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Old 24th May 2008, 06:39
B17F BRITE EYES B17F BRITE EYES is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Kellogg, Idaho
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B17F BRITE EYES is on a distinguished road
Me 109 destroyed Piraeus, Greece 11 Jan 44

I am making two posts this evening related to the two aircraft my father (S/Sgt. Ernest L. "Tommy" Thompson, Jr., serial 19106348) was given credit for destroying while a gunner on a B-17 of the 419th Bomb Squadron, 301st Bomb Group.

This one was the second of the two. The date was 11 January 1944 and the mission was to the Piraeus Harbor in Greece. It was my father's 36th mission of 50 credited while with the 301st between July 1943 and March 1944. My father had started out as a tail gunner but about halfway through his tour was moved to the top turret as Engineer. He had received a lot of personal training from his good friend Kyle Upton Block, their original crew's Engineer. He was in the top turret on this mission aboard B-17G-15-BO, 42-31391, "Screaming Eagle II" with Francis S. Lewis, pilot. The airplane had just been assigned new to the Squadron two days previous at Cerignola.

This mission was a very bad one for the 301st BG. Five 301st B-17s were lost 20 minutes from the target in a multiple ship collision with bombers from the 97th BG that had turned around. Several B-17s returned with major damage. As the eleven (of an original twenty-one launched) 301st B-17s left the target later they were attacked by 30-40 fighters. Gunners from the 301st BG claimed four of them. Besides my father, S/Sgt. Frank A. Sciarillo (12127639) from my dad's crew had two 109's credited destroyed, and S/Sgt. Alexander Walker (35412440) from another crew had one.

I have no specifics on the attacking fighters. My dad wrote these words about the 109 in a personal recollection of the mission: "...to begin the bomb run we were about two miles behind the nearest B-17. I had heard Smitty (Ball Turret Gunner Sidney L. Smith, 18116946, from Beaumont, Texas) calling out climbing fighters for the last five minutes, then I saw two of them far ahead making a stern attack on bombers we were hoping to catch. Other fighters were high and in front of us. We were now somewhat above those ahead. We found out later that the formation had decided to bomb from two thousand less than briefed. Just then three fighters, Me 109's, came from the right front. They must have seen us just seconds too late to make an effective pass. The leader and his number 2 broke left and down swinging out for a three quarter rear attack. I sent a few tracers after them while they were yet high enough that I could get my sights on them. Then I swung to the left and saw the third one pulling up in a steep climb and rolling into a wingover that would bring him down steep from our left front. The Navigator was busy with two more approaching from level. I tracked mine, waiting until he was at the peak of his climb and had been following him with my sight set for about 1200 yards. That, I knew, was at the far end of my effective range but I started firing short regular bursts and cranked in the lesser yardage a tiny bit at a time. I was hoping to saturate the sky ahead of him and let him fly right into a fist full of fifty caliber slugs."
"The fighter's wings lit up with his machine gun fire and the nose blinked with canon shells. Before I could see if he was hitting us I saw his tail section break off then a wing fold back and rip away. I was still firing when the rest of the gray and yellow plane burst into a spinning ball of fire that seemed to hang in one place. I heard someone yell, "You got him!" I was busy with two more which came from somewhere off our left wing. I didn't see any hits on them..."

This account, he wrote, was just before they released theiir bombs.

I would be interested in ANY information on the fighters and pilots that were sent against the B-17s over Greece that day. I know very little about the about Luftwaffe fighter operations in this area and time.

Thank you,


Lowell Thompson
P.O. Box 714
Kellogg, Idaho 83837

Historian, 301st Bomb Group/Wings Association

Last edited by B17F BRITE EYES; 24th May 2008 at 17:54. Reason: some facts corrected
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