Thirty-one sorties

Chemnitz

14 February 1945

First combat mission. Marshalling yard in Saxony. Copilot for the day was Richard J. Austin, on loan from John Bradley’s crew. Victor Probst flew the same morning in The Red Fox. One of 457 B-17s sent to Chemnitz while a separate force hit Dresden, forty miles away.

“Key Rail City Near Capital Is Pounded”

Cottbus

15 February 1945

Second day of the war, flown before the crew had been in combat forty-eight hours. The group lost two aircraft, including Big Casino of the 335th Squadron, MACR 12378.

Osnabrück

19 February 1945

Rail targets in the Ruhr corridor, escorted by Mustangs and Thunderbolts.

“1,100 Heavies Hit Nazi Rails”

Nuremberg

20 February 1945

First of two consecutive mornings over Nuremberg.

Nuremberg

21 February 1945

Second consecutive day at Nuremberg.

Bamberg

22 February 1945

Stars and Stripes of 23 February reported six thousand aircraft against the German rail network. Joyce wrote the specific target into the scrapbook margin by hand: Bamberg.

Bremen

24 February 1945

Part of the fourteen-day run that produced 94 hours 35 minutes in February.

Munich

25 February 1945

Terminal rail station and marshalling yards in the city’s eastern and western districts. Fourth consecutive day the Eighth had thrown its weight against German communications.

“Rail-Hitting Heavies Tear Into Munich”

Leipzig

27 February 1945

Ninth mission in fourteen days. Air Medal awarded this date, GO 289.

Brunswick

3 March 1945

The 95th put up thirty-seven aircraft and lost one to a mid-air collision: Aunt Callie’s Baby and Paisano, both of the 335th. Nine killed. MACR 12889.

Ulm / Baumenheim

4 March 1945

Primary was a Messerschmitt components factory at Baumenheim; Ulm’s marshalling yard was the fallback under ten-tenths undercast. Wake at 0215.

Dortmunderfeld

10 March 1945

Industrial corridor the Eighth had been working since Chemnitz. No clipping in the scrapbook.

Swinemünde

12 March 1945

German naval base on the Baltic, requested by Soviet command. A city swollen with civilian refugees. The crew flew it and came home. Nothing in the family’s record indicates what, if anything, Frank understood about the civilians below.

“Heavies Hit Near Rhine, Along Baltic”

Seelze

14 March 1945

Among the roughest days that spring: 38 dispatched, 16 damaged, one lost, one written off after landing. The crew’s annotated captains’ chart for the day survives. Promoted to First Lieutenant the next day.

Jena

19 March 1945

Bombed through cloud along with Plauen. Escorts met Me 262s and Arado 234s — a jet bomber the crews had not met before.

“Plane Plants, Airfields Struck By 1,200 Heavies”

Hamburg

20 March 1945

Blohm+Voss shipyards. U-boat construction, still a priority this late in the war.

“Heavies Hit U-Boat Works”

Ahlhorn

22 March 1945

Luftwaffe airfield beginning to host Me 262s and Arado 234s. Little aerial opposition.

“Few Enemy Planes Up, 22 KO’d”

Unna

23 March 1945

Unna–Dortmund yards, among a dozen Ruhr targets.

Ziegenhain

24 March 1945

No clipping survives. A number in the scrapbook and nothing else.

Hannover

28 March 1945

Tank plants and a half-track factory at Hannover and Hildesheim.

“1,250 Heavies Strike Tank, Gun Factories Near Hanover”

Zeitz

31 March 1945

Synthetic oil plant. Recovered from a wire report, not from the family scrapbook.

Kiel

3 April 1945

First of two consecutive days at Kiel.

Kiel

4 April 1945

Second day. Nine bombers and four fighters lost across the Eighth; fifteen German aircraft claimed, eleven of them jets.

“Heavies Rock Kiel for 2nd Day”

Nuremberg

5 April 1945

Spirit of Martinez stood down for her third engine change. First of two missions in a borrowed ship. Numbered in the scrapbook the same as the rest — a record of a man, not an airplane.

Kaltenkirchen

7 April 1945

Second borrowed-aircraft mission. Third oak leaf cluster awarded this date, GO 720.

München-Riem

9 April 1945

Back in the Spirit. Airfields around Munich believed to be bases for jet fighters. Third straight day the Eighth put more than a thousand bombers in the air.

“1,250 Heavies Strike Munich”

Burg

10 April 1945

Jet airfields in the arc around Berlin. The scrapbook names Burg among seven fields struck.

Oranienburg

20 April 1945

Last combat mission. Rail yards ringing Berlin. Hitler’s birthday. The scrapbook stops here. The three food drops that followed carry no number at all.

Utrecht — Lage Weide

3 May 1945 · Humanitarian

Operation Chowhound. Flour, tinned meat, chocolate, powdered milk, dropped at about four hundred feet. Chowhound Three for the group.

Utrecht — Lage Weide

5 May 1945 · Humanitarian

Chowhound Four. The informal truce with German flak crews still held.

Utrecht — Lage Weide

6 May 1945 · Humanitarian

Chowhound Five, the day before the war in Europe ended. White bread that, to children who had lived on beet pulp, tasted like cake.