TARGET: ANKLIN AIR DEPOT
ANKLAM, GERMANY
4 AUGUST, 1944

Following virtually the same route of its mission of 18 July, the Group attacked the Anklam Air Depot in northern Germany. The 18 July mission had been to the air experimental station at Peenemunde and at that time crews had been ordered to photograph Anklam and vicinity. Those photographs were used to plan this mission.

The Group comprised the high box, twelve aircraft of the 94th B Combat Wing, one of the twenty-three wings of the 8th Air Force heavy bombers dispatched against oil refineries, aircraft components and assembly plants and other targets in the North Sea-Baltic area from Bremen to Peenemunde. Major Dickinson led the Group. The Wing was fifth in the Division line.

The route to the target led the Group across the North Sea, across Schleswig-Holstein, north of Kiel and the Danish Islands, to a point northeast of Cape Arkona. Thence the Wing swung southeast to an IP in Pomeranian Bay.

Cloud coverage in the target area was three-tenths to five- tenths, but the target itself was not covered by clouds and a visual run was made at 18,400 feet. An earlier wing had bombed the assembly plant in the city of Anklam. Smoke billowed up and was carried by the wind in such a direction that it hid the MPI. An alternate aiming point among the air depot buildings was selected and bombed. Leaving the target area, the crews saw fire and smoke among the installations and also noted large columns rising from Peenemunde. No enemy aircraft were encountered and flak was encountered only at the target, where it was meager and inaccurate.