Robert J. Weichhand Mission February 5, 1945

February 5, 1945

#4 Do

After being awakened three mornings straight at 4:30 we finally got onto course. Yesterday they cancelled it just after we left the ground. We were briefed for Salzburg Marshalling yards, with Graz and Hall as alternates. At the primary target we were briefed for 54 ack ack guns and possible 25-ME-109 fighter craft, because fighters were reported around the Munich area. We were to meet our escort of 36 P-51s at 12:40 over Germany. We took to the air carrying 9-500s at 8:25 and by 9:25 we were at 8000 ft. and in formation, turning on course. There was a beautiful undercase all along the Adriatic on the way up, so we figured on P.F.F. bombing. Our bombs were spaced 100 ft. intervals for dropping through the clouds. We met our escort 30 minutes before the target time. At 13:08 I started throwing our “chaff” (window) and turned on the “carpet jammer.” We had no bombardier as he is in the hospital with frostbit fingers, so the navigator toggled. The target was clear, but we found out too late to change our bombing intervals, though the boxes behind us changed to 25 ft. We got no flak burst in our box whatsoever, maybe cause we were leading, but the boxes behind us got a lot. Everything went off smooth, no casualties and no losses to flak. We landed at 4:10, which gave us 7:45 hrs. flying time. (But in spite of the 100 or better planes - the bomb pictures show no direct hits on the rail yard. What bombardiers!!