My View

Seven weeks after the successful June 6, 1944 invasion in Normandy, Allied forces struggled to retake continental Europe from Hitler’s Wehrmacht during Operation Cobra.

The Mighty Eighth Air Force was called upon to provide low-level bombing to break the logjam, first at St. Lo, then, at Caen. Here is one veteran’s story.

My wife read an account of Operation Cobra and started blaming me for what happened on the ground on July 24 and July 25, 1944 — that is, until she, thankfully, reached the last sentence:

“Thus the Normandy Campaign ended. As the German High Command itself put it, ‘This was the first major turning point of the war’ that led to our ultimate victory 10 months later.”

I admit I was one of the Air Force personnel blamed for doing the damage as First Bomber Command, 305th Bombardment Group (H), 365th Bomb Squadron. My diary bears the following notation:

Mission #10, 24 July, 1944. What a show!! Ground support — bombed Jerry front on Cherbourg Peninsula, 1,000 strong — area bombing. Something new in heavies. 38X100# GP’s bomb load. Take off — 1010 Landing 1502.

We had no idea at the time that the winds had blown our markers back over our own ground personnel, but they acted heroically in giving us ground cover, suppressing some of the incoming fire while we passed over targets. We actually dispatched 909 B-17s and 677 B-24s. Our group was effective! The Mighty Eighth lost 21 MIA personnel. We were finally told, “Twenty U.S. ground personnel were killed, and 60-plus were wounded.”

Understand: We were just deliverymen, delivering bombs. Our guns could not bear on the targets. No Luftwaffe fighters had joined in the fray. Our thin, aluminum skin was peppered. The worst effect was that our navigator relieved himself from duty after the next day’s briefing for another round and was immediately transferred from our base.

The next day was worse. We actually sent out 917 B-17s and 664 B-24s. The B-24s caught hell.

We were finally told: “Despite every precaution to ensure there was no short bombing. Two incidents resulted in the death of 106 U.S. troops and 308 being wounded.” My diary for that day:

Mission #11, 25 July, 1944. Repeat of previous day’s performance. Really blasted hell out of the Jerries. 30X100# GP’s bomb load. Take off — 0800 Landing 1324.

That mission, too, affected our crew. The next briefing on July 28, 1944 had the ribbon stretched out across the wall map to Merseburg-Leipzig in Germany over eight hours in the air. This convinced our waist gunner that he’d had enough. He unexpectedly reported to the chaplain and disappeared from the base before we returned. He missed a good show: Our ball-turret gunner was credited with knocking down an ME-109 before the P-38s swept them away, just like in the movies.

That left us with only eight of our original 10-member crew still flying, albeit with the second radio operator serving with other crews. Our total crews on B-17 Gs had been reduced to nine members, from 10, eliminating the position of second radio-operator gunner. These second radio operators were desperately needed as replacements in other crews because of the MIA numbers of first radio operators.

St. Lo was just one bookend in the German defense. We were called upon to provide the same type of support to Gen. Montgomery in the Battle for Caen. Not so easy. Scuttlebutt blamed it on the lack of ground support fire from the British, who had evidently been warned about the short-bombing at St. Lo, and kept their heads down. It was a very different story in my diary:

Mission #19, 8 August, 1944. Supposed to be a copy of St. Lo raids. Flew Deputy Lead and caught hell. Bombed German lines from 14,000 feet and were hit with everything Jerries could throw. Heaviest flak barrage ever experienced. Bombardier (fill-in) was killed -- flak through chest. Plastered target with bombs and opened Northern hinge of Jerry lines. 37X100# GP’s, 1 smoke bomb, bomb load. Take off — 1031. Landing 1447.

Our original second radio operator survived 22 missions with other crews until our joint return to Merseburg-Leipzig Aug. 24, 1944. Our target was synthetic oil refineries. My diary:

Mission #23, 24 August, 1944. Roughest mission yet. Made double run over Leipzig and were shot to hell each time. Lead and deputy lead knocked out. (Bev’s plane blew up right off of our wing tip. ) Hydraulic system and instrument panel shot out. Had loosened ball turret and started to jettison all equipment.

Crashed plane on landing -- no brakes. No one on plane hurt. Plane a total wreck. 10X500# GP’s bomb load. Take off — 0703. Landing 1600.

We were young, very young, and mostly knew no fear. We had a job to do, and we were a unified crew, relying on our mates to do theirs’ as well. Suffice it to say that on returning over the channel after our 35th mission, I consigned my hated oxygen mask to the briny deep and gave up the thought of ever flying again. On my 34th mission — the next-to-last one — my diary for that day bears the notation:

Flying #4, low, and on bomb run #3 High squadron swerved and took our wing man down with him.

Pretty scary: just minding our own business, and wham, two crews gone!

We arrived at Chelveston, England, after ferrying a new B-17 across the Atlantic. Seven of us completed all 35 missions and returned home. Of them, I am the last survivor.

War is — and was — hell. Wars are won only by mass extermination of the enemy, not by meaningless words and pacts. Were it not for Harry Truman pushing the button on the A-bomb, we could still be fishing our sailors out of the burning oil in the Pacific as a result of the kamikazes who, also, honored death more than life.

What does the future hold for civilization, as we know it? Is it too early to start beating our swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks until the rest of the world is on the same page? My great-grandchildren (eight, so far) will depend on our actions.

Bradford Saivetz is a Longboat Key resident and World War II veteran who was honored with the French Legion of Honor medal. He is one of approximately 125 veterans who participated in the Nov. 11 inaugural Rotary Club Veterans Day parade.