"Meat Hound"

"Meat Hound," In the 306th Bomb Group, before it's transfer to the 303rd. Above is Thurleigh airfield. To the right is the 423rd squadron patch.

24 July 1943. England. USAAF 8th Air Force. Little Blitz Week

306^th Bombing Group “The Reich Wreckers”, 423^rd Squadron. 167 B-17s are to mass for an attack on an aluminum and light metals plant in Nazi-occupied Norway, at Heroya, an industrial area 70 miles from Oslo. The 306^th is the first to attack Germany, and Wilhemshaven, in January, and is equipped with B17e s and fs, learning strategic bombing by doing. 

The flight is long, nearly 2000 miles, and the first American bombing force in Norway.

Among the B-17s lifting off from Thurleigh airflield in Bedfordshire is “Wahoo II,” under Captain David Wheeler. The crew commonly uses another bomber, about which a fair amount is known, “Meat Hound,” but with damage and injuries substitutions are common. 

The unfinished target, intended to produce critical light metals like aluminum as well as magnesium, is also close to the Norsk Hydro nitrate works – meaing materials for explosive munitions – a later raid on Norway targets the Norsk Hydro heavy water plant at another location, infamous for its collection of material for controlling a fission reaction. (Bomb damage at Heroya, from this raid.)

The weather is at best marginal for flight operations.

(My father, held a lifetime of anger towards his commander at Dalhart AFB in Texas, for sending B-17s in thunderstorms directly against weather staff’s recommendations, leading inevitably to the avoidable deaths of aircrews.) 

The 306^th, with 200 men and 20 aircraft, is the second group in the bombing formation, but the lead group loses sight of the target.. The 306^th takes the lead, drops its load, and the target is destroyed, never to be rebuilt until after the war. Some aircraft are hit by flak, but the damage is limited. 800 men on the ground are killed. 775 are German. The Norwegians were literally out to lunch. The Norwegian government later sends a note of thanks. An official report described the raid as a great success with “negligible casualities.” By any standard of the moment, that was true. 

At 1:52 pm, off the coast of Christiansland, a group of German fighters takes off.

(The following is the account from the book, First Over Germany, by Russell Strong, 1982.)

“Seven planes were damaged, but only 42-5086 (Wahoo II) was seriously hit. As the flight home looked peaceful, Capt. David H. Wheeler got out of the pilot’s seat to check on the gunners. 1^st Lt. Donald R. Winters took over the controls. Looking out a waist window, Wheeler saw movements on the ground –German fighters taking off- and as the formation was only at 2000 ft, it did not take long for the enemy to arrive. 

“‘I dashed back for the cockpit and arrived in time to see tow ME 109s coming in high,’ says Wheeler, ‘I pulled the nose down and the fighters screamed across the top of the plane, firing as they came.” A 20 mm cannon shell shattered the instrument panel causings losts of smoke in the cockpit; fragments from the same round hit Lt. Duane Bollenbach, the navigator, in the temple. Bollenbach, whose flak helmet was hanging on the bulkhead nearby was in critical condition. Lt. Floyd Evans, bombadier, held Bollenbach’s bleeding head in his arms for the five hours on the way back to Thurleigh.”

“During the melee a fighter came up under the tail of Wheeler’s plane and almost cut the tail gunner’s position open, seriously wounding Sgt. Raymond Norris in the legs. The damage left Norris nearly hanging out of the plane.

“As the group made a turn toward England, Wheeler found that his aileron cables had been shot out and he was unable to turn. Letting down further, Wheeler began manouvering the plane with his engines and, as the fighters were still nearby, he took the aircraft into some cloud cover. Quickly the crew became aware that German planes were still firing at them; then the realized that the clouds were thin, and although the fuselage was concealed, the big Boeing tail was sticking out above providing an ample target for the Luftwaffe.

“Thinking that they might have to ditch at anytime, Wheeler tried everything to keep the plane in the air. The crew got rid of any equipment they could drag to an exit. Despite the severity of wounds to personnel and battle damage to the plane, Wheeler opted for landing at Thurleigh rather than an (RAF) base, if he could make it, feeling that immediate medical attention for his two wounded me was essential. 

“As they approached Thurleigh, Wheeler asked Engineer Harvey Noyes, Jr. to crank down one wheel and the flaps. It was then that Noyes informed him that the crank was among the items which had gone into the North Sea. Flying precariously, Wheeler and Winters managed to turn on to runway 24 and began the final let down without flaps, without aileron control and with one wheel only partially extended. They touched down at about 120, roared down the runway and finally ground looped to a halt, missing the plae ahead of them by ten feet. Bollenbach was permanently out of combat, but survived, Norris later was able to complete his tour.”

It was then that my father’s story of this event picked up, the medical team refusing to take in my uncle, who with three large 20 mm cannon fragments in his temple did not look like he was going to survive, and were only persuaded to help when Captain Wheeler pulled his .45 and threatened to kill them. What my father didn’t tell me was the aftermath in the states, and the nature of the estrangement between close brothers: Duane’s spirit was broken. His beautiful wife Jo couldn’t stand to push him through the painful physical therapy, while my father tried to insist that they needed to get tough. Jo, out of love won, and Duane never walked, and I knew my uncle only in fragments of time, seeing him last in Kansas City in 1985. 

Although there was an amazing amount of information about the mission, the 306^th and related 8^th Air Force bomb groups 358^th and 303^rd, and even the specific plane “the Meat Hound,” I had to go the Boeing archives at the Boeing Flight Museum here in Seattle to find this book. The staff were helpful and handed me a rather amazing B-17 pilot tips manual, which I have to say was clearer and easier to read, and almost shorter, than my Honda Civic manual, things like, what to do if your B-17 catches on fire. It occurred to me right then that the B-17, with 13,000 examples in the middle of WWII, probably had more successful flight time while on fire than any other model of aircraft.

"Wahoo II" was fixed and shot down later, as was "Meat Hound." More history of the aircraft is below. 

One of the archivists said something about that war that resonated. Even in America, that war touched every family – who went where, what they learned, their economy, their careers, every lifetime was altered somehow. I heard from Lt. Evans’ daughter, who said, understandably, that Floyd had nightmares of my uncle’s injury for many years. Although Floyd became a test pilot, and kept in touch with Duane and Captain Wheeler, he never attended the reunions.

As I wrote before, the B-17, with its morally complex legacy, is a talisman in my family, uniting in purpose and then splitting two brothers who’d been very close. And here I am in Seattle, its birthplace, reading this story literally a block from where “Meat Hound” was built. They have a display of the curiously toy-like wooden air flow test model of the B-17 at the Red Barn at the Museum, a very beautiful object, a strange funnel between the pure ideation of design, and the actual, extraordinary history and impact of the real planes, in endless squadorns and sorties of over 1000 aircraft and 10,000 men in the air, and German cities burning in terror. The B-17 was the plane that really made this city; even as it flattened others, in the terrible, righteous vengence of the Allies.

As it turns out, the only flying B-17f in the world is just finishing restoration here. I’m looking forward to seeing it. 

MORE INFORMATION:

Eighth Air Force Mission #75 was a stunning blow to the Axis war machine. In the first bombing raid into Norway 67 heavy bombers made the 1,900-mile round-trip to attack the nitrate works at Heroya. It was the longest bombing mission of the war to date, one totally unexpected by German tacticians, and effectively put the important war plant out of operation for nearly four months. Meanwhile, other bombers of the 309 total force, attacked enemy naval installations at Trondheim, as well as other targets at Bergen. Of the more than 300 bombers launched at the opening of what would become known as Little Blitz Week, only one was lost. Her crew nursed their flak-damaged B-17 o Sweden where they landed without casualties, and were interned.
While the Axis reeled from the unprecedented strike that was later described as: "The most successful and shrewdly planned and executed mission of the entire war," General Eaker pressed his advantage. The morning following the attack into Norway he sent 323 heavy bombers across the North Sea to strike inside Germany, attacking the shipyard at Hamburg and submarine base at nearby Kiel. This time German fighter pilots were prepared however, and nineteen American bombers were lost.
The trifecta was completed the very next day when 303 heavy bombers were unleashed on the Reich, again attacking at Hamburg with 54 bombers while other's penetrated deeper into enemy territory to strike other targets. Nearly 100 Flying Fortresses fought their way deep into the heart of Germany, the 92nd Bomb Group hitting the Continental Gummiwerke A.G. Wahrenwalderstrasse tire plant at Hanover, just 150 miles west of Berlin. It was a classic test of the as-yet-unproven aerial warfare doctrine: "The well-organized, well-planned, and well-flown air force (bombing) attack will constitute an offensive that cannot be stopped."

The crew of Meat Hound flew with the same unit as the famous Memphis Belle.

The 306th, under Brigadier general Armstrong, was also the direct model for one of the greatest war movies ever, "Twelve O'Clock High," usually regarded by the veterans as the best and most accurate - and the sense of unbearable tension in that movie, combined with psychological stress and destruction, characterizes the 306th's unhappy position as a learning tool.


Mission #98 - 11 January 1944 to Oschersleben, Germany in B-17G #42-29524 Meat Hound (358BS) VK-P Was last seen by other crews with two feathered props at 1329 hours on a heading of 270 degrees at 15,000 feet. The crew, with the exception of 2Lt Watson, bailed out over Vsselmeer (formerly Zuider Zee), Holland. Four landed in the water and drowned, 2Lt Clayton David evaded capture and three became POP's. 2Lt J.W. Watson, after his crew had bailed out, decided to attempt to fly his badly damaged B-17 back to England alone. With two engines still ablaze, the left elevator shot off and a shattered connection between one wing section and the fuselage Lt Watson brought his B-17 down through a overcast and crashed his damaged B-17 at the 353rd Fighter Group P-47 airfield at Metfield, England. It took the emergency fire crew over two hours to put out the fires on the B-17.

29524 (423rd BS, 306th BS, "Meat Hound) transferred to 358th BS, 303rd BG. (Shown above in 303rd livery). Shot down by fighters over Durgerdam,
Holland Jan 11, 1944.  3 KIA, 6 POW. MACR 4269 .  (USAAF Aircraft Registration records).


I also received an email from a gracious fellow named Alec Kingsmill, who had posted this on a 303rd BG message board:

I am writing up my recollections of WW2, as a schoolboy. My principal interest was in aeroplanes. I have record in a notebook of B-17 42-29524 "Meat Hound." landing at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset either battle damaged or low on fuel. Weston was a relatively minor airport and the B-17 arrival caused quite a stir. A Lancaster used for sea weapon trials had to be moved from its normal spot to facilitate this landing. This is must be among WW2's trivia but I'd be delighted to learn anything about the circumstance of the B-17 arrival, and indeed, of its subsequent fate.

Thurleigh Control Tower, Bedfordshire. VE Day, 1945.

Meat Hound, covered in fire foam, 1944.