HISTORY OF 783rd BOMB SQUADRON (H) 465th BOMBARDMENT GROUP (H) (1943 – 1945) PANTANELLA, ITALY Compiled By Floyd E. Gregory 1986 – 1989 1 HISTORY OF 783rd BOMB SQUADRON Table of Contents Page HISTORY OF FIFTEENTH AF and 465th BOMBARDMENT GROUP (H).................. 1 THE YEAR IN ITALY (A BRIEF SUMMARY) .............................................................. 5 CHAPTER I NEW SQUADRON ACTIVATED ............................................................. 9 CHAPTER II FROM McCOOK TO PANTANELLA .................................................... 27 CHAPTER III OUR EARLY COMBAT MISSIONS .................................................... 37 CHAPTER IV PREPARING FOR WINTER AT PANTANELLA ................................ 91 CHAPTER V THE WAR ENDS ................................................................................... 111 BATTLE CASUALTY RECORD ................................................................................. 113 MISSION RECORD ..................................................................................................... 127 FIFTY MISSIONS COMPLETED ................................................................................ 133 P. O. W. LOG ............................................................................................................... 143 MY CAREER AT KREIGEFANGENEN NO. 7181 .................................................... 153 HOW TO FLY THE B-24D AIRPLANE ...................................................................... 167 SONG ............................................................................................................................. 181 2 HISTORY FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE (FROM USAF RECORDS) "The Fifteenth Air Force was activated on 1 November 1943, with Head- quarters at Tunis, Tunisia and Maj. Gen. James H. Doolittle as its Commanding General. Its Headquarters was moved to Bari, Italy on 1 December 1943 and remained there for the rest of the war. On 3 January 1944, Maj. Gen. Nathen F. Twining succeeded Doolittle and remained as Commanding General of the Fifteenth until after the war. On activation of the Fifteenth, its effective strength was 654 airplanes. On April 15, 1945, 1916 aircraft were assigned to the Fifteenth and 98 per cent of them took to the air to attack targets at the Italian front. From the time it was established, the efforts of the Fifteenth were focused at accomplishing four main objectives. In general order of priority the objectives were: 1. To destroy the German Air Force in the air (by making it come up to fight) and on the ground, wherever it might be located within the range of the Fifteenth’s planes. 2. To participate in "Operation Pointblank" (the Combined Bomber Offensive), which called for the destruction of German fighter aircraft plants, ball bearing plants, oil refineries, rubber plants, munitions factories, sub pens, and bases, etc. 3. To support the battle of the Italian mainland (mainly by attacking communications targets — in Italy, along the Brenner Pass route and also in neighboring Austria). 3 4. To weaken the German position in the Balkans. Added to these objectives later was a set of targets associated with pre-paring the way for the invasion of southern France which took place on 15 August 1944. The Fifteenth Air Force in its eighteen months of existence during the European World War II made a tremendous contribution to the complete and overwhelming defeat of the enemy. • It destroyed all gasoline production within its range in Southern Europe. • It destroyed 6,286 enemy aircraft in the air and on the ground. • It contributed to the attainment of total supremacy in the skies of Europe by knocking out all major aircraft factories in its sphere. • It crippled the enemy’s transportation system over half of once- occupied Europe by repeated attacks by bombers and fighters. • It came on many occasions to the aid of hard-pressed ground forces or spearheaded the advance of the armies of our Allies. • It dropped 309,126 tons of bombs on enemy targets in 12 countries of Europe including major military installations in eight capital cities. • Its combat personnel made 151,029 heavy bomber sorties and 89,397 fighter sorties against the enemy. • The magnificent record of the Fifteenth was not accomplished without cost in the lives of brave men and the loss of 3,379 aircraft. • The Fifteenth has made AAF history in record-breaking flights, number of operational aircraft dispatched on a single mission, longest USAF B-24 mission, and in numerous other instances which will always be proudly remembered by its entire personnel. 4 COUNTER-OIL OPERATIONS An achievement in which the Fifteenth AAF is justly proud was the drying up of the German fuel supplies through attacks on oil refineries. As a result, the vaunted 20th Century Wehrmacht was forced to run on 18th Century transportation. The first attack in the coordinated campaign to eliminate German gasoline supplies began with a mission against rail yards at Ploesti April 5, 1944. The damage done in this and successive rail attacks in the great refinery town convinced AAF planners that the Fifteenth’s contention that heavy bombardment could profitably be used against oil installations was sound. This commodity then received top priority for the strategic Allied bombers striking at Germany. FIFEENTH AF BOMBER MISSIONS TO PLOESTI Date 1944 Aircraft Attacking Bomb Tonnage Aircraft Lost 5 Apr 230 587 13 15 Apr 137 316 3 24 Apr 290 793 8 5 May 485 1,257 19 6 May 135 329 6 18 May 206 493 14 31 May 481 1,116 16 6 Jun 310 698 14 23 Jun 139 283 6 24 Jun 135 329 14 9 Jul 222 605 6 15 Jul 607 1,526 20 22 Jul 495 1,334 24 28 Jul 349 913 20 31 Jul 154 435 2 10 Aug 414 952 16 17 Aug 248 534 15 18 Aug 377 825 7 19 Aug 65 144 0 TOTALS 5 , 4 7 9 1 3 , 4 6 9 223 5 465th BOMBARDMENT GROUP (H) (FROM USAF RECORDS) Constituted as 465th Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 29 May 1943. Activated on 1 August 1943. Prepared for duty overseas with B–24’s. Moved to the Mediterranean theater, February to April 1944. The air echelon received additional training at Oudna Air Field, Tunisia while waiting for Pantanella Airfield, Italy to be completed. Assigned to Fifteenth Air Force. Entered combat on 5 May 1944 and served primarily as a strategic bombardment organization until late in April 1945. Attacked marshalling yards, dock facilities, oil refineries, oil storage plants, aircraft factories, and other objectives in Italy, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, and the Balkans. On two different missions — to marshalling yards and an oil refinery at Vienna on 8 July 1944 and to steel plants at Friedrichshafen on 3 August 1944 — the Group bombed its targets despite antiaircraft fire and fighter opposition, being awarded a DISTINGUISHED UNIT CITATION for each of these attacks. Other operations included bombing troop concentrations and bivouac areas in May 1945 to aid the Partisans in Yugoslavia; attacking enemy troops and supply lines to assist the drive toward Rome, May and June 1944; striking bridges, railroads, and gun emplacements prior to the invasion of Southern France in August 1944; bombing rail facilities and rolling stock in October 1944 to support the advance of the Russian and Rumanian forces in the Balkans; and hitting troops, gun positions, bridges, and supply lines during April 1945 in support of Allied Forces in northern Italy. Moved to the Caribbean area in June 1945. Assigned to Air Transport Command. Inactivated in Trinidad on 31 July 1945. SQUADRONS: 780th, 781st, 782nd, and 783rd. COMMANDERS: Col. Elmer J. Rogers Jr., 24 August 1943; Col. Charles A. Clark Jr., 13 March 1944; Lt. Col. Joshua H. Foster, 1 December 1944; Lt. Col. William F. Day Jr., 26 April 1945 to 31 July 1945. STATIONS: Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico, 1 August 1943; Kearns, Utah, September 1943; McCook Army Air Field, Nebraska, 5 October 1943 to 1 February 1944; Pantanella Air Field, Italy, April 1944 to June 1945; Waller Field, Trinidad, 15 June 1945 to 31 July 1945." 6 THE YEAR IN ITALY A BRIEF SUMMARY PREPARED BY LT COL WILLIAM F. DAY "In April 1944, when the 465th Bombardment Group (Heavy) came to Italy, the 15th Air Force was rapidly approaching full strength. The job ahead was already becoming clear. The primary job was to destroy Germany's Air Force, then to deprive her of her most vital and most vulnerable resource, OIL, and in the process to hamstring at every opportunity her railways. A good start on driving the Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs from the air had been made during the now famous "Big Week" in February, but there still re- mained many aircraft factories and air facilities to level, and the enemy's oil production had as yet received only minor damage. At the start of the operation the enemy was a fully armed, highly ex- perienced, and deadly foe. German, Rumanian, Hungarian, and Fascist fighters were up in strength opposing nearly every attack. The enemy was well aware of his vulnerable spots and did everything in its power to protect these targets with large concentrations of fighters and heavy anti-aircraft guns. On the first attack on 5 May 1944, a German Headquarters at Podgorica, Yu- goslavia, the Group set the pace for the operations to follow. It was designed to destroy and kill — and this it did starting with 500 Germans (according to ground reports). The Group, after its freshman mission, plunged into battle with the older groups, heading out day after day for such targets as Ploesti, Wiener Neustadt, and Munich whenever weather permitted. 7 By early summer the German