ROWE MISSION #8 - 3 October, 1944, Tuesday

46
448th Bomb Group Replacement Crew #46’s Eighth Air Force Mission Records - World War II
ROWE MISSION #3 – 11 September, 1944, Monday
GROUP MISSION #146
Take-off, 08:19 hours Group planes airborne, 46 ships.
Forming altitude 8500 feet Group planes attacking, 39 ships,
Bombing altitude 19900 feet 5 aborted, 2 MIA
Length, 6 hours - 14 minutes Tonnage dropped, 60.2
Oxygen, 4 hours Escort, P-47's and P-51's
Bomb load, 12 500 lb. Fuel load ????
General purpose bombs Average Fuel Connsumption ????
Temperature, -40 o
Rowe fuel consumption ????
Primary target was Magdeburg, Germany by PFF. Target was a synthetic oil refinery. Half
an hour from the target we encountered flak. Observed one ship from another Group hit over target
area, saw 4 chutes open up. We were fired at by rockets. Thirty planes attacked the refinery. We
did not drop our bombs due to heavy cloud cover, so 8 of us proceeded to our secondary target at
Diepholz which was a German aerodrome 120 miles northwest of Magdeburg near Dummer lake.
One plane had mechanical trouble, left formation, and bombed Rotenburg about 40 miles east of
Bremen. Results unobserved. First group of planes over Magdeburg were hit hard by fighters and
flak. Combined operations we heard we lost 44 bombers and claimed 175 fighters shot down,
probably exaggerated. Coming back we were
fired at over the Zuider Zee (also called
IJsselmeer or Yssel Lake). JHZ.
[PFF is an abbreviation for PATH
FINDER FORCE. See Mission #13 for the
meaning of PFF. I agree with Joe that the
above combined figures on bomber losses and
fighters downed is probably grossly
exaggerated, but have not been able to confirm
it. The United States Air Force Historical
Research Center's micro-film records of the
448th BG at Maxwell Air Force Base had only
Group statistics. Micro-film records for this
mission also did not show the Group fuel
statistics and did not identify the pilots or what
plane they flew except for the following two
taken from the casualty report. Plane #505J
and #138H were downed before reaching the
target and are MIA (LT. Richard Vogel and
Flight Officer Albert Lewis). Richard Vogel left
formation with one engine out. It isn't known
what happened after that. Planes aborting
A GRIM PICTURE OF THE 8TH’S WAR. “Little
Warrior”, 493rd BG takes a direct hit over
Quackenbruk. Picture taken as wing tanks exploded.
were- 516J, 083H, 9489H, 358J, 925H. Reasons-mechanical trouble, #3 engine blew, pilot sick
(left formation 25 miles from enemy coast),one turned back at Geissen, Germany (attributed to
pilot error), one plane had broken piston rings. JCR]