| Ijmuiden Mission |
| Original Source | PIMA ID | Donor ID | Category |
| Morris B. Klein | NA | PA.512-OCR | G-DA-OCR |
| The following is as an OCR scan which probably has some of the usual OCR 'typos' remaining.. |
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Morris B. Klein
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Mission to Ijmuiden One of the most outstanding examples of airmanship by men of the 556th occurred on March 26, 1944, when Glenn Grau and crew led an attack on the B-Boat Pens at Ijmuiden, Holland. Their aircraft, "Top Barge" was severely damaged by flak bursts, while they were over the target and it was only by the combined efforts of surviving crew members that they were able to return to England and crash land at an RAF base at Leiston. |
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Glenn Grau and "Mo" Klein at Station 162 {Chipping Ongar}
probably in early 1944 |
A previous mission to the Ijmuiden area was flown on May 17, 1943. It was a low level attack flown by eleven Marauders from the 322nd Group, while they were still part of the Eighth Air Force. One aircraft aborted 33 miles from the Dutch coast and the other ten were subsequently shot down, resulting in a 100% loss ratio. On March 26, 1944, I was given the ominous task of being the Lead "G Box" Navigator, responsible for pin pointing this important target. This mission was to be a maximum effort by all B-26 Groups and I was in the first aircraft. The Germans were defending this vital base with every anti-aircraft cannon available plus many flak barges anchored offshore to further add to the hundreds of guns around the target. Our flight plan was to approach straight in at mid-altitude of the formation, which put us at 12,500 feet. It was a clear sunny day and we could see the targeted area from a long distance out, but so could the Germans line up on us. With no evasive action, I gave Major Grau the straight in heading according to the "G Box" line of flight position which I carefully plotted. In this lead airplane, we carried two navigators, 2nd Lt. William V. McBride (now 4 Star General), was to perform pilotage navigation. We also carried 1st. Lt. Dillonair, who was a flight leader, in the tail gunners position to report to Major Grau the position of the huge formation behind us. There was enough fighter protection to ensure that the Luftwaffe would not interfere, but, OH GOD, what a tremendous box barrage was there for us to fly right into. Our bombardier, Lt. Carl Cooper (I believe from the Atlanta area) turned on his bomb sight to take control of the airplane's course by giving the course corrections in degrees over the intercom to the pilot. Here is where the courage of a pilot is really tested. as the bombardier, looking down through his bombsight sees only the ground target immediately ahead. But his verbal corrections to the pilot may take all of us into the most intense flak barrages and this demands the utmost in strength of spirit and determination that a human being is capable of. Just before bombs away, we were hit heavily in the front, but the armor plate saved both pilots - Grau and Lt. Richard Abrams, co-pilot, from injury. Then BOMBS AWAY!, and we were blasted by a direct hit in the rear of the right engine nacelle by an exploding 88 AA shell. This explosion was only six feet away from where I was sitting on the right side of the fuselage operating the "G Box". The force of the explosion knocked out our electrical system, destroyed the hydraulic system, shredded the nacelle, tore off ten feet of the trailing edge of the wing and made more than 300 holes in the fuselage. I was stunned, but not bleeding. The entire fuselage compartment was a shambles, the plane was shuddering and shaking. The right propeller could not be feathered, the engine was finished, and the prop was just windmilling and dragging the B-26 into a right spiral. The two pilots used all of their strength to maintain a semblance of control. With no intercom system, I went up front, saw the struggle going on, and gave encouragement to Grau, Abrams, and McBride, then went back through the bomb bays to the aft compartment to the tail. I called and tried to move Dillionair. I took off his oxygen mask and it was obvious that he was dead. He never knew what hit him. Next I went to Sgt. Olgilvie who was a mass of blood and lying on the floor. It was obvious that our waist gunner was also dead. Sgt. Schenk had been blown out of his top turret and was badly wounded, the blood was gushing out of his right sleeve, so I cut the sleeve open. A piece of flak had taken out his right elbow, and the arm was hanging by what little flesh was left. I immediately applied a tourniquet on his upper arm, slowed the blood flow, then bent and strapped his arm with a parachute cord to his body. He was moaning and in great pain, so I gave him an injection of morphine out of a first aid kit. His leg was also hit, but the holes were small and there was not too ranch blood, so I just put some gauze packing on this wound. Now the plane was really vibrating and Lt. Cooper came out of the bombardier position, handed me a parachute and said "Get ready." I went up front and where Grau told me the plane was stalling at 180 MPH indicated. (The air speed indicator is not electrical so that was still functional. He complained about no right ruder control so Cooper pounded the skin of the airplane out with whatever was available. I looked up and saw a cable hanging that had been cut in two. Looking around, believe it or not, I found a cable splice. Never in my Air Force career had I seen a splice or been informed of its use. That was our flight engineers job. But in this other moment of peril, I was the one who spliced that rudder cable. By this time Grau had damaged his left leg tendons trying to maintain control, so the cable repair was in the nick of time. I told Grau about Schenck, and that he could not bail out. Out total flight over the North Sea was 130 miles, and I asked Grau to try to make an emergency airport near the coast of England. Then I went back and Cooper and I threw everything overboard that we could tear loose. There was land ahead!! So close, but we were so low and still falling. That left engine was at 100% full throttle and seemed to be on our side. With 1FF not working, I started to shoot colors of the day flares out of the top flare tube to notify the British that we were friendly. I must have shot about 10 flares when Grau yelled "we are going to Crash! !" We hit the ground, wheels up, at 180 MPH. The dirt fell into the cabin, I was thrown into the front bulkhead under the navigators desk and stunned again, but, as soon as the plane stopped skidding on the dirt, I jumped out of the top navigators celestial bubble, rolled over the fuselage and hit the ground hard! - and then went back into the plane in the open waist gunners position after I saw that the plane was not on fire. I pasted the empty morphine tube and injector to Sgt. Schenk' s forehead, to make sure that he got no more, because I had given him the whole tube. We crashed on an English airfield only a few hundred feet from waters edge. The emergency personnel mm to the crashed B-26, took Sgt. Schenk, and the to dead men out, and took the rest of the crew to the hospital. Grau could not walk, Abrams was not in much better shape. Here I refused to go to the hospital - why? On February 5, 1944 I had been hit by a piece of flak in the leg, received a purple heart and did not want my mother to get another telegram saying I had been wounded. I felt like I had been hit by a truck then, and was sorer the next day, and worse the third, but by the end of the week, I was ready to fly again. Morris Klein |