Saturday

In England, Verne wrote in his diary . . .

01-20-45 — 4th Mission – HEILBRONN

Poor pass. It sure went to the dogs since we went on a mission today. Temperature was 58° below zero. Colder than all get out. Bombed marshaling yards at Hielbronn but had to bomb secondary target. This was a milk run for sure. 14 bursts of flak at 3 o’clock and none of it close. Tired tonight.¹ Two letters from Aileen.

Thirty-two aircraft attacked the rail yard at Heilbronn as a secondary target, when weather forced them to abandon a small oil depot. Bombing was by pathfinder, with results estimated to be on one side of the target area.²

Dense persistent contrails were present at 26,000’. The mission was troubled with 10/10 cloud cover and atmospheric moisture content was such that windows frosted very badly reducing visibility to practically zeros. Glaze ice formed so solidly over the interior of windows and windshields that it had to be scraped off with knives and metal instruments so that the wing ships and formation just ahead could be seen. Immediate refreezing occurred each time so constant scraping was necessary. The aircrafts’ instruments also froze over and had to be scraped to be seen. At times, visibility was down to one-half to three-quarters of a mile. No enemy fighters were sighted and friendly fighter cover was excellent considering the length of the Division line.³

Maj. Linn E. Wilde was the pilot during this mission with Combat Crew #87 flying Boeing-built B-17G, #43-37831, — Lady Velma.

Notes & Commentary

¹ The aircrew were credited with 7:50 hours of flying time according to the Individual Flight Record of Boyce L. Pruitt. Verne Gray and Boyce Pruitt were both members of Combat Crew 87.

Ronald J. Reid. “A Tribute to Sgt. Boyce Lester Pruitt”. (unpublished manuscript, 2007). See “Individual Flight Record, January 1945.”

² United States and Albert E. Milliken. The story of the 390th Bombardment Group (H). [New York]: Priv. Print., 1947. p. 120.

³ Operations Narrative of Mission #245, 20 January 1945. Headquarters 390th Bombardment Group (H), Office of the Operations Officer, 22 January 1945. microfilm B0426 Maxwell AFB, AL: Air Force Historical Research Agency, 1973, frames 931-933.