USAAF B-17 encounter with Ju88s off Lands End

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Chris Goss

I have nothing for ZG 1 for 8 May-perhaps Nick has a mention?

On 8 May (CX/MSS/OPD 1167):

NOTES: i) 11 Ju 88's were to take off at 0630 from Cazaux for Kerlin Bastard. Compare operation on 9/5 (OPD 1168) by 11 Ju 88's from N. Biscay area, where the first intention was for them to return to Cazaux.

That's a flight of around 400 km, from south of Bordeaux to Brittany.

What I posted for 9 May was headed "Heavy fighter patrol in the S.W. Approaches by Ju 88's of ZG 1" by the way.

[Roundway]

First, gentlemen, I apologise for unwittingly repeating a story that was ambiguous. The first paragraph of Bombardier Clinton's account actually read On 9 May 1944 we got up early, ate, were briefed and took off for the RAF base at Land's End. There we refuelled, were briefed again and started our mission. Leonard Licurse, the ball-turret gunner, was sick and grounded that day and I was in his place. Sgt Dave Mulligan, our RAF MAO, was taking my place in the tail. I interpreted that as being the crew getting up early on 9 May, eating breakfast, then taking off. The alarm bells should have started ringing with reference to the aircraft landing and refuelling at Land's End as this was not normally the case; the reference to the MAO taking Clinton's position in the tail should have raised the noise of the alarm bells to a crescendo, as the MAO's station was normally in the nose where he made his met observations every 50 miles. No matter, the implication that this was a daytime operation still held, hence my belief the encounter with the Ju88s took place as the Fortress returned home during the late afternoon or early evening.

Leendert's post (#7) muddied the story a little by implying the incident was on the 8th (I'm afraid I could not access the reference to AFHRA Reel B0771, p. 555 to read the account).

It was operational practice at the time for the met observations of every met reconnaissance sortie to be recorded on a set of standard forms and forwarded to the Met Office HQ, but since in this case the MAO had been injured and the aircraft severely damaged I doubted this had happened on this occasion.

Wrong again.

The Met Office Archives copied the forms for both the 8th and 9th for me - the operation was a night flight - the 8/9th May - and this record, compiled by Sgt Dave Mulligan reveals:

B17G 766, took off from North Pickenham at 1722 DBST on the 8th, flew to Trevose Head, just north of St Eval, then set a course of 260deg for its terminal point 700 nm distant, 48N 22W. Observations were made every 20 minutes at 1800 ft, and at the terminal point a box-climb was made to 24000 ft. From there the aircraft turned on a reciprocal heading and descended to 18000 ft. At approximately 0400 DBST at 49.5N 12.5W the aircraft began a descent to 1800 ft, then continued towards Trevose Head.

From the descent position, in normal circumstances the Fortress would have reached 50N 09W an hour later, in the event Nick's #2 records a Fortress being chased by Ju88s in this position at 0637 DBST. Despite the slight discrepancy in timing I'm reasonably confident this is the 8th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron aircraft; it had been badly damaged and the pilot was taking avoiding action.

Although injured in the back at the start of the attack, Mulligan manned one of the waist guns throughout the action. Afterwards he added some laconic notes to the met record:

U/S
3 engines
1 Aileron
Rudder control
Brakes
Rear turret
and 1 Ju88

Which fits in rather well with Clinton's description of the Fortress looking like a sieve.

Apologies for my misleading you with my initial post, written in good faith, and thank you all for your help.

Brian

[Chris Goss]

This would accord with III./ZG 1’s times but still no mentions of combats with Halifax and/or B-17

[Stig Jarlevik]

I checked 11 B-17G (hopefully all) s/n ending with digits 766 but none actually fits.

None were assigned to any WRS and none had any salvage date within a reasonable
time frame.

Cheers
Stig

[Roundway]

Thank you Stig. I also tried but could not find anything, so assumed it was my inexperience with the website.

Brian