Dailies of the 323rd - the 91st Bomb Group!

on attack. I felt he was aiming at me!
Though "Kelly" had the controls at the moment, I didn't have time
to say anything, I pushed right rudder as hard as I could and
caused the ship to skid to the right. The line of fire from the -
109 came down between our number 2 engine and the cabin. We took
a bullet in the number 2 fuel tank and a cannon shell in the left
horizontal stabilizer.
In my Advanced Pilot Training program, I had expressed a desire
to fly light bombardment aircraft. For this I was given training
in a T-6 in aerial gunnery. I fired on air -to-ground targets at
Eglin Field. I never fired a gun in combat but had some knowledge
of aerial gunnery and problems if the airplane wasn't trimmed
right as in a "skid.". This is exactly what I did. I caused the
B-17 to skid to the right. The attacking pilot might not have
noticed this as his fire came down the left side of the fuselage.
I asked the crew to check in. I was worried about our tail
Gunner, "Dutch" Reich from my old crew (Bramble's). He said he
was okay but couldn't see how they missed him. Him. After we
landed he had several holes in the tail cone and we had a hole
from the 20mm cannon shell in the left horizontal stabilizer.
Neither of these was significant.
In 1945, I was in Las Vegas and ran "Dutch" Reich from my old
crew. He was still in the service and in uniform. I noticed he
had and Oak Leaf Cluster on his Purple Heart ribbon. I recalled
he had received a Purple Heart on an earlier mission and I asked
him where and when he got the Oak Leaf Cluster. He admitted that
he had been wounded on the Gutersloh mission but didn't report it
at the time. He reported it when he got back to the States.
It was sad but both the element leader and right wing men were
shot down. There were other casualties.
In addition to these losses, the High Flight I had joined when I
left the Spare element, was the 401st Squadron. Two more B-17s
were lost on this mission from the 401st on this mission to
Gutersloh.
I corresponded with the pilot of Miss Ouachita after the war. I
didn't think to ask him how his airplane got its name.
You had to have a little luck on these missions. Or maybe it was
a little help from an unexpected source.
Regards, Phil Mack
22 Feb. 1944: Next day, the 22nd, Oschersleben and Bunde were