Combat crewmen from 1942 to 1945: 5,292

Total casualties (killed and wounded): 1,748

Total killed in action (KIA): 841

Total prisoners of war (POWs): 764

Total B-17 losses: 210

First Eighth Air Force bomb group to fly 200 missions, July 9, 1944, to Chatteaudon Airfield, France

First Eighth Air Force bomb group to fly 300 missions from England, to Bonn/Hangelar Airfield, Cologne Brillion and Euskirchen

Total combat missions flown: 364—most in Eighth Air Force

Total combat sorties flown (a combat sortie is one aircraft flying one combat mission): 10,721—second-highest in Eighth Air Force, of more than forty bomb groups

Total tons of bombs dropped: 26,346—second highest in Eighth Air Force of more than forty bomb groups

Total manning including support organizations from 1942 to 1945: 8,960

Total aircraft recovered in neutral countries: 3—all to Switzerland

First Eighth Air Force crewman to be awarded the Medal of Honor, Jack Mathis

One of four bomb groups in first Eighth Air Force mission against Germany, January 27, 1943—target Wilhelmshaven

First Eighth Air Force bomber to complete 25 missions, Hell’s Angels

First Eighth Air Force bomber to complete 50 and 75 missions, Knockout Dropper

First Eighth Air Force pilot to complete 25 missions, Irl Baldwin

Bombs fall toward a target in Bremen. The wispy tendrils barely visible on the right are from smoke generators intended to obscure targets from bomber attacks.

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos are courtesy of USAAF.

The contrails of escorting fighters lace the sky above a formation of 303rd B-17s.

Military police provided security for the 303rd at Molesworth.

The tail section of Helen Hiwater after the mission of February 9, 1944, during which it had a midair collision soon after takeoff. Both aircraft returned safely.

Undoubtedly a staged photograph, it nevertheless emphasizes the skilled work required of the maintenance men.

The contrails created by the bomber formations were sometimes dense enough to provide cover for attacking German fighters.

Fabian Folmer, standing, was the crew chief for Hell’s Angels. Not a single sortie would have been flown without hardworking men like Folmer and his comrades.

A tail gunner at his position. During actual operations the gunner would be wearing cold-weather clothing, an oxygen mask, goggles and head protection, as well as a flak suit.

A nice study of a B-17F in flight over Germany. Meat Hound was so badly shot up during the January 11, 1944, mission to Oschersleben that it never flew again.

The Ehle Reber crew gets a ride back from their aircraft sometime before being shot down on January 23, 1943.

Clark Gable, standing on the far right, flew his first mission of the war to Antwerp with the crew of the 303rd’s Eight Ball on April 5, 1943.

Bombs fall toward the target from 303rd B-17Gs. Everything that was done by every man in every bomb group was done to deliver bombs onto the enemy. Note that the lowest bomb falling from the lead aircraft is a sky marker, just beginning to smoke.

A 303rd crew celebrates a milestone of some sort—perhaps their last mission.

Jack Mathis was the first Eighth Air Force airman to receive the Medal of Honor. Mortally injured by a flak burst, he nevertheless stayed at his position and died as he released his ship’s bombs on the submarine yard at Vegesack, on March 18, 1943.

A 303rd crewman demonstrates the close confines of the ball turret.

A radioman points his .50 caliber machine gun through the hatch at the top of his compartment. His worktable can be seen behind him to the left side of the photograph.

Robert Travis, the commander of the 41st Combat Bombardment Wing, just before leading the January 11, 1944, mission against Oschersleben. His sheepskin coat is personal. Also, note the necktie.

USAAF via Mark Forlow

Heavy antiaircraft fire marks the sky behind this 303rd B-17. A diving fighter can be seen in the upper left corner of the photograph.

A waist gunner at his position.

The three-dimensional nature of a bomb group’s formation is apparent in this photograph.

A group of 303rd gunners receives a briefing. Eddie Deerfield is kneeling, fourth from right.

Crash personnel at Molesworth work to save a 303rd aircraft from fire.

Thumper was badly damaged on the January 23, 1943, mission to Brest. John Castle ordered the crew to bail out and made a wheels-up landing at Lulsgate Bottom. Billie Stander, the crew’s right waist gunner, was killed when his parachute failed to open.

Carl “Tooey” Spaatz and James “Jimmy” Doolittle debrief with a 303rd crew near the end of the war. That the war took a toll on the USAAF’s leadership is evident in Spaatz’s face; he was only fifty-three when this photo was taken. Doolittle was only forty-eight.

Thunderbird, here pictured in April 1945 with her ground crew, survived the war as a veteran with 112 missions. Remarkably, no regular crew member was ever wounded on a combat mission while aboard the ship.

Irl Baldwin, the pilot of Hell’s Angels, was the first bomber pilot in the Eighth Air Force to complete twenty-five missions.

Lieutenant Colonel Kermit Stevens, Colonel Charles Marion, and Colonel George Robinson celebrate the 303rd’s first anniversary at Molesworth. Each of them commanded the group at some point, with Stevens being the most influential.

Princess Elizabeth of the Royal Family tours the 303rd on July 6, 1944. The Rose of York actually belonged to the 306th Bomb Group.

USAAF via Mark Forlow

John Ford joined the service just before the United States entered the war. As an “old hand,” he rose quickly in rank as a clerk and was indispensable to the smooth administration of the 303rd.

USAAF via John Ford

Colonel Kermit Stevens and Knock-Out Dropper were two stalwarts of the 303rd.

Each aircraft was loaded with nearly 3,000 gallons of fuel before long-range missions.

Few men were in the 303rd longer than operations clerk Van “Rip” White. He joined the group at Gowen Field in Boise and was with it until after the war ended.

USAAF via Van White

Howard George Weinberg was the bombardier aboard the Green Hill Belle. He was killed on his first mission when his aircraft collided with another on April 6, 1945. The end of the war was only a month away.

Via Lois Brown

As an enlisted man Mel Schulstad was selected for pilot training. He earned his wings to become a pilot and was one of the few who were with the 303rd from beginning to end. Here, he is a major.

Via John Schulstad

Another staged publicity shot of a ground crew working on B-17F S for Sugar. The ship was lost on the devastating mission to Oschersleben on January 11, 1944.

The combat crew and ground crew of Hell’s Angels.

Old veteran Thunderbird is afire after its 102nd mission to Dresden on February 15, 1945. The ship survived and flew its last and 112th mission on March 22, 1945.

A contrail-creating formation of B-17s fly above a European cloudscape on the November 13, 1943, mission to Bremen. The contrails nearly hide at least two of the bombers.

The Grafton Smith crew was two men short after bombardier Bill Dohm and navigator Ed Gardner were forced to abandon their ship on the mission of January 10, 1945. Smith is center, standing. Al Dussliere, kneeling on the right, was particularly saddened when copilot Mel Alderman, standing on the right, was lost on his 35th and last mission on April 6, 1945.

As noted in the dedication and preface, Harry Gobrecht, a pilot with the 358th Bomb Squadron, committed himself—long years of himself—to the preservation of the unit’s history. He catalogued the 303rd’s achievements in his authoritative work Might in Flight: Daily Diary of the Eighth Air Force’s Hell’s Angels 303rd Bombardment Group (H), from which his family graciously allowed me to borrow extensively. Edgar Miller was a fellow pilot who labored mightily to compile a list of known veterans of the 303rd and its support units. He began his task with a few hundred names on index cards. When he finished, he had produced eighteen hundred pages in six volumes. Many more 303rd veterans labored long, unheralded hours extracting information from, and organizing, official documents. Much of that work benefitted me in this effort.

Gobrecht, Miller and most of their comrades are gone. And the once-vibrant 303rd Bomb Group Association is no more. But Gary Moncur, the son of Vern Moncur, who piloted Thunderbird through so much peril, maintains the 303rd’s legacy through the most extensive and professionally maintained Web site of its kind. It includes twenty-seven hundred pages and more than five million words. It can be readily accessed at http://www.303rdbg.com. Gary also knows as much about the 303rd as anyone living. His work belies a passion for the 303rd and the men who made it what it was—many of whom he grew to know very well during the past few decades. His help and encouragement during the writing of this book were of great value. Thank you, Gary.

The 303rd Bomb Group Association produced a regular newsletter from 1976 to 2006. Those newsletters grew in size and sophistication, and through the decades were a means by which the veterans told their personal stories in their own words. Those stories were an inestimable treasure to me. I thank the individual contributors as well as the hardworking and underappreciated editors: Al Martel, Jr., Harry Jenkins, Bud Klint, Hal Susskind and Eddie Deerfield.

Peter Park was, for many years, part of the Commander’s Action Group with the Joint Analysis Center at modern-day Molesworth. He was also the base historian and an ardent supporter of the 303rd’s heritage. As fellow historians, veterans and airpower buffs converged on Molesworth over the last many years, it was Peter who met and stewarded them about the base as special guests of the commanding officer. I had the pleasure of just such an experience and enjoyed the hospitality not only of Peter, but also of the commander of the JIOCEUR Analytic Center, Colonel Kristin Baker (U.S. Army), and the reserve management officer, Colonel Elizabeth Coble (U.S. Army).

Many 303rd members and families were gracious with assistance and material. I used much of it, but it was impossible to use it all. Nevertheless, that unused material was still valuable, as it furthered my understanding of the group’s men and their actions as a whole. I am glad and thankful I had the opportunity to review it.

Ben Smith, Richard “Dick” Johnson and Brian O’Neill have written excellent books dealing with various aspects of the 303rd’s history; they were useful to me. Smith’s Chick’s Crew—A Tale of the Eighth Air Force, is a remarkably candid account of his service that is a joy to read. Johnson’s Twenty Five Milk Runs (And a Few Others) is remarkable not only for his wartime perspectives but also for the amazing story of his growing up. O’Neill’s outstanding Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer: B-17s Over Germany follows the actions of one crew but in the broad context of the 303rd’s operations.

E. J. McCarthy has been my agent for more than a decade. He has always been unstinting in his support and superb in matching my work to the right publishers. He’s done it again: Natalee Rosenstein, Robin Barletta and the rest of the staff at Berkley Publishing Group have done a tremendous job not only in presenting this work in the finest fashion possible, but in getting it in front of a broad audience. It is something that the men of the 303rd and the rest of their World War II comrades deserve.

Others who helped in varying ways include Dr. James Perry, who reviewed the manuscript and made genuinely useful critiques; Mark Forlow, who shared generously from his photograph collection; Ford Lauer, Gary Groth, and Bob Levandoski, who also shared photographs; and Ryan Bartholomew, who helped me with the Ehle Reber diary. There are others too numerous to mention to whom I apologize for not doing so.

Finally, my dogs shed a great deal, but they adore me. My daughters do daughterly things and adore me perhaps a bit less. My wife is beautiful, tender and engaging. And she lets me do what I will. When it pleases her. For all of this—minus the shedding—I love them with every bit of my heart.

BOOKS

Air Ministry (A.C.A.S. [I]). The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force (1933 to 1945). Richmond, England: The National Archives, 2008.

Bekker, Cajus. The Luftwaffe War Diaries: The German Air Force in World War II. New York: Da Capo Press, 1994.

Caldwell, Donald L. JG 26: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe. New York: Ballantine Books, 1991.

Craven, Wesley, and James Cate. The Army Air Forces in World War II, VII: Services Around the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958.

Cronkite, Walter. A Reporter’s Life. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.

Davis, Richard G. Bombing the European Axis Powers: A Historical Digest of the Combined Bomber Offensive, 1939–1945. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 2006.

______. Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 2006.

Doolittle, James H., and Carroll V. Glines. I Could Never Be So Lucky Again. New York: Bantam Books, 1992.

Freeman, Roger A. The Mighty Eighth, Warpaint and Heraldry. London: Arms & Armour Press, 1998.

Galland, Adolf. The First and the Last: The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe: 1939–1945, by Germany’s Commander of Fighter Forces. New York: Ballantine Books, 1967.

Gobrecht, Harry D. Might in Flight, Daily Diary of the Eighth Air Force’s Hell’s Angels, 303rd Bombardment Group (H). Fort Collins, CO: Old Army Press, 1997.

Hammel, Eric. Air War Europa: America’s Air War Against Germany in Europe and North Africa, 1942–1945. Pacifica, CA: Pacifica Press, 1994.

______. The Road to Big Week: The Struggle for Daylight Air Supremacy over Western Europe, July 1942–February 1944. Pacifica, CA: Pacifica Military History, 2009.

Hansell, Haywood S., Jr. The Air Plan that Defeated Hitler. Atlanta, GA: Higgins McArthur/Longino & Porter, Inc., 1972.

Heaton, Colin, and Anne-Marie Lewis. The Me 262 Stormbird: From the Pilots Who Flew, Fought, and Survived It. Minneapolis, MN: Zenith Books, 2012.

Huston, John W., ed. American Air Power Comes of Age: General H. “Hap” Arnold’s World War II Diaries. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 2002.

Johnson, Richard Riley. Twenty Five Milk Runs (And a Few Others). Victoria, British Columbia: Trafford, 2004.

McCrary, John, and David Scherman. First of the Many: Journal of Action with the Men of the Eighth Air Force. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944.

McNabb, Chris. Order of Battle: German Luftwaffe in WW II. London, England: Amber Books Ltd., 2009.

Mingos, Howard. The Aircraft Yearbook for 1946. New York: Lanciar Publishers Inc., 1946.

O’Neill, Brian. Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer—B-17s over Germany. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Parton, James. Air Force Spoken Here: General Ira Eaker & the Command of the Air. Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler Publishers Inc., 1986.

Ransom, Frank E. Air-Sea Rescue 1941–1952. U.S. Air Force Historical Study No. 95. Maxwell AFB, AL: USAF Historical Division, Air University, 1954.

Smith, Ben, Jr. Chick’s Crew: A Tale of the Eighth Air Force. Waycross, GA: Yarbrough Brothers, 1978.

Spencer, Jay P. Focke-Wulf Fw 190: Workhorse of the Luftwaffe. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1989.

Spick, Mike. Luftwaffe Fighter Aces, The Jagdflieger and Their Combat Tactics and Techniques. New York: Ivy Books, 1996.

Stout, Jay. The Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe: The U.S. Army Air Forces Against Germany in World War II. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2010.

Wells, Mark K. Aviators and Air Combat: A Study of the U.S. Eighth Air Force and R.A.F. Bomber Command. London, England: University of London, 1992.

Westermann, Edward B. Flak: German Anti-Aircraft Defenses, 1914–1945. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2001.

GOVERNMENT STUDIES AND DOCUMENTS

Air Forces Manual No. 20, Gunner’s Information File: Flexible Gunnery. Government Printing Office, May 1944.

Army Air Forces Historical Studies No. 31, Flexible Gunnery Training in the AAF. Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Intelligence, Historical Division, 1945.

Combat Crew Rotation: World War II and Korea. Maxwell AFB, AL: USAF Historical Division, Aerospace Studies Institute, Air University, 1968.

U.S. Air Force Historical Study No. 79, Policies and Procedures Governing Elimination from AAF Schools, 1939–1945. Maxwell AFB, AL: USAF Historical Division, Air University, 1952.

U.S. Air Force Historical Studies 158–160, The Employment of the German Luftwaffe Against the Allies in the West, 1943–1945—The Struggle for Air Supremacy over the Reich, 1 January 1944–31 March 1944, Volume II. Maxwell AFB, AL: USAF Historical Division, Air University, 1954.

INTERNET RESOURCE

Hell’s Angels 303rd Bomb Group (H). http://www.303rdbg.com.