GREAT MANY FIGHTERS.  WE WERE TOLD TO EXPECT ENEMY FIGHTERS WHOSE NUMBERS HAD INCREASED IN RECENT WEEKS.  THE CRITICAL NEED FOR OIL WAS A NEAR GUARANTEE OF FIERCE FLAK AND FIGHTER DEFENSE EFFORTS.

         B-17'S OF THE 3RD BOMB DIVISION MADE THEIR BOMB RUNS AND GOT AWAY FREE OF ANY FIGHTER ATTACKS.  I HAVE A VIVID RECOLLECTION OF THE LARGE DARK FLAK AREA AS WE APPROACHED THE AREA.  OUR GROUP DROPPED AND HEADED TO LEFT AS DID THE 91ST; REPORTEDLY BECAUSE OF FAULTY PFF PLOTS.  WAVES OF FW190'S ATTACKED OUR TWO GROUPS WHO WERE WITHOUT FIGHTER ESCORT PROTECTION, EACH GROUP SUFFERED IT'S LARGEST SINGLE MISSION LOSS OF THE WAR.
                     91ST - 13 PLANES            457TH - 9 PLANES

         MUCH HAPPENED IN THE NEXT FEW MINUTES.  THERE HAD BEEN SOME INTERPHONE TALK ABOUT PLANES COMING UP BEHIND US WHEN THE REDHEAD CUT IN AND SAID, "THOSE ARE BANDITS, GET ON THEM".  FORTY TO FIFTY FW190'S IN WAVES ATTACKED FROM OUR REAR WITH THE LOW BOX RECEIVING THE HEAVIEST FIRE.  THERE WERE MANY SMALL WHITE PUFFS FROM
EXPLODING 20MM SHELLS AROUND OUR POSITION IN THE LEAD BOX. THE SHELL THAT JAMMED MY RIGHT CHIN TURRET GUN CUT THE AMMUNITION BELT AND EXPLODED THREE OF THE .50 ROUNDS.  SOMETHING FRACTURED THE PLEXIGLASS COVER, AND IT WAS SUCKED AWAY BY THE DOWNDRAFT.  AS I WAS CROUCHED WITH MY RIGHT FOOT ON THE COVER, MY LEG DROPPED AND MY FOOT HIT THE GUN COVER. BEFORE I COULD PULL MY FOOT OUT BOB, OUR NAVIGATOR, GRABBED AND PULLED ME BACKWARDS.
        I LOOKED DOWN  AND SAW A 190 EVEN WITH OUR NOSE IN THE INSTANT BEFORE IT FLIPPED OVER.  THE .50 CALIBER FIRE HAD SAWED OFF ONE WING CLOSE TO THE FUSILAGE. AS I LOOKED LEFT, A B-17 WITH #3 ENGINE ON FIRE PULLED AWAY FROM THE LEAD BOX AND ONE PERSON JUMPED OUT THE WAIST DOOR.  LOOKING RIGHT I SAW ANOTHER B-17 ON FIRE.  OUR WAIST GUNNER WAS UNTOUCHED BY A SHELL THAT EXPLODED NEXT TO HIS FEET, RIPPED OPEN AN OXYGEN BOTTLE AND STARTED A FIRE IN A LIFE VEST.
        THOSE WITH A VIEW TO THE REAR SAID IT LOOKED LIKE THERE WERE FIFTY TO SIXTY PARACHUTES IN THE AIR AT ONE TIME.  THE 190'S HAD FORMED UP FOR A SECOND ATTACK WHEN OUR P-51'S ARRIVED AND BROKE UP THEIR FORMATIONS.
ONE HUNDRED THIRTY EIGHT ENEMY PLANES WERE REPORTED DOWNED BY THE P-51'S.  SEVEN PLANES WERE LOST FROM THE LOW BOX AND ONE EACH FROM THE LEAD AND HIGH BOXES.
        THE TRIP HOME WAS ROUTINE EXCEPT THAT WE HAD TO CIRCLE THE FIELD UNTIL THE OTHER PLANES HAD LANDED.  UNABLE TO REDUCE ITS SPEED, OUR #3 ENGINE HAD TO BE FEATHERED IN ORDER TO HAVE BETTER CONTROL WHILE LANDING.   OUR PLANE THEN WENT TO THE SUB-DEPOT FOR MAJOR REPAIRS.
        IN AN EXCHANGE OF LETTERS YEARS LATER WITH OUR PILOT, HE WROTE...."MY RECOLLECTIONS OF THAT DAY OVER MERSEBERG ARE PRIMARILY FOCUSED ON THE HAPPENINGS IN THE COCKPIT AND WITH THE DAMAGE TO THE PLANE.  THE #1
PROP WAS WANTING TO RUN AWAY, THE THROTTLE AND MIXTURE CONTROLS TO #3 AND #4 WERE OUT, THE INSTRUMENT FUSE BOX UNDER MY SEAT WAS SHOT OUT, AND WE LOST ALL EXCEPT OUR PRIMARY INSTRUMENTS...."
 THE REUNION WITH MY BOMBARDIER CLASSMATE, HAROLD DOERR, NEVER HAPPENED.  BEING FROM THE 751ST, HE WAS IN THE LOW BOX WHICH WAS HARD HIT AND HAROLD DID NOT SURVIVE, ONLY TWO OF HIS CREW MEMBERS RETURNED
FROM THIS MISSION.

                                Lt. George L. Branstetter  748th Squadron

Lt. Branstetter was the bombardier and chin turret operator on the crew of Lt William Biracree  - 748th Squadron.

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This is part of the official OPERATIONAL CHRONOLOGY for the mission of Nov 2nd .
from the Mission Diary.

2 November      Mission #143.  Merseberg. (Strategic - PFF)
                        36 sorties. 2 aircraft failed to attack target due to mechanical failure.
                        35 aircraft attacked target.  1 aircraft Target of Opportunity (Bippen).
                        9 aircraft lost to enemy fighters. Battle damage - 5 minor, 4 major.
                        Bomb results - poor.  Enemy aircraft claims - 8 destroyed, 2 probable,
                        10 damaged, Casualties - 2 wounded, 82 missing

End