Schweinfurt, Germany — Ball Bearing
17th / 18th January 1944
Report from aircrews on mission 35:
Everything went quite till we reached the halfway point. That is when a Me110 surprised us. This enemy fighter took out our flaps and the mid turret oxygen. We didn’t see any more enemy fighters till after the target zone. Flak was more intense than expected and we took one hit with four-shell fragment tearing through our ship, Taking out upper gunners heat and damaging the starboard rudder root. One 109 made a pass but everyone missed their shot. With all the commotion over the target we barely placed 5% on the target area.
Coming off the target we were jumped twice both surprising our gunners. With the grace of God none placed any shots in our ship. Though the second Me110 did damage our starboard wing root on his follow up attack. This was the last attack and the final 800 kilometers were Kraut free.
Respectfully,
Flt. Officer Kurt Ian Snyder
314th Squadron R.A.F. – (Uncle SID [UX484])