The main event of historical note during the month was that General Gross went home for a 30-day “rest and recuperation” period. It was about time. He was one of the first in the whole show to put five “Hershey bars” on his sleeve, signifying that he had been overseas for more than two and one-half years, without relief. He left on the morning of the 13th, via one each Bombardment airplane, Model B-17G, kindly offered for the trip to Prestwick by the 91st Group. As we write this, we can trace him only as far as New York, where on the morning of the 14th, he telephoned Haberman’s wife, leaving word that he was “between trains” and that the scrivener of these lines was still taking nourishment and bearing up, all things considered. The rest is still silence at this date.
His plane was taken by our Old Executive, Col. Terry. During the Boss’s temporary absence and the Tiger’s temporary incumbency, the 91st was temporarily under the skippership of Lt. Col. Don Sheeler, one of the old and tired, and true.
Otherwise, changes were not many. McCarthy, Wing Navigator, made Capt., and Frank Livoti, T/Sgt. in charge of the Operations Section, made M/Sgt. Smitty the Mole cashed on his new silver leaves and took charge of a party that went to Italy for 30 days to do bombing practice under the auspices of the Fifteenth Air Force. Lt. Jones, our Weather Officer, was transferred to U.S. Strategic Air Force in Europe Headquarters, and made his departure.
Operationally, it was a small month by current standards. We were stood-down eleven times and five missions were laid on and scrubbed. Fourteen missions were flown by the Wing. On only one occasion were all the Groups able to bomb visually. On three occasions, one Group managed to bomb visually through a hole in the undercast. On all the other missions, bombing was through the overcast on instruments. The weather continued to work for the Hun: we were able to intervene in the ground fighting in a decisive way. The deadlock on the western front began to have an unpleasant order reminiscent of World War I.
Twice during the month we gave direct support to ground operations. On the 9th we attacked the forts in the Metz area. On the 16th we hit defense positions before the town of Nuchweiler, a few miles east of Achen. The latter operation was highly successful. The ground troops and commanders were enthusiastic about our bombing, which was done by the GH system of blind attack. Capture of Eschweiler and a limited advance in the direction of Duren followed within the next few days. But this was no sample of what air attack could have done under unlimited weather conditions. True, we could break a hole in the enemy defense at a critical point, but we couldn’t paralyze enemy movement and thus enable the ground troops to credit the breakthrough to the fullest extent, as had been done in the battle of France. Our third Thanksgiving Day in the ETO became a reality; our third Christmas became inevitable.
Targets for the month, except for the two already noted, were in the oil and transportation categories. There were four attacks on the synthetic oil works at Merseburg/Leuna, two attacks each on natural oil refineries at Hamburg and Hanover/Misburg, and one each on synthetic plants at Zeitz/Troglitz, and Lutzkendorf, in the Leipzig area.
Transportation targets included marshalling yards at Frankfurt, Offenburg, and Cologne. There was also one attack on a railway viaduct at Altenbaken.
Otherwise, there was nothing worth of recording during this, the least eventful of all our months.