The Mission I'll Never Forget

By Edwin Carl Parkish

"THE MISSION I'LL NEVER FORGET" Edwin Carl Pakish Beauvais/Tille France February 22, 1945 322nd Bomb Group 449th Bomb Squadron

The mission I'll never forget was on February 22, 1945. The sergeant from C.Q. came into our tent very early in the morning and woke me up. He told me to get ready for the day's mission. I told him that he must have had the wrong guy because I wasn't scheduled to fly that day. "You are now", he said.

After getting dressed, washed, and breakfast, I went to the briefing room. The briefing officer told us that the mission this day would be a very special one known as Operation Clarion. It would be an all out attack on transportation facilities all over Germany by planes from the 8th and 9th Air Forces from England and France and also the 12th Air Force from Italy.

This mission would be a "maximum effort" by our groups, so instead of the normal 36 planes, there would be 54 planes going out today. And instead of all of the planes bombing one target which was the usual procedure, the 9 flights in the group would be divided and bomb 5 different targets. The flight I was in would bomb the marshaling yard at Butzbach. The bombing altitude would be at 8,000 feet instead of the usual 12,000. And here was the kicker -- after bombing, we were to peel off and descend to ground level and strafe the target with our package guns. We were all in a state of shock when we heard that; I and all of the others there remembered the infamous B-26 mission to Ijmuiden where all of the planes were lost on that low level mission.

The briefing was very thorough and explicit. We were told where the heavy anti-aircraft guns were located and where the light guns were though to be. And after we did the strafing, we were to bank 45 degrees to a forest where there guns and it should be safe to pull up and climb back to a comfortable altitude. That forest was the only safe area to climb.

After the briefing, I went back to my tent and I couldn't help but think of the Ijmuiden mission. I sat down and wrote my mother a "goodbye" letter which I gave to a buddy in my tent to mail in case I did not return. This was to be my 44th mission and I was to pilot #773, PN-O which was "FLAK BAIT" and this was it's 175th mission. I was to fly #5 in the third flight in the 2nd Box.

We took off around 11: 30 AM and were to be over target at 13:42 in the afternoon. The flight to Butzbach was uneventful. I called the bombardier-navigator to be sure to watch for that forest so that we could climb up to altitude. We test fired all of the guns. I tested the 4 package guns and all was OK.

We got to the I.P. point at 13:37 and made the bomb run over Butzbach. We dropped the bombs at 8,000 feet and then put the throttles full forward as we peeled off, one at a time and descended in a circle as fast as we could. We completed the circle at low level and were to strafe anything in front of us in the marshaling yard which was mostly box cars. As I started to approach the yard at low level, I started to get some light cannon flak. I could see the sides of some box cars falling and on the car floor were Germans with either cannons or machine guns getting ready to fire on us.

After strafing the box cars, I passed the marshaling yard and made the 45 degree turn to the right where the forest was to be. I called the bombardier-navigator and he said he had no idea where the forest was and said what I'll never forget, ~ know where we're at". Holy cow, what do I do now. A level I couldn't see any other planes. I called the gunners in the back and they couldn't see any planes anywhere. Should I start to climb? If there were anti-aircraft guns around we would be dead ducks. I decided to stay at low level with the engines wide open in order to get out of Germany as soon as possible.

It must have been about 130 miles to the front line, which at that time was the Rhine River. We headed west, close " ground as possible. Occasionally we would get some light flak and I would shoot at anything that might look like it had some military value. We'd see people in the villages that we were flying over. We could see them running for shelter or jumping off their bikes and diving down on the street. I saw a building that could have been a sawmill or factory and fired at it. One of the package guns jammed in the "on" position and it continued to fire until it ran out of ammunition. We were over a large wooded area and just a few feet above the trees. In front of us I could see a large clearing, it must have been a large farm and the wooded area continued on the left. When we got to the clearing I dropped down lower to the ground. All of a sudden there was a lot of flak coming from the woods at the left. There were machine guns and light cannons. It was very intense. Throughout this whole clearing, which must have been a mile or mile and a half long, we were fired upon. They must have been waiting for us. There was a loud bang and the plane shuddered, the nose and left wing went up and I quickly leveled it. There were more woods in front of u", so I pulled up over the trees and the firing stopped. I still had the engines wide open.

After about 40 minutes or so, we finally got to the Rhine River, which like I said was the front line. Once over the river, I pulled up and climbed 3 or 4 thousand feet in order to try to find out where we were at. The bombardier-navigator checked some of the landmarks in the area by the river and determined where we were at and gave me a compass heading to get back to the base. I cut back on the throttle to cruising speed and headed for our base. Shortly after that the flight engineer said we were getting low on fuel and didn't think we had enough to get back home, which was about 150 miles away. We used a lot of fuel, of course, since we had the engines wide open for such a long time.

I called the emergency channel on the radio and told them we were low on fuel and didn't know if we could make it back to the base. I was directed to go to a P-47 fighter strip that was close to the front line. We found the strip and I called the tower for landing instructions. We made the approach, lowered the flaps and landing gear and on the final approach the tower called and said it didn't look like our landing gear was all the way down and not to land but to make a pass by the tower for a better look. I gave full throttle and pulled up and flew past the tower. The wheels didn't look like they were down, I was told. I circled around and the co-pilot pushed and pulled the landing gear lever. We made another pass by the tower and they thought it looked OK now.

Just in case the gear didn't hold up, I had the crew take the crash landing position and we circled around and got into the final approach. I touched down and the gear did not collapse. Of course, I was relieved and I pressed down on the brake pedals to put on the brakes and nothing happened. Both the co-pilot and I pumped the brake pedals and got very little brakes, very little indeed, and not enough to stop on the strip. We went down and off of the end of the runway. We went into the dirt and finally stopped in a small ditch.

We all got out of the plane and an ambulance, jeep, and a truck came down the runway towards us. I walked around the plane to see what damage there was. There was about a 4 inch hole in the left landing gear strut. I was surprised that the gear didn't collapse on landing. And there was about an 8 inch hole in the vertical fin. Beside that there were many, many flak holes. I quit counting after about 75 holes when the jeep pulled up and some of the base officers come to us. I dug out 2 pieces of flak shrapnel, which I still have among my souvenirs.

We stayed at the P-47 strip overnight and were driven back to the home base the next day. I learned later that an engine, a landing gear, and the hydraulic system had to be replaced before the plane was able to be returned to our home base. So that was "Flak Bait's" 175th mission and one mission I'll never forget.