THE B-24 LIBERATOR HEAVY BOMBER, THE SECOND WORLD WAR,
THE "ALL-AMERICAN," MY FATHER, AND
WHY YOU'RE READING THIS IN BLR

[ click to enlarge ]

Courtesy of Brad Baker (whose grandfather was Harry J. Schow's navigator on the Banana Barge, Sweet Eloise, Wasp Nest, and subsequent B-24s, Dale Rauscher), actual mission papers from the last three bomb runs made by Keith Schuyler's crew.

The 04/22/44 target was the railroad marshaling yards at Hamm, on the northern edge of the Ruhr Valley, then one of the most heavily-defended spots in Europe.  During this mission the American contingent was briefly enagaged by prototype models of Germany's new, experimental jet aircraft – the ME-262.

The 04/27/44 strike was at rocket installations near Montivilliers, in France (bomb load: eight 1000-pound bombs).  As soon as the crew returned to base, they were turned around and sent on a second mission, to blow up the railway yards at Chalons Sur Marne – the first time ever that heavy bombers had attempted two missions in one day.  They caught heavy flak near Paris, which tore chunks out of the plane, severed some of the hydraulics systems, and eventually killed one of the engines.  As Schuyler wrote:  "Without knowing it, Schow had picked up a piece of flak which zipped through his flying suit and ended up against his underwear."  Owww, hot-hot-hot!  Schuyler was forced to ditch the plane on landing, no brakes and no rudders, and the crackup sheared off the nose wheel and warped the fuselage.

The fatal 04/29/44 mission was to bomb Berlin.  Just after crossing the Zuider Zee and passing the German border north of Osnabruk, the mission was swarmed by ME-109 Messerschmitt fighters.  Bombs were successfully dropped in what was later called "the greatest daytime raid of the war."  On the return flight, flak near Brandenburg took out an engine.  Hits in the wings caused fuel to leak.  With no gas for the trip home, Schuyler decided to ditch the plane in the North Sea.  Then a second wave of fighters, Focke-Wulf 190s tore the bomber apart with 20mm cannon fire.  Of the Focke-Wulf that came in for the kill at five o'clock, Schow said later, "I started firing and the tracers bounced right off him.  And then, I was just pressing triggers and nothing was happening.  It was an instant before I could find the extent of the damage.  A 20mm had hit us in the right elevator.  It blew my hydraulic unit on the floor, clipped off my left gun, cut my mike cord about an inch and a half from my throat, and generally took my plexiglas."  A fire bloomed in the waist of the plane.  Another fire started up in the tail.  The B-24 was out of ammo.  As they approached Holland (and another "flak alley" that was sure to destroy them in their bomber's weakened condition), Schuyler gave the order to bail out.  As he later wrote:

I wondered why I couldn't see or hear our airplane.  Years later, Renfro said he saw it blow all to hell as he was coming down in his chute.  The 190 did come in on Schow.  Hanging helpless, Schow just waved.  The German waved back.  He had his kill – chalk up one more B-24.