TARGET: OIL REFINERY/DOCK AREA
HAMBURG, GERMANY
25 OCTOBER, 1944

Comprising the 94th B Combat Wing, and second over the target, the 457th attacked the center of the oil refinery and dock area of Hamburg.

With Captain Doherty leading the formation, the Group. flew the course over the North Sea, am vi ng at the second Control Point eight minutes early, because winds were not as briefed. The formation turned on the bomb run on the last turn before the visual IP, because the primary target was covered by ten-tenths clouds. It became necessary to bomb the PFF secondary target. Bombing was done by squadrons in trail, with the lead and high squadrons performing their own sighting operations.

Lead crew Lt. Jeffers (Air Commander Capt. Doherty)

The bombs were dropped from 25,500 feet. The low squadron released its bombs approximately two seconds early, because of confusion with smoke markers of other groups. Ten tenths clouds over the target obscured the bombing results. Target area flak was heavy but inaccurate.

Target Hamburg, Germany

En route to the target, flak took a toll of the ship piloted by Lt. J. Francis Angier, who had rallied the Group and led it from Politz on 7 October. The plane was hit by concentrated bursts of flak at 26,000 feet, causing the entire right wing to catch fire and No. 3 engine to fall away from the plane. The plane zoomed up and then, as all power was lost, went into a dive tail first, and exploded. Two to four chutes were observed. Lt. Angier was blown out of the plane, but survived, after brutal treatment by German civilians, as a POW. However, three of the crew did not survive.