Off-Duty with the 323rd.

A Brief History of the 91st Bomb Group (Heavy)

Activated at Harding Field, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on 15th April 1942, the 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy) was initially assigned to the 3rd Air Force. First phase training was undertaken at MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida, and the subsequent second and third phases were completed at Walla Walla Army Air Base, Washington, under the direction of 2nd Air Force.

On 24th August 1942, the air echelon left Walla Walla and flew to Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho. Here they exchanged their training aircraft for, initially, six new B-17 s and transferred by air and train to Dow Field, Bangor, Maine, where crews continued flying training and extensive gunnery practice.

As each squadron received its aircraft and completed its training it deployed to Kimbolton, flying via Gander, Newfoundland, and Prestwick in Scotland. The first of the group's aircraft arrived at Kimbolton on Ist October but the slow rate of delivery of new aircraft meant that the last did not finally arrive with the group until 17th of that month. The ground echelon moved via a four day train journey commencing on 24th August to Fort Dix, New Jersey. On 5th September they boarded the Queen Mary in preparation for the six day Atlantic passage to Gourock, Scotland. Upon arrival in Scotland the Group disembarked and traveled by train to Kimbolton, near Bedford.

Three days prior to the arrival in England of its last aircraft, the 91st transferred to Bassingbourn, the site of a pre-war RAF station that offered facilities that were far superior to Kimbolton. Installed in Station 121 at Bassingbourn, and assigned to the fledgling 8thAir Force, the 91st entered combat on 7th November 1942. This first mission was to attack the submarine base at Brest, France, as part of the Allied attempt to break the U- boat stranglehold on the Atlantic - the vital route through which food and material had to pass if Britain was to survive and be reinforced ready for the Second Front. The 8th Air Force was required, as a matter of priority, to attack the U-boat yards, repair facilities and bases that were located all along the coast of France and Germany. The 91st flew most of their missions over the next few months to targets such as St. Nazaire, La Pallice. Lorient, Wilhelmshaven, Vegesack and Kiel to strike at the U-boat threat.

The mission of 23rd November, to St. Nazaire, was the group's eighth and it saw their first losses of aircraft and crews. It was something of a disaster when two B 17s went down carrying with them the squadron commanders of 322nd and 324th, the group navigator, group bombardier and the group gunnery officer.

20th December saw two more planes lost when they struck at the aircraft depot at Romilly. This was the deepest penetration into occupied territory to date for the 8th Air Force and it brought the bombers into contact with the entire Luftwaffe fighter force located in northeast France. The ensuing battle reached epic proportions as 60 German fighters attacked on the way to the target, replaced by 60 more fighters in the target area. Ten days later the group suffered another disastrous loss when the 401st commanding officer went down on yet another strike at the U-boats at Lorient.

Bad weather plagued operations in the early part of 1943. Mission after mission was scheduled, bombed up, briefed and then scrubbed. Only four missions were accomplished during January and five during February. Submarine pens and base facilities continued to be primary targets but increasing attention was given to aircraft factories, locomotive works and communications targets.

The most significant mission of this period was the 4th March raid on Hamm marshaling yards, the largest and most important, carrying eastbound traffic from the German powerhouse of the Ruhr. 10,000 rail wagons were said to pass through this' yard in a single day. The 91st led the four group attack force but poor weather forced two groups to turn south and bomb Rotterdam, a third group returned with its bombs. Only the 91st penetrated to the primary target and achieved excellent results with direct hits on many of the facilities. The group was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for this mission but not until several years had passed. It is widely accepted that the success of the 91st on this mission was highly influential in convincing doubters in Washington about the effectiveness of daylight bombing in the harsh and vicious environment of the European air war. But the mission had cost the 91st four of its planes and, crews that failed to return, and almost all of their returning aircraft were badly damaged.

As the 91st continued its campaign of high altitude missions its precision bombing techniques improved. On I8th March the submarine yards at Vegesack received every single one of the bombs dropped by the group, not one was wasted.

Towards the end of April attention began to turn towards the aircraft menace and on the 17th the 91st hit the Focke-Wulf plant at Bremen, inflicting major damage but losing six aircraft. So much damage was incurred by the returning aircraft that the next day's mission had to be canceled in order to give ground crews time to repair their planes.

Weather conditions continued to disrupt operations all through the summer months but the 91st achieved significant strikes. 22nd June saw the deepest penetration to date for the group when it struck the synthetic rubber plant at Huls. German resistance concentrated on the 91st and cost them five more aircraft. In July the group completed ten more missions, the highest monthly total to date.

17th August was a date many would not forget. The 8th Air Force launched a deep penetration mission - on the ball bearing factory at Schweinfurt that brought 300 Luftwaffe fighters into the air. Attacks began soon after crossing the coast, and then continued all the way to the target and back to the Channel. Ten out of the 19 Fortresses dispatched by the 91st failed to return. Two days later when another mission was scheduled, to Glize Rijen airfield, the group could only muster seven aircraft but managed to get another ready in time for takeoff after working through the night.

The Focke-Wulf factory at Anklam was the recipient of some of the most accurate high altitude bombing of the war when the 91st almost completely destroyed the plant. Smoke was reported to have risen to 20,000ft as a result. Five more 91st B-17s failed to return and those that did reach Bassingbourn were severely damaged. On 14th October, the 91st returned to Schweinfurt's ball bearing factories again causing more major damage but losing another Fort and crew.

A steady stream of missions continued all through the autumn and winter to marshaling yards, airfields, docks and industrial targets. In Ist December, the group lost a further five aircraft over Leverkusen and Solingen.

The 100th group mission was flown on 5th January 1944 to Tours in France. Six days later the 91st hit Oschersleben, the site of another Focke-Wulf factory, and lost five more of their planes. Of the 210 enemy aircraft officially destroyed on this mission, the 91st's gunners were credited with 38. The group shared the Presidential Unit Citation awarded to the Ist Air Division for the action.

March saw an improvement in the weather that enabled the group to complete 15 missions, the highest monthly total so far achieved. 3rd March saw the 8th Air Force's first attempt to strike at Berlin, but weather caused a diversion to Wilhelmshaven. The following day Berlin was again the intended target but weather forced another diversion to Cologne. On 6th March the ball bearing plant at Erkner on the outskirts of Berlin was hit at last in its first daylight heavy bomber raid but it cost the 91st another six of their aircraft and crews. It was the 22nd March before the 91st attacked industrial targets in the center of Berlin.

With the impending invasion of France in early June, the 91st was assigned to strike a series of tactical targets in support - gun emplacements and troop concentrations. On D-Day itself, the group sent 36 aircraft to strike gun positions at La Riviera only a few minutes before the first landing craft hit the beaches. By the end of June the 91st had completed another record month - 22 missions.

The 200th mission for the group came on 19th July with a strike at the airfield at Lechfeld - two more planes and crews were missing in action. The following day brought even worse casualties. Mockau airfield at Leipzig was the target and it cost the 91st eight aircraft and their crews. August brought a further 19 missions, the most costly being on the 16th to Halle. Here the 91st help to flatten the aircraft factory but at a cost of six of their planes - all from 324th squadron. As the ground troops battled to expand their foothold in Normandy, the 91st returned to tactical targets hitting troop concentrations and bridges early in the month and other tactical targets near St Lo on 24th and 25th August.

As the weather during late autumn and into winter began to deteriorate, the group bombed largely by PFF (Path Finder Force) radar methods, only one mission in November was by visual bombing. In May and June, the 324th squadron had replaced its aircraft with new PFF equipped planes and, after extensive training, began flying lead positions for the 91st and for other groups within the Ist Air Division.

2nd November proved to be the group's most disastrous day of the entire war when they attacked the synthetic oil facilities at Merseburg. Although the precision bombing was superb it resulted in the loss of 15 aircraft and 14 crews from the 91st. December saw a continuation of the raids against the major industrial and communications targets in the shrinking Third Reich.

In the first two months of 1945, the group was assigned to an ever increasing number of rail targets to totally disrupt traffic on the primary and secondary rail networks. 22nd February, for example, brought a concentrated effort by 6,000 aircraft from the 8th, 9th, 15th and 2nd tactical Air Forces together with units of the RAF, to strike at rail facilities and bridges while fighters strafed anything that moved. March brought a mix of strategic and tactical targets, 22 missions in total, as the Allied armies crossed the Rhine into the heart of Germany. Oil facilities, airfields, marshaling yards, aircraft plants were hit during the month, even a final parting shot at the U-boat yards at Bremen.

As the war drew to a close in April, the 91st kept up its steady, unrelenting attacks on the dwindling Third Reich. The group's last offensive mission was flown on 25th April 1945 to strike the airfield at Pilsen - it was their 340th completed mission. In May, some of the group's planes were used for sight-seeing air tours to allow ground crew to view something of what they had contributed to and then came three special missions to evacuate 2,454 prisoners of war from camps near Barth and Linz in Germany.

Alerted for redeployment in the Pacific, the 91st headed back to the USA in June. The air echelon flew out of Bassingbourn to Valley in Wales and then across the Atlantic Ocean while the ground party embarked onto the Queen Elizabeth on 25th June, arriving in New York five days later. A period of retraining followed at Drew Field, Tampa, Florida, until hostilities ceased in the Pacific. On 7th November 1945, the 91st Bombardment Group (Heavy) was inactivated.

"Story taken from Plane Names & Fancy Noses, by Ray Bowden"