21 Staff Sergeant F. C. Thurman, quoted in PRO Report, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8. As the lead group, the 379th BG was supposed to drop its bombs first, but it was not uncommon for whole squadrons or groups to drop their bombs slightly before or slightly after they were supposed to. For example, within 303rd BG, the 360th Squadron dropped its bombs about fifteen seconds before their own group leader (see 303rd BG’s mission report, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 406, Folder 9).

22 VIII Bomber Command Report of Operations, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 941. As the lead group, 379th BG should have been the first to drop their bombs, but it appears that the low group (384th BG) dropped fractionally earlier on this occasion.

23 As always, accurate numbers are difficult to pin down: different sources say different things. I have chosen to use the Reports of Operations of VIII Bomber Command and 1st Bombardment Wing as my main references here, and have used Roger Freeman’s The Mighty Eighth War Diary(London, 1990), the standard work on the US Eighth Air Force, to fill in any gaps. Out of the ninety-four B-17s that managed to bomb Hamburg and return home, forty-six sustained flak damage.

24 See intercepted German radio messages for 25 July, UK National Archives, AIR 40–425.

25 Enemy Aircraft Attack Data for 103rd Provisional Bombardment Combat Wing, Mission, 25 July 1943, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 678, Folder 9.

26 See the Report of Operations for VIII Bomber Command, and for the 1st Bombardment Wing, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 941; and especially the Enemy Aircraft Attack Data for 103rd Provisional Bombardment Combat Wing, Mission, 25 July 1943, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 678, Folder 9.

27 See pencil charts, detailing attacks on each individual aircraft in 384th BG, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8.

28 Brad Summers, quoted in Ken Decker, Memories of the 384th Bomb Group(New York, 2005), p. 15.

29 Ibid., p. 16.

30 Philip Dreiseszun, 381st BG website.

31 Ibid.

32 Again, there are some slight discrepancies in the numbers. The 103rd Provisional Bombardment Wing data show that 379th BG was attacked only fifteen times, but the pencil charts prepared by the bomb group suggest that there were twenty attacks, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 940, Folder 14. Likewise, the 103rd Wing data show eighty attacks on 384th BG, but the bomb group records suggest that there were 122, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8. The lower estimate in each case is more likely, since there was a tendency for double-counting in the bomb groups.

33 While this legend cannot be confirmed, Robert C. King, a B-24 pilot with 485th BG, claims he witnessed an instance where an American bomber from another group did this, and ‘from that mission on the Luftwaffe targeted that group and annihilated it’. See Robert C. King interview, 30 November 1994, Oral History Archives of World War II, Tape 1, Side B, Rutgers University.

34 This man was believed to be the navigator in aircraft 075, flown by Lieutenant Hegewald. See the story of the attack on aircraft 883, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8.

35 Ibid.

36 Staff Sergeant George Ursta, Story of Attack, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1081, Folder 8.

37 Unteroffizier Friedrich Abromeit, IV/NJG I, quoted in Middle-brook, Battle of Hamburg, p. 215.

38 See the summary of intercepted German radio messages, 25 July, UK National Archives, AIR 40/425.

39 See the description of Mission no. 53 on 303rd Bomb Group Association’s CDRom, The Molesworth Story(2nd edition). Yankee Doodle Dandywas Aircraft 42–5264.

40 Ibid. Grimm’s DFC was awarded in 1992, forty-seven years after the paperwork requesting it had been lost.

41 According to Paul Gordy, quoted in Middlebrook, Battle of Hamburg, p. 219.

13    The Americans Again

1 William Mitchell, Winged Defense: The Development and Possibilities of Modern Air Power – Economic and Military(New York, 1925), p. 163. Mitchell argued that to face such dangers required extraordinary moral qualities, so the fledgling US Air Force should only accept men of the highest calibre.

2 For all the statistics in the following paragraphs, except where otherwise stated, see VIII Bomber Command Report of Operations, and the 1st Bombardment Wing Report of Operations, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 941. Statistics for missions other than those to Hamburg are taken from Roger A. Freeman, The Mighty Eighth War Diary(London, 1990).

3 As always, there is some discrepancy in the statistics. These numbers are taken from the 1st Bombardment Wing Report of Operations for 25 July; but the VIII Bomber Command ‘Analysis of Enemy Aircraft Encounters’ for the day lists forty-four destroyed, six probables and twenty-eight damaged (a copy of this is available in the UK National Archives, AIR 40/425). Either way, the figures are greatly exaggerated.

4 These figures for German fighters lost are Martin Middlebrook’s, in The Battle of Hamburg(London, 1980), p. 218. His figures are not always reliable (for example, he says the Americans claimed forty-one enemy aircraft destroyed when the 1st Bombardment Wing Report of Operations lists thirty-eight), but the main point still stands: American claims were vastly inflated.

5 See Freeman, Mighty Eighth War Diary, pp. 78–83 for exact figures: between 24 and 31 July 1943, the USAAF despatched 1672 B-17s and 261 B-26s to twenty-three different target areas.

6 See 303rd BG Report on Mission, 26 July 1943, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 729, Folder 2. See also VIII Bomber Command Narrative of Operations, Mission No. 77, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 941, Folder 1; and Middlebrook, Battle of Hamburg, pp. 223–4.

7 See VIII Bomber Command Narrative of Operations, Mission No. 77, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 941, Folder 1.

8 See 1st Bombardment Wing Narrative of Operations, 26 July 1943, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 941, Folder 1. For 351st BG reasons for abortive missions, see their Mission Summary Report, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1002, Folder 22.

9 The flak, though intense, was ‘somewhat lighter than that experienced in the raid of 25 July’. In 351st BG, for example, only a quarter of the planes were damaged by flak, compared with three-quarters the day before. See Group Leader’s Narrative, and Mission Summary Report, 351st BG, 26 July 1943, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1002, Folder 22.

10 See Immediate Interpretation Report, No. S.A.417, UK National Archives, AIR 40/426.

11 Martin Middlebrook claims wrongly that this plane was called Local Girlby her crew (see Battle of Hamburg, p. 231), but the 91st BG website is adamant that it was called Nitemare. See Lowell L. Getz’s 2001 article ‘Mary Ruth Memories of Mobile… We Still Remember’ on the 91st Group website:http://www.91stbombgroup.com/maryruth4.htm (last viewed 22 June 2005). The name is backed up by Roger Freeman and David Osborne, The B-17 Flying Fortress Story(London, 1998), p. 88.

12 See US Bomber Command Narrative of Operations, and 351st BG’s Teletype Field Order No. 172 A, Narrative, US National Archives RG18, E7, Box 1002, Folder 22.

14    The Eye of the Storm

1 Clem McCarthy, radio commentator, describing boxer Max Schmeling seconds before the ‘Brown Bomber’, Joe Louis, knocked him out in the famous 1938 world heavyweight title fight; quoted by David Margolick, Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink(London, 2005), p. 298.

2 These are British reconnaissance observations; see Immediate Interpretation Report Nos S.A. 410, and S.A. 417, UK National Archives, AIR 24/257; and Supplement to Immediate Interpretation Report No. K.1626, UK National Archives, AIR 40/426. American intelligence reports agree, but are slightly less detailed: see US Immediate Interpretation Report Nos 9 and 10, US National Archives, RG18, E7, Box 1040, Folder 3.