[303rd-Talk] High resolution BDA image

[Bill Jones]

On 22 Apr 2007 at 22:06, Leroy Audrey wrote:

> Bill:
> As  side note to your Kitzingen photos. I was the deputy lead navigatior
> flying with Lt. Holmes as pilot;. Glen R. Swenson was flying lead navigator.
> Glen resides outside of Grand Rapids, Minn. in the lakes country of northern
> Minnesota. A gunner on his crew lives in St. Paul , a member of the Minn.
> chapter of 8 th AFHS. The second set of smoke bomb trails must be from the
> 360th high sqdn,which missed  the target on a clear perfect day for a bomb run.
> LeRoy Christenson Nav. 359th Sqdn.
>

Harry Gobrecht posted a narrative of this mission several years ago. :

"
All three squadrons bombed a target of opportunity at Kitzingen, Germany
Mission was part of "Operation Clarion" to bomb German marshalling yards at
medium altitudes.
The primary target was Zwickau, Germany ( a 9 1/2 hour mission).  At arrival
at the Primary the 41st CBW " B' Group [303rd BG(H)] found the target covered
by 10.10th cloud and it could not be picked up by PFF.  The Lead 359th
Squadron started a run oin Bamburg by PFF.  Just before bombs away the
Bombardiuer and Navigator noticed some breaks in the clouds and decided to
pick up a target of opportunity and bomb visually.  A visual run was made on
a marshalling yard at Kitzingen with excellent result.
The low 427th Squadron followed the Lead Squadron and bombed visually at
Kitzingen with excellent results.
The high 360th BS had trouble anticipating the target to be attacked. They
were flying too high above the Group leader and made some navigational
errors. The target
of opportunity  was recognized approximately 60 seconds before bombs away and
a normal visual run was made against the target at Kitzingen. The Bombardier
made an error in setting his bomb site controls and bombing results were poor
with a 3500 foot radial error.
303rd Squadrons bombed from 11,500 (Lead), 11,200 (low) and 12,450 (higjh)
foot altitudes. 
"
An interesting narrative.  The 360th problems were blamed on navigation errors 
and an error by the bombardier, but I found it interesting with respect to how 
low they were when they bombed.  On most missions bombing was done at 20,000 
to 30,000' altitudes, but on this mission bombing was done at 11500-12500', 
which is really low.  I wonder if that contributed to the confusion?  That 
plus the fact that they were originally supposed to be doing a PFF run.  

   I wonder why they dropped so low?  Could this be due to to looking for a 
target of opportunity? 

BTW, my father was flying co-pilot on the 360th lead plane that day, which is 
why I was interested in the mission. 





Bill Jones         N3JLQ
Sweden Maine
wejones at megalink.net
http://www.megalink.net/~wejones