322ND BG KNOWS ALL TOO WELL WHY THE B-26 IS KNOWN AS THE WIDOWMAKER On May 14, 1943, loaded with 30-minute time delay British bombs, a group of B-26 Marauders attacked a target and met heavy resistance with several sustaining AAA flak damages, however all made back to base with only one plane crash-landing nearby. Follow-up bomb damage assessment photographs revealed a functioning P.E.N. electricity generating plant still in complete service. HQ Intelligence surmised the Germans were able to quickly defuse and deactivate the time delayed explosives. Two days later on May 16, 1943, the 322nd BG’s commanding officer, Lt. Colonel Robert ‘Moose’ Stillman was ordered by higher USAAF command authority to conduct another bombing raid on the same target the following day. Alarmed the same objective was being re-targeted too soon, Lt. Col. Stillman lodged a protest with his superiors. Having led the first raid, he feared his B-26 crews would have to face an alerted and prepared enemy defense network ready and waiting. Although sympathetic with Stillman’s concerns, an adamant BG Newton Longfellow of Eighth Bomber Command demanded a repeat performance of the bombing raid to commence as planned. In fact, the mission alert manifest literally stated ‘same route, same objective’. Not the type of officer who would ask his men to do something he wouldn’t do himself, the Colonel was once again determined to lead this second attack. For the mission, armed with impact fused explosives, a flight of eleven B-26 Marauders from the 450th and 452nd Squadrons left the airdrome in the early morning hours of May 17, 1943. Flying in the 450th Squadron B-26, Warchief, 2nd LT. James Richard Hoel, only 22 years-old and flying his first combat mission, sat in the combined seat of the plane’s bombardier and navigator. In the naïve hope of flying undetected beneath the German radar umbrella, the mission was a planned for a low-level ‘Javelin’ flight formation. However shortly before making landfall, one B-26 experienced a generator mechanical failure and had to abort. Taught in primary flight school to gain altitude in case of an emergency landing or at the very least a safe bail-out cushion, the aborting craft broke the enemy radar beam perhaps alerting the Germans of the impending raid. Further misfortune ensued: a combination of a radio alert (warning of coastal enemy flak sites) from a passing friendly convoy and navigational error caused the flight of now ten B-26 Marauders to cross the Dutch coastline 25 miles south of their intended point of entry. Unfortunately, the deviated ingress route took them directly over the Rozenburg Islands in the Maas River Estuary, considered one of the most heavily defended areas in the Netherlands. Heavy AAA fire quickly shot down the 322nd BG CO’s lead aircraft at 11:51 hours. A minute and a mile later, Lt. Hoel’s bomber was shot down by flak and crashed into the Maas River. His recollection of the event was as follows, “I heard a loud bang and the plane actually broke in half as it went down in flames and crashed into the canal. If we hadn’t been flying over the canal, I’m sure we would have all been killed”. Despite the water landing, two of the enlisted crew positioned in the rear of his B-26 were killed instantly. The surviving four crewmembers including Hoel swam to the canal bank where they were met and captured by a posse of German soldiers. After the Wehrmacht officer-in-charge made the obligatory ‘for you, the war is over’ remark, the Americans were segregated and hustled off to Dulag Luft, the main Luftwaffe Aircrew interrogation center. The rest of the flight suffered horrifically. In the wild melee of a scattering formation jinking desperately to evade flak, two B-26s collided mid-air and its subsequent aerial debris took down a third B-26. Completely lost and 45 miles over Holland, the remaining flight of five B-26s mistakenly dropped their bombs on their assumed target which in reality was a gas work in the suburbs of Amsterdam. Their bad luck was further compounded as the egress route (a heading of 270 degrees) unknowingly took them directly over their actual mission target of Ijmuiden, now poised and bristling with its waiting flak batteries. Three more B-26 Marauders were shot down in quick succession either crashing or ditching at sea. A few minutes later, the last two bombers were downed by vectored German fighters from Woensdrecht and fell into the sea. Lt. Col. Stillman’s premonition of a suicide mission tragically resulted in its predicted outcome. All ten attacking B-26 bombers were lost. The casualty rate was appalling. Out of the 60 total men; 34 were killed, 24 were taken POW (one died in captivity) and two crewmembers from one plane were recovered off a rubber life raft in the North Sea. The Group Commander, Group Executive Officer and both squadron leaders were all either killed or made prisoners. The disastrous nature of the doomed mission was sadly epitomized by the KIA deaths of a 450th Squadron pilot/co-pilot team of twin brothers - Lt. F H Matthew and Lt. E R Norton . Lt. Edward Norton was pilot of one of the six bombers in the fast flight. His brother few as his co-pilot. As they approached the target at Ijmuiden, The Netherlands, they meet heavy flak, which seriously damaged the aircraft. Nevertheless, the B-26 completed its mission. It turned toward home but went down in the North Sea. The crew was listed as missing in action. Sixty men from the aircraft on the mission failed to return. One survivor eventually turned up as a prisoner of war. On May 19, Dr. and Mrs. Norton received first one dreaded message and then a second. Missing in action. A pall fell over the whole town. For months there was no further word. Eventually Dr. Norton discovered that the bomber had gone down over the North Sea. In September 1945 he learned from the mayor of Haarlem, The Netherlands, that the body of James washed ashore July 26, 1943. He is buried in the military cemetery at Margraten, Holland. His brothers body was never found. SOURCE MATERIAL: b26
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 14:00:01 +0000
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