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

fifth mission on this date. So did a waist gunner on his crew,
S/Sgt. William L. Hoots. Both individuals will be remembered in
this squadron for their good personalities and devotion to duty
on the ground as well as in the air. They participated in some of
the roughest of our missions and always came back in good
spirits. Upon their completion of twenty-five missions, they were
transferred to a new assignment, perhaps in the zone of the
interior.
The question of name came up several years ago. It happened that
I was flying as Pilot in command on the left wing of a three-ship
spare element on a mission 21 Feb 44 to Gutersloh, Germany. This
was my first mission in the left seat. I had been flying co-pilot
for Dave Bramble as a regular assignment. Dave was now 323rd Sq.
Operations Officer. This was also my 21st combat mission. Major
Berry personally checked me out in the left seat.
I didn't have a regular crew. With only five missions to go to
complete my tour the decision was to let me fly as PIC with other
crews as required. (I actually had six missions to go as the
length of the "tour" was increased about this time from 25
missions to 30. I and to do one extra mission above the regular
25-mission tour.)
En route to the target (Gutersloh) and flying over the English
Channel, our element leader was lagging well behind the main body
of the Group formation. I believe he held this position so he
could see any aircraft abort and one of us could fill the vacant
position. I don't recall any instructions on what we should do if
there were no "aborts."
As we were about midway across the Channel, our spare element was
attacked by four Me109s. We had no friendly fighter coverage.
On one of my earlier missions with Capt. Bramble, we had been in
a similar position--crossing the Channel in a spare element and
attacked by enemy fighters. Now as Pilot in command, I wasn't
about to remain in such a vulnerable position.
Radio silence was the order of the day. I couldn't call the
element leader to tell him to get up to the main body of the
formation. Short of that, I did the best I could. I pulled my
ship forward and had our Co-Pilot make hand signals to him to
move up. The element leader didn't respond. I repeated this
several times but there still was no response.
I actually pulled our ship out in front of the element leader and
continued to give hand signals but again there was no response.
We fired a flare but no response. I had the co-pilot flash some