Overview of the Kassel Mission
By George Collar
We were the Iead plane in the low left element of the high right squadron. I was in the nose turret. The first iinkling that we were being attacked was the sudden appearance of many small flak bursts just ahead of the plane, and at the same time a sound like sledge hammer blows hitting the plane. The left wing was hit and on fire, and at the same time there was an explosion under the turret. About this time, the FW-190 that was attacking us streaked overhead not more than a few feet above us. I tried to shoot at him, but the turret controls were inoperative. The explosion under the turret had probably severed the hydraulics to the turret.
After the fighter had passed, I glanced down at the lead squadron and watched with horror as the fighters attacked them. At least two of the bombers were on fire, including the lead plane. At about this time the bail-out bell rang and I descended from the turret. As I glanced around, the nose section looked like Swiss cheese. It was a miracle that neither the navigator nor myself had been hit. Lt. Bean, the navigator, opened the nose wheel door and we both bailed out.
When the smoke of this great battle had cleared, 25 of our bombers had crashed into German soil. Two of our planes crash-landed in occupied France. One had crashed near Brussels, Belgium. Two made it across the Channel to make forced landings at the emergency strip at Mansion. One crashed near the base in Norfolk. Only four were able to land at Tibenham. Of the 238 men aboard the 25 bombers which went down in Germany, 115 were KIA or subsequently died of injuries. One was killed in the plane which crashed in Norfolk and one was killed in the crash in Belgium, a total of 117. Another American killed that day was Lt. Leo Lamb of the 361st FG, who belatedly came to our rescue. He collided with an FW-190 in mid air.During the battle the German air force lost 29 planes, with 18 German pilots KIA.
It is true that five American airmen were murdered that day near the village of Nentershausen. The murdered airmen were 2nd Lt Newell W. Brainard (Lt. Carrow's crew), T/Sgt. John J. Donahue (Lt. Elder's crew), 2nd Lt John W. Cowgill, 2nd Lt. Hector V. Scala, and T/Sgt. James T. Fields, all from Lt. Baynham's crew. The perpetrators were civilians, the main culprits being camp bosses at some hard labor camps near a copper mine in the vicinity. The killers were apprehended after the war and brought to justice at a war crimes trial. They were found guilty, and subsequently executed.
One would have thought that with a battle of this magnitude, more would have been writ-ten about it. Aside from a paragraph in Roger Freeman's book 'The Mighty Eighth' that stated this was the greatest single loss of any group in the Eighth Air Force, it received no other publicity. This is understandable, since this had been a failed raid, and a big defeat for our side. It is possible that everyone was trying to forget it. But it was certainly not forgotten by those who survived it, nor by anyone who happened to be at Tibenham that day, nor by the next of kin of those who perished.
In 1986, Lt. Col. John Woolnough, a former B-24 pilot, founder of the 8th Air Force Historical Society and editor of the Eighth Air Force News, devoted two entire issues of that publication to the Kassel mission, and Bill Dewey, a pilot who survived the raid, subsequently organized the establishment of the non-profit, tax exempt group known as The Kassel Mission Memorial Association (KMMA). KMMA has produced a book entitled The Kassel Mission Reports, based on the material previously printed in the 8th AF News, and established a historic memorial monument, dedicated on August 2,1990, on a plot of ground donated by the government of the state of Hesse on the precise spot where the lead ship of Capt. Chilton crashed at Bad Herzfeld.
