Radio Silence and Death over Frankfort

The mission was far into Germany at the very limit of our fuel reserves. I
don't remember the target but I never will forget the return flight. B-26's
carry bombardier navigators. Each one in the formation plots the flight as
though he was flying lead. After we hit the target we turned toward home. As I
was plotting our course my plot looked as though the lead was taking us right
over Frankfort. Impossible, Frankfort was defended by 600 guns, I must have
made a mistake in my plot. I did it over and over. No mistake. We were headed
right for Frankfort and the 600 guns. .Yet no one broke radio silence Suddenly
the sky filled with violent accurate flak. We lost two planes that day over
Frankfort 12 aircrew dead because of navigational carelessness. When we landed
we all talked about the error. It seems everyone knew where we were except for
the lead navigator. We paid a high price for maintaining iron discipline in
radio silence. One more point, We never saw that navigator again.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer