Changes in Organization: Negative.
Strength: As of 31 March 1945, total strength was 52 Commissioned officers, and 286 Enlisted Men.
Changes of Station: No change of Station.
Losses in Action: See Narrative.
Narrative of Operations and Incidents:
During March, with the long awaited arrival of Spring flying weather, the Group hit its stride in A-26 operations. A total of 41 missions were flown, exceeding by 10 missions the previous record of 31 flown in May, 1944 with A-20's at the height of the pre-Invasion aerial offensive.
Once again ground maintenance crews worked almost around the clock. The intensified training program, coupled with heightened combat activity, considerably reduced the sack time of pilots, bombardiers, and gunners. For whatever leisure time was available, there was a wide choice of activities in the Station. A soft ball league was organized and twilight baseball became an almost nightly event. Movies were presented three times a week in the hangar. The Information-Education program offered evening classes for those who desired to brush up on their high school or college work, or to get a start on vocational training.
The Squadron granted its first leave and furloughs since our arrival overseas, and a small quota of fortunate individuals were sent to the United Kingdom for seven days exclusive of travel time. Meanwhile, our combat men were going to the new rest-centers on the Riviera.
On 20 March 1945 Major Robert F. Price, Squadron Commander since 16 February 1944, having completed a combat tour of 65 missions, was transferred to Group Headquarters to await orders sending him home. Before his departure from the Group, Major Price was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Major Gerald M. McNulty, who since 23 July 1044, had served as Operations Officer, assumed command. Major McNulty has wide experience in tactical operations of the European Theater. Prior to his receipt of a commission as First Lieutenant in the United States Air Corps 30 June 1043, he completed one and one-half combat tours in fighters and bombers as a pilot of the RCAF, attached to the RAF.
Captain Carl S. Stanley succeeded Major McNulty as Squadron Operations Officer.
Captain Charles C. Enish, Flight Commander and Staff Sergeant Philben G. Euga and Ernest R. Schafer were sent back to the States on 25 March at the completion of their operational tours.
On 28 March Captain Eldon B. Kreh, Assistant Operations Officer, having also completed a combat tour, was transferred to Zone of Interior.
Though the war went strongly against the German, his ground defenses were by no means thereby diminished, and he continued fiercely to defend himself, as the ???t's combat losses in the month of March clearly attest.
On 18 March two of our aircraft were shot down over the Reich. First Lieutenant James P. Kenny, Staff Sergeant John J. Sittarich, Second Lieutenant Clifford J. Vars, and Sergeant John J. Griffith Jr. were reported Missing in Action.
A tragic accident on 21 March deprived the Squadron of one of its outstanding combat crews. Captain Charles J. Anderson, leading a flight on the return lap of a combat sortie, had dropped behind his position in the first ???? and was endeavoring to bring his flight into its proper place. Flying directly into the sun, which may have blinded his vision, and passing beneath an element of the second box, Captain Anderson pulled up, and in so doing his aircraft collided with the lead ship of the second box flight, piloted by Captain Roney. Both ships crashed. Captain Anderson, 2nd Lt Westmoreland Babbage, his bombardier, 2nd Lt Leo J. Roman, and Staff Sergeant Stanley L. Reitell were instantly killed.
On 28 March, Flight Officer Harry G. Gunkel and his gunner Sgt Le Roy J. Grzona became lost from the formation while returning from a combat mission through heavy clouds, and were not again seen. Both men were reported Mission in Action.
Second Lieutenant's George Parkhurst and Roger A. Ruszell were promoted to First Lieutenant on 23 March 1945.
Changes in Organization: Negative.
Strength: As of 30 April 1945, total strength was 48 Commissioned Officers, and 276 Enlisted Men.
Changes of Station: No change of Station.
Losses in Action: See Narrative.
Narrative of Operations and Incidents:
During all of April, the Allied Armies moved rapidly across Germany in pursuit of the beaten and routed Wehrmacht. Resistance was sporadic and ineffective. But if the task of the ground forces proved far lighter than in the assaults of last winter against heavily defended positions, the first and final stages of the European war posed for medium bombardment groups at least one problem that we had not previously encountered. The bomb-line, travelling eastward across the Reich with our onward marching armies, moved in some sectors far beyond the effective range of A-26's based at Laon. Fortunately with the general weakening of resistance in Germany, antiaircraft defense of military targets became meager and ineffective; and it was therefore possible to fly at lessened speeds and lower altitudes without unduly exposing to risk our planes and combat crews. Accordingly, the combat range of the aircraft was augmented by flying with a throttle setting which employed a more economical fuel-air ratio. Five-hour missions into the heart of Austria or Czechoslovakia became almost routine occurrences. The longest combat mission flown by the Group was very slightly less than 1,000 miles round trip.
The disintegration of effective German resistance is evidenced by the fact that in twenty-four missions flown during April, the Squadron suffered no combat losses whatever. Our only casualties, ironically enough, occurred as the result of one of the last sorties flown by the expiring Luftwaffe on 17 April, against the spearhead element of a 3rd Army column advancing on Billingslebe. First Lieutenant James H. Carver (pilot), Pfc Forest C. Brown (armorer), S/Sgt Nathan M. Graham Jr. (aerial gunner), and S/Sgt Carl Valentine (crew chief), on detached service with a Third Army combat team, were accompanying the convoy in a jeep. German fighters, coming in on the deck, strafed the column and dropped fragmentation bombs. Lt Carver and Pfc Brown received slight scalp wounds. S/Sgt Graham suffered a punctured ear drum and laceration sof the right hand. S/Sgt Valentine sustained serious shrapnel wounds of the right leg and was transferred to a General Hospital. The other three injured men were returned to the unit.
On 23 April 1st Lt Arvid R. Hand, veteran Squadron Bombardier-Navigator whose combat record places him among the best bombardiers in the Division, was promoted to rank of Captain.
First Lieutenants James K. Colquitt and James H. Montrose were transferred to the Zone of Interior on 25 April, upon completion of their combat tours.
Our pilot-bombardier teams continued to hit the assigned targets, inflicting damage upon the enemy's remaining communications centers and storage dumps, which materially hastened the final victory. On 11 April, Major McNulty and Lt Powell scored a "superior" in an attack on Bernburg Marshalling Yard. The following day, Lt Paul E. Parker and Lt Robert E. Shaft led a flight against a rail bridge at Hof, also with "superior" results. On 20 April the bombing of the flight led by Lt William Laseter and Lt Mark P. Schlefer on Deggendorf Oil Storage Depot rated a "superior". On 21 April the team of Captain Evans and Lt McCartney continued its excellent combat record with a "superior" for the bombing of Attnung-Pucheim Marshalling Yard.