Replacement Crew
excerpt from "Replacement Crew" by Dick Baynes

    Looking ahead, we were the most fortunate of the four crews that arrived that day. Wunderlich, who graduated in my class, 43K, at Turner Field, GA, crashed on his third mission, and all were lost. Wiesser was a West Pointer, and he opted to become a lead crew. He was flying as Command Pilot on the 21st of April 1945, when his plane was shot down, the last combat loss of the Group. Peace narrowly escaped death when he was flying as instructor pilot on a practice mission and two planes collided. He was one of only four that was able to parachute to safety.

    Boys will be boys, especially on the 4th of July, and although we were too new to get involved, we did see some of the unauthorized celebrations that went on. Even though the "Old Man" (Group Commanding Officer) had ordered no celebrations, there were 45 pistols being fired in the barracks area and somewhere around 2200 hours, it looked like flares were coming from every plane around the base. (Each plane is equipped with a Very Pistol and flares for firing in various emergencies.) It all made for a very auspicious welcome on our first day at the base.

    The four officers were housed in a Nissen Hut with four crews (16 officers) spread out in individual cots, with a small pot belly stove in the middle of the hut for heat. The enlisted members of the crew were in another area, also in Nissen Huts. We had a chance to unpack, look around the base to find the mess hall, the Officers' Club, the PX, the administration building and briefing room, etc. It seemed that everyone had a bike, as that was the most convenient way to get around the area. Motor vehicles were limited and for official use only. I don't remember when we got our bicycles, but it wasn't long after we arrived.

    Besides looking things over on our second day, we had lectures to tell us all about the routine of flying missions, assembly, the twelve ship formations, the weather, and the Group and Squadron organization. We also were issued our equipment for our future flights. Equipment included a 45 caliber Colt pistol, long johns, electric heated flying suit, silk gloves to go under the electric heated gloves, helmet, oxygen mask, sheepskin outer jacket, pants, boots, steel helmet, life jacket, and parachute. Flying at 25,000 feet in an Unheated aircraft like the B-24 could get pretty cold, -50 degrees sometimes, and that was why we had electric heated suits, etc. We would find other equipment in the plane, such as a throat microphone, which allowed communications while still using both hands; and flak vest, which is a heavy bullet proof cover similar to the old fashioned baseball umpire's protector, plus portable oxygen bottles, so that we could move around the airplane at high altitudes. Ralph Dennings remembers that part of his personal equipment was a long, heavy Red Cross scarf that he would wrap around him from his neck to his waist. It was extremely cold in the nose, with the wind blowing around the nose turret, and even with his long johns, the scarf, electric heated suit, and sheep skin flying suit, it still got cold at times.

    We also had our picture taken in rather seedy looking civilian clothes, which became part of our escape kit. Supposedly one could use such a photo on a bogey passport when shot down and recovered by the French, Belgium or Dutch Underground. 

    We also were each given silk maps of Europe to help us find our way when shot down, plus an escape kit that would fit in our back pocket, with a compass, concentrated food and emergency supplies. Some of our lectures where on escape and evasion. Often at a briefing, we would receive information on the best method and direction for evading if we were shot down

    The 466th flew its 75th mission on July 5th to bomb an airfield in LeCulot, Belgium. They encountered heavy and accurate flak. One of the planes came back with all hydraulic systems destroyed by flak, which meant no brakes. He circled the field till all the other planes had landed, then cranked the landing gear down manually and came in for a landing. Parachutes had been fastened to the waist gun mounts and when the plane settled down on the runway the pilot gave the order to release the chutes out the waist windows. The chutes opened beautifully and the plane came to a gentle stop with no damage to the plane.

    On July 6th, the new crews spent the whole day in more classes, and these continued in the morning of the 7th, but that afternoon we were taken out to an airplane to get acquainted, took oft' and made a few landings, plus flying around to get oriented to the area and the air base.

    July 8th had us getting up early with the crews that were alerted for a mission. We took off with them, climbed to our assembly area and formed with the group. We followed them to the Channel, then left them to complete their mission and bomb some railway bridges near Fismers and Anizy, France. We proceeded on to drop five practice bombs before landing. That afternoon we took off for a practice mission that failed to assemble. The next day we took off on another practice mission, and assembled into our 12 ship formation, but the weather was so bad that it had to be cancelled. The Group flew no mission that day because of the bad weather.

    So after two aborted practice missions and one practice forming with a regular mission, we were declared ready to fly our first mission, and were put on alert for a mission on July 9th. We stayed on alert most of the day, but the mission was finally "scrubbed" (canceled) because of the bad weather. We did get our airplane assignment, "Gallopin' Ghost", #43 9.

    Previously we had heard that on a first mission, an experienced pilot would fly with the crew, or that the new pilot would fly on a mission with an experienced crew, but with few crews available, due to the original crews all getting finished with their tours, we were to fly our first mission on our own.

    July 11 -- Up at 0130 hours. This was it!! Our first mission! Munich, Germany. What a choice for our first experience -- one of the longest missions flown from England. My flight, log shows 8 hours and 55 minutes for this mission, the longest one of my 35 missions. That time didn't include the long period of waiting for our turn to taxi to the runway before take-off. Being a new crew, we were probably one of the last to take off.

    Here is what happens when you are alerted and called for a mission. An officer comes around in a jeep to your barracks and wakes up the specified crew members in time to get dressed and have a chance to get to the mess hall for breakfast -- lots of powdered eggs, and fruit cocktail -- before the appointed time to arrive at the briefing room. The officers, and Radio Operator attended the briefings to hear about the details of the specific mission, the target, its importance, the forming details, the route, the plan of the bomb run, expected weather, and expected resistance - known anti aircraft batteries (which meant "FLAK" to us), possible enemy fighters, and possible evasion routes. After briefing, you would take your fin" gear from your individual locker out to waiting trucks and be transported to your airplane. The ground crew and your enlisted crew members would be waiting to hear the news.

    This particular mission was an historic one for the 466th, as it was the culmination of weeks of training and preparation for a method of pinpoint bombing through clouds by use of radar. Variously referred to as 'PFF," "Mickey," "Blind Bombing," "H2X." The 484th Squadron of' the 466th Bomb Group had been designated the 96th Wing's PFF Squadron, and selected crews from the 466th, the 458th and the 467th Bomb Groups (all part of the 96th Wing) became the new 784th Squadron to provide lead planes whenever weather necessitated bombing through clouds, rather than visual.

    Back to the mission, we were to bomb an airfield in Munich and details were given on the location of the IP (initial point) where the bombardier, either visual or PEE, takes over and in essence from then until "Bombs Away" flies the airplane. He has to fly straight and level through a "bomb run" so that he can get a fix on the target and let the bombsight do all the calculating to determine the point when the bombs are to be dropped. This is the most vulnerable time for a formation because it allows the anti aircraft tracking system on the ground to get a fix on the plane's altitude, speed and direction, just what is needed to set the fuses on shells they are firing. We did use counter measures to confuse the AA tracking systems -- each plane dropped bundles of "chaff" which was fine strips or shreds of aluminum foil, and as the foil fluttered down it would give the ground radar the same appearance as a formation of planes.

    As we looked at the map in the front of' the Briefing Room, it looked like the area from the IP through the target was all in red, meaning we could expect lots of flak.

    After the briefing, we were all abuzz with excitement and a little tense to say the least. We grabbed our flight gear, climbed into the truck and were dropped off at the "hard Stand" or "revetment" (individual concrete pads located around the perimeter of the field) where our plane was parked. It loaded with 40 100 lb. GP (general purpose) bombs for the mission. The rest of our crew were already there and anxious to hear about our coming mission, as were the ground crew.

    I had a good solid religious us background as I was glowing up, and although I didn't outwardly manifest my belief in a divine Creator, I sure did my share of silent praying throughout my tour of' missions, and this mission would see more than its share of my prayers.

    After looking over the plane and going through the check list, we waited for the flare to start engines, then another flare to start our taxi to get in line at the end of the runway, ready to take off. It was about 0800 hours when we finally took off and climbed through the clouds to our specific radio beacon - I think it was called "Splasher 5." When we got to the designated altitude and near t lie radio beacon, we would look for the group's colored flares coming from the lead plane (later we had a brightly striped red and white formation plane to form on), and we would take our preassigned position in the 12 ship formation. The 466th was putting up two 12 ship formations for this mission. The group circled around the beacon while everyone assembled, then at a specified time the formation would fly to a designated point where they would fall into line with other groups of 1 2 ship formations and an armada of airplanes, sometimes as far as the eye could see would head out toward Europe. We climbed as we went, and at 10,000 feet altitude, we would put on our oxygen masks, and depending on the temperature, turn on out electrically heated flying suits. It was the navigator's job to keep track of where we were, in case we had to leave the formation, even though we were just following the lead plane in formation. A routine that we would follow on each mission was to have all guns test fired over the Channel on our way to a mission.

    I'm not sure what posit ion we flew in the format ion, but it was probably wing man of the low left element, or of the high right element, as these were usually designated to new corners I remember doing my best to stay in tight formation, as we had been told that it was for our own protection. The formation's firepower was most effective, and protective when we were flying in a tight formation. We were getting up to about 22,000 feet altitude on our way to the target, when Rocky, the co-pilot got really sick. He couldn't stay in the seat, and ended up stretched out on the flight deck. As we approached the target we could see lots of what looked like black puffs of smoke ahead. We donned our flat vests and steel helmets as we approached the IP and the gunners in the back were throwing out chaff We had good tighter protection and that may be the reason that we saw no enemy fighters.

    We saw a couple of planes go down up ahead of us. It wasn't a story anymore, somebody was shooting at us. This is for real. Another time for some private prayers. Maybe the enemy gunners were reloading, maybe the chaff was working, or maybe we were lucky, hut none of the planes in our format ion were hit very seriously with flak. John Gattis thinks it was the chaff as he remembers throwing out the chaff and watching the flak get lower and lower, apparently following the chaff rather than our formation.

    There was a cloud cover over the airfield and I guess a decision was made that with radar bombing, it was better to pick a more defined secondary target in the city. We dropped out bombs and then the formation started taking evasive action as we left the target area Right after "Bombs Away," the plane seems to jump up as it releases its heavy load. As we turned and headed back to England we saw a couple of' planes off toward the Swiss border, probably crippled and headed for safety.

    The trip home seemed uneventful, and, being our first mission, I was continuing to do my best to fly good formation Les Walters our Flight Engineer was riding in the co-pilot's seat, when suddenly #4 engine quit - it was out of' gas. Les climbed back to the cross feed controls that allow gas to be transferred from one tank to another, and transferred some gas into the tank that fed #4 engine, and we got the engine started again. Knowing that we were low on gas, and since we were close to the Channel, we left the formation, cut back on our power, and started a gradual descent toward home. Lloyd Holden, our navigator, gave us the pr per heading and kept track of our flight path. Les Walters came back into the co-pilot's seat (that was mistake #2), as Rocky was still out cold. Ralph Dennings remembers that we asked Nick Nichoson, our radio operator, to contact air-sea rescue in ease we couldn't make it across the Channel, but all he could get was music. John Gattis and Harvey Walton threatened to throw Nick out so he could swim for help.

    Just as we came over the English coast, two engines quit on the right side, and we were under 1000 feet in altitude I jumped on left rudder with both feet and turned the rudder trim tabs as much as I could. I gave the remaining two engines as much power as I could and still keep control of' the plane. The two engines procedures that I had learned in transition training flashed through my mind, but I really needed another set of feet helping me on the rudder to overcome that tremendous yaw from all the power coming from one side of the plane. Looking down, we were right over an airfield. What a break! But I was gradually losing altitude as I was trying to swing around to come in on a runway. I began to see that there was no way that I could make it to the runway with only two engines operating. The field was not an open field, but had trees glowing up along the runway, and uneven ground. About this time, Rocky was awakened with all the excitement and quickly climbed into the co-pilots seat. Just as I was planning my approach through the trees, and telling everyone to prepare for a crash landing, power suddenly came back to the two dead engines. When the two engines had gone out, Les Walters had immediately climbed back to the gas transfer control panel, and was able to transfer some gas into the two dead engines.

    This is how Les remembers it:
"When #4 engine cut out, I turned all valves to connect all 4 tanks. The sight gauges in the B-24 were totally unreliable, as the gas in them would go up and down like a yo-yo. Along with the gas problem, we weren't sure that our landing gear was down and locked as we had no green light. Later we found that the Ball Turret had not been stowed properly. When the two engines went out, I finally got smart enough to turn on the fuel pumps, and that is why the two engines cut back in just in time to save our bacon. As we came down, all I could see out the right side was green fields, and I thought Dick was going for the grass, and as we came around and I saw the runway, I wondered where Dick found that

    We were no more than 1 00 feet off the ground when that happened, but it allowed me, with Rocky's help, to pull the plane around so that we could come in on the runway.

    We taxied up to the airfield ramp, shut down the engines, and climbed out of the plane, and I kissed the ground. We radioed ahead to Attlebridge to tell them where we were, then got gassed up and headed home.

    I mentioned Mistake #2 -- allowing our Flight Engineer to sit in the co-pilot's seat when we knowingly were low on gas. I should have had him stationed at the cross feed controls in case such an emergency happened. Mistake #1 was maintaining the gas mixture controls at a "too rich" mixture, thereby burning more gas than need be, and I suppose my over ambitious jockeying to stay in tight formation on my first mission might have burned up some extra gas. On most missions this would not have been a problem, but on a long mission like this it was critical. We were fortunate, as a mistake like this could have easily caused a crash, the loss or damage of an expensive airline and the possible injury or loss of crew members. I know that the crew was scared, but I don't think they ever realized just how close we came to a serious crash landing into those trees and uneven ground.

    Later on, we found that the airfield where we landed was the most Easterly airfield in England, the first one you could find after crossing the Channel from Europe. It was an RAAF Fighter Base called Ludham, according to my notes.

    After filling up on gasoline, we took off and flew the short distance to Attlebridge. We landed, taxied around to our hard stand, tilled out the necessary forms, got our gear together, and soon the truck was around to pick us up and take us to debriefing. At debriefing, we were asked the regular quest ions about the mission, our observations, etc. It was pretty routine, and no one got very excited about our close call. I guess that I was expecting a little more sympathy, us I was still a little shaken up from our ordeal, but in hindsight it, I guess the briefing officer had heard many stories more scary than ours. We were excused to go to dinner and told that we were on alert for the mission tomorrow!

    One down, and 34 to go!

Dick Baynes - Pilot Crew 731, 787th BS
Excerpt from "Replacement Crew" by Dick Baynes
Used with permission

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