Part 1 of RAF Glatton saw how the 457th were thrown into the deep end of the war. With a baptism of fire in the ‘Big Week’ campaign attacks against the German aircraft industry, they managed to survive with few casualties, but learned a great deal about the air war over Germany. In Part 2, we see the 457th in yet more high prestige raids and how they played a further part in the attacks on German industry. We also see unusual visitors and ‘oddities’ appear in the skies over Glatton.

Following the February campaign, the 457th would go on to drop both leaflets and bombs on coastal targets and more prestige targets including Wilhelmshaven on March 3rd 1944, and Berlin on March 6th. On this mission, two further aircraft were lost, not by being shot down by flak or enemy fighters, but because one was rammed by a Luftwaffe Me-410 fighter causing it to strike a second B-17 of the same group in the lower section.

Mission 8 for the 457th would take the group consisting of eighteen aircraft to the V.K.F. ball-bearing works in Erkner on the outskirts of Berlin. The factory, a subsidiary of the Swedish S.K.F. ball-bearing company, produced many of the ball-bearings required for the German war machine. B-17G #42-31595 ‘Flying Jenny‘ was struck by the fighter causing it to fall into the lower section of the formation B-17G #42-31627. Only the tail gunner of 627 survived, the remainder being ‘killed in action’*³.

During this period, losses remained remarkably low for the group, possibly due to the many targets they bombed being secondary, or targets of opportunity, a decision forced on the group primarily by bad weather over the primary target area.

March 1944 saw a remarkable and unique visitor to Glatton, one that not only attracted many military visitors to the airfield, but one that lightened the atmosphere amongst the men. A plan had earlier been formed in the United States to send B-29 ‘Superfortresses’ to China in a bid to support the Chinese and to allow the bombing of Japan from Chinese bases. In early 1944 this plan became reality but reliability problems had dogged the B-29’s engines and so major modifications had to be carried before the long flight could begin.

There was a fear that the Germans might attack the aircraft as they were ferried across the Mediterranean, and so a devious plan was set in motion to fool the Germans into thinking that B-29s were to be based in England, ready to be used against German targets. The first part of this rouse was in early March 1944, when YB-29 #41-36963 ‘Hobo Queen‘ took off from Salina Airbase in Kansas taking initially the southern route then deviating to the north and heading to Newfoundland. The B-29, piloted by Colonel Frank Cook, then flew across to the UK landing at RAF Glatton. The aircraft remained at Glatton for a short period before visiting both St Mawgan and Bassingbourn, before its final departure to India in April that year. The ruse had been a success. The B-29 certainly was a draw to the crews, its enormous size dwarfing anything hat had been seen at Glatton before, it was truly a remarkable aircraft, the likes of which had never been seen over the Huntingdon countryside previously.

Crews and ground staff swarm around B-29 #41-36963 at Glatton airfield 11th March 1944*⁴.

On April 22nd 1944, the 457th took part in the famous Mission 311, the mission in which US forces lost more aircraft to enemy intruders than at any other time in the war. On this mission, Hamm – the largest marshalling yard in Germany – was the target. The 457th along with the 401st BG and the 351st BG of the 94th Combat Wing, found themselves arriving last over the target, by which time it was covered in smoke from both previous bombing and German defensive smoke pots. Finding a break in the cloud the 457th dropped their bombs onto the target achieving ‘good’ results. However, by the time the Group were approaching home, it was dark and a group of Luftwaffe fighters had managed to hide themselves within the formations mingling with the bomber stream. By the time their presence was known, it was too late, and a number of aircraft, mainly B-24s, were attacked and either shot down or badly damaged. The 457th were once again lucky, only one aircraft, #42-106985 ‘La Legende‘, was severely damaged, but not to the point that it couldn’t crash-land back at Glatton. Significantly, on-board this aircraft was the station commander Lt. Col. James R. Luper.

B-17G #42-106985 after crash landing at Glatton April 22nd 1944. On board the aircraft was the station Commander Lt. Col James Luper. *⁵

It was Lt. Col. Luper who had had the honour of both collecting and naming the 1000th Douglas Long Beach built B-17, (#42-38113), ‘Rene III‘, named so after his wife. Initially called ‘Pistol Packing Mama‘ by the very people who built the aircraft, she was flown from the United States to Glatton by Lt. Col. Luper and his crew.

Lt. Col. Luper with ‘Rene III’ the 1000th Douglas built B17 (IWM)

Over the next year, ‘Rene III‘ would complete fifty-three missions, many over Germany including: Augsburg, Schweinfurt, Ludwigshafen, Leipzig, Munich, Cologne and Bremen. On her final mission, March 21st, 1945 to Hopsten, she was piloted by Lt. Craig P. Greason (s/n: 0-825840) of the 749th BS.

As the 749th BS aircraft approached the target, ‘Rene III‘ took a direct hit in the wing, close to the No. 4 engine, which caused a fuel leak and subsequent fire. The aircraft then dropped out of formation – one of the worst things that could happen to a stricken bomber. Official records suggest that the B-17 then went on to bomb the target after the fire appeared to extinguish itself. However, the crew were known to have all bailed out safely, after which all the aircrew (apart from Aircraft Engineer Sgt. William Wagner, who was caught and became a POW) managed to evade capture.

The station commander, Lt. Col. Luper, who was not aboard that day, continued to fly with his crew, eventually being lost on 7th October 1944 whilst flying in B-17 #44-8046 on a mission to Politz. Lt. Col. Luper survived a Flak strike on the aircraft and along with 4 other crewmen, was captured and taken prisoner by the Germans. The other six members who were not captured were sadly killed in the attack*⁶.

The main runway now serves light aircraft where B-17s once roared.

The salvage and rescue of damaged aircraft went a long way to supporting the work of the allied Air Forces in Europe. The need to keep aircraft flying meant stripping bits of damaged or scrapped aircraft and reusing them to repair less damaged examples. At Glatton, this went one step further.

B-17 #42-38064 was made into a composite aircraft with an olive drab front end and an aluminium rear; the two fuselage halves being joined at the wing root. The aircraft was named ‘Arf ‘n’ Arf‘, after a popular pub drink at the time made up of half a bitter and half a mild.

The rear of the aircraft came from B-17 #42-32084 ‘Li’l Satan‘  which lost an engine on landing at Glatton after receiving battle damage over Bremen in June 1944, the tail section being salvaged and added to #42-38064.

B-17 ‘Arf ‘n’ Arf’ a composite aircraft operating with the 457th BG at Glatton. (IWM UPL 28214)

‘Arf ‘n’ Arf‘ went on to complete several missions, its fate being sealed on November 8th 1944, in a heavy dousing of irony when it collided over the channel with B-17 #44-8418, ‘Bad Time Inc II’. In the collision, in which all the crewmen of ‘Arf ‘n’ Arf‘ were killed, the propellers of 8418 sliced through the fuselage of ‘Arf ‘n’ Arf‘ cutting the aircraft in two. 8418 went on to land ‘safely’ the crew being uninjured.

With the end of the year in sight, many were looking forward to the New Year celebrations and a renewed hope for peace. But New Years day 1945, would  be a notable day in the European Air War for other reasons. Not only for the appalling bad weather that had dogged the whole theatre of operations for the entire winter, but also for the fact that the Eighth Air Force Bomb Divisions were re-designated as ‘Air Divisions’. It was also a day where the Luftwaffe launched a series of attacks against allied airfields in the low countries causing widespread damage to aircraft and airfields.

The turn of 1944/5 would be a terrible time for bad weather. Mission either being cancelled at the last minute or flown in appalling conditions. As the end of the war draws ever closer the wind-down begins and the thought of going home becomes ever increasingly stronger. The end of the war also signifies the end of Glatton as a military base, but even after it is all but removed, its legacy lives on. 

The full account can be found at Trail 6 – American Ghosts.

In Trail 6 we visit six former World War Two airfields, each one being a major  base used by American forces during the 1940s. One of these was a late opener, and housed a brand new Bomb Group fresh out of training, who were thrust into the war during the combined ‘Big Week‘ campaign against the German aircraft industry in February 1944. It is this airfield that we visit first. Located just off the main A1 road, it remains an active airfield today, although the roar of the Wright Cyclone engines have been replaced by much smaller and more sedate single engined aircraft. We start off at RAF Glatton, otherwise known as Station 130.

RAF Glatton (Conington) Station 130.

Glatton’s unused runways and perimeter tracks are gradually being taken over.

Built by the 809th Engineer Battalion (Aviation) of the U.S. Army in the last months of 1942, Glatton was unique in that it was constructed around a farm that remained in situ throughout the war. The owner moved out as the airfield was built with the site returning to agricultural use after the Americans left. Built as a Class A airfield, it had the standard 3 runways; one of 2,000 yards and two of 1,400 yards, whose surface construction was of tarmac and wood chip. The apex of the ‘A’ pointed easterly with the main runway running west to east. To the north-west of the site lay the bomb store,  a traditional site consisting of Pyrotechnic stores (x4), incendiary stores (x10), small bomb container stores, fuzing points and component stores amongst others.

Around the perimeter track were forty-three spectacle and six frying pan style hardstands for aircraft dispersal. Unusually, the perimeter track split to the west side of the airfield, which meant that aircraft movement encircled both the technical area and main administration site. It is here, to the west of the main airfield site, that the majority of the aircraft dispersal pans were found.  The other section of this track wound round the front of this area allowing for uninterrupted views across the main airfield and its runways.

Glatton was also constructed with two type T2 hangars, both built to the 1941 design drawing No: 3653/41, with one being located to the eastern side, and the other to the western side, in the main technical area of the airfield.

To the northern side of the airfield lies the small village of Holme, and to the south the hamlet of Conington. The airfield’s name however, Glatton, came from yet another village some 4 miles away to the west; the reason ‘Glatton’ was used and not ‘Conington’ being due to the very similar RAF Coningsby not far away in Lincolnshire.

It was to the south-west of the airfield that the dispersed accommodation sites were located. Site 2, a communal site, included a barbers and shoemakers shop; Site 3, the mess, included a dining room and cooking facilities for 1,200 people; Site 4, a second mess site; Sites 5 and 6 (RAF sites) airmen’s barracks and sergeants’ quarters; Sites 7, 8 and 9 were Officers’ quarters with associated drying rooms and ablutions; Site 10 another sergeants’ site; Sites 11 and 12 were the WAAFs’ site with a hairdressers, small sick quarters, recreation room and officers’ quarters; Site 13 the main sick quarters and lastly Site 14, the sewage disposal site. The majority of the huts found on the site were Nissen, built to standard 1941 / 42 designs. All in all, the airfield could accommodate around 3,000 men and women of mixed rank.

These accommodation huts, with their cement floors and iron roofs, were cold and lacking any comforts at all, double bunks were provided for the enlisted men with slightly more space for Officers, but they all had minimal locker room or private space. Here, like many air bases in wartime Britain, new crews were largely ignored, friendships were not forged for fear of losing them on the next mission. As a result, many on these bases did not know other crews outside of their own huts, instead choosing to spend every minute with their own crew – the heartache of losing good friends being too painful to bear on a daily basis.

Used primarily by the US Eighth Air Force, Glatton was opened in 1943 and designated Station 130, home to the 457th Bomb Group, U.S. Eighth Air Force.

Composed of the: 748th, 749th, 750th, and 751st Bomb Squadrons, it was assigned to the 94th Combat Bombardment Wing (joining both the 351st and 401st BG) of the 1st Bombardment Division. Its aircraft, B-17G ‘Flying Fortresses’, flew throughout hostilities with the tail code a black ‘U’ on a white triangle, reversed in an Air Force restructuring during the winter of 1944/45 with a blue diagonal added to the fin.

The 457th’s journey to war began on May 19th, 1943 (the same time as the Trident Conference which led to a re-organisation of the USAAF in Europe), with activation that summer at Geiger Field, Washington. Being formed so late in the war, the 457th would be a short-lived group, but they were none-the-less still involved in some of the most ferocious air battles of the Second World War.

After training at Rapid City Airfield in South Dakota, they moved to Ephrata Army Air Base, one of the United States’s largest training bases, then onto Wendover Field in Utah before their final departure to the United Kingdom and Glatton airbase.

Maintenance crews work on fighters stationed at the Ephrata airport in 1944*¹

The 457th entry to the war would be a real baptism of fire. On Monday 21st February 1944, the combined forces of the USAAF and the RAF were involved in the ‘Big Week‘ campaign. Officially known as Operation ‘Argument‘, it was designed to smash the German aircraft industry in one fell swoop. Postponed repeatedly from early January due to bad weather, it finally began on the night of February 19th 1944, with US air forces flying their first operations on the 20th.

Two days into ‘Big Week‘ the 457th were dispatched along with 335 other B-17s of the 1st Bomb Division (BD) to attack Gutersloh, Lippstadt and Weri airfields, but having no pathfinder aircraft and in poor weather, they had to turn to targets of opportunity. With the 2nd and 3rd BDs also in operation that day, some 860 heavy American bombers filled the skies over Germany.

With poor results and difficulty in forming up, this initial mission was further marred by the group’s first loss; that of B-17G #42-31596 piloted  Lt. Llewellyn G. Bredeson, of the 750th BS. Flying their first mission, and in the unenviable position of ‘tail-end-Charlie’, they were singled out for a prolonged and devastating attack. Two engines were hit and substantial damaged was caused to the aircraft, including its oxygen system, in attacks which left the tail gunner seriously injured. Lt. Bredeson gave the order to bale out, an order that included the injured tail gunner. The other crewmen, tethered him to the aircraft by his static line, and then pushed him out so that his parachute would release automatically. After the stricken bomber was vacated, it crashed four miles west of Quackenbruck in northern Germany, one of the gunners, Sgt William H. Schenkel, dying from his injuries whilst the remainder of the crew were captured becoming prisoners of war.

The next day (22nd) the 457th  were back in action, with more ‘Big Week‘ attacks. This time there were no losses for the group, a reassuring mission that was followed by a day’s break from flying. On the 24th, they joined with other 1st Bomb Division groups attacking Schweinfurt, a target that struck fear into the hearts of American airmen. This mission, Mission 3 for the 457th and Mission 233 for the USAAF, would be the return to the ball bearing plants, a product that without which, the German war machine would literally grind to a halt.

In the original attack on 17th  August 1943, a combined offensive against Schweinfurt and Regensburg saw a 19% loss rate, some sixty bombers from 315 that were sent out. It was no wonder the target’s name struck fear into the hearts of the new group.

The 1st BD were the only group sent to Schweinfurt that day. The 3rd and 2nd attacking targets elsewhere in Germany. The 457th sent eighteen aircraft, part of a force of 265 B-17s. As well as dropping 401 Tonnes of high explosive bombs and 172 Tonnes of incendiary bombs, they also dropped just short of 4 million propaganda leaflets.

The defensive ring around the city had not weakened, if anything it had been strengthened since its previous attacks, flak was heavy and accurate and fighters were abundant. Some 110 US airmen were classed as ‘Missing in Action’ that day, but luckily for the 457th, only one aircraft was lost. Douglas-Long Beach built B-17G #42-38060 of the 750th BS, was hit by flak, the #1 and #2 engines were put out of action, and #3 and #4 began over revving – the crew unable to control them.

Glatton’s Second Runway.

With the navigator, 2nd Lt. Daren McIntyre badly wounded and the Right Waist Gunner Sgt. Italo Stella killed when flak pierced his flak jacket; the pilot, 2nd Lt. Max Morrow decided the best option was to crash land the aircraft and hope that in doing so, they would all survive. After carrying out a wheels-up belly landing near to Giessen in Germany, the aircraft was surrounded by locals, who removed the dead and wounded from the aircraft wreckage. Fearing for their lives, the immediate future looked bleak for the crew. Eventually German officials intervened, and the survivors were taken to POW camps where they stayed for the remainder of the war. 2nd Lt. McIntyre sadly later died, succumbing to his severe wounds.*²

The 457th’s final mission for ‘Big Week‘ occurred on the 25th, a mission to attack the Messerschmitt factory in Augsberg, Bavaria. On this day they lost two more aircraft: #42-97457 (six killed the remainder POWs)  and #42-31517 (Seven killed the remainder either evading capture or taken as POWs). Of the twenty-four aircraft that took part in this mission, all but one suffered battle damage to a various degree. The first week had not been disastrous, but it had nonetheless, been a very difficult week for the men of the 457th.

In Part 2 we see how the 457th went on, continuing attacks against the German heartland. We see unusual visitors to the airfield and some ‘oddities’ that graced the Skies over Glatton. 

The full account can be found at Trail 6 – American Ghosts.