official 323rd Bomb Group, 456th Bomb Squad combat mission/ forget number #316 was flown on the afternoon of 02-25-45 and lasted 2:40 hours. 33 Martin B26 Marauders of the 323rd Bombardment Group, 456th Bomb Squadron, 3 window aircraft and one pathfinder, went up at 14,500 feet. Group leader Meonch & McGowen. Harwood's plane, Martin B26 Marauder, 42-96212 WT-Q (Patty's Pig or Patty’s Pie?) dropped 8 500lbs bombs on the road junction in Horren, Germany. Crew: Theodore V. Harwood (P) 2nd/1st LtThomas 0. Harves (CP) 2nd/1st Lt Manual Duran S/Sgt, Howard D. Shelton (R) Sgt Richard P. Bailey ( ) T/Sgt John H Stewart (TG ) Sgt Base of operations; Denain/Prouvy, France. According toMeonch" on mission #316, Casualties were added to the group on Sunday the 25th in an attack on Horren Road Junction. 1st Lt Holmes was flying one of the window aircraft, was shot down by the guns at Cologne.1st Lt Brown received a direct hit in his left engine and his aircraft was seen to spin into the ground. No parachutes were seen to emerge from either aircraft Two other were wounded.
Mission 28
Mission 28
official 323rd Bomb Group, 456th Bomb Squad combat mission/ target number #317, was flown on the afternoon of 02-28-45 and lasted 2:55 hours. 32 Martin B26 Marauders of the 323rd Bombardment Group, 456th Bomb Squadron, 3 window aircrafts and 1 pathfinder, went up at 12,300 feet . Group leader: Rehr & Pulver. Harwood's plane, Martin B26 Marauder, 41-34033 WT-A (Ole 33, Gal, ( Improper name: Dale Rush Death, Dale Rush was Killed in this plane), dropped 2 2,000lbs bombs on the Uluyn junction, the secondary target, in Rheinburg,Germany. Crew: Theodore V. Harwood (P) 2nd/1st Lt. Thomas 0. Harves (CP) 2nd/1st Lt, Manual Duran S/Sgt, Anthony B. Caezza (R) S/ Sgt, Richard P. Bailey ( ) T/Sgt, John H Stewart (TG) Sgt Base ofoperations; Denain/Prouvy, France. According to Meonch , Maj. Rehr and 1st Lt Pulver led an attck on Uluyn Road Junction. Because of extremely bad weather, none of the aircraft succeeded in bombing the primary forget although 13 aircraft did drop bombs on the secondary.
Lt Col. Rehr recalls how this Martin B26 Marauder, 41-34033 WT-A (Ole 33, Gal, Dale Rush Death), flew its’ last mission with a pilot named Searies. "Flak blew off the nose of this plane, but he managed to fly the crippled bomber another 100 miles west of Koblenz before exhausting all of the fuel in his main tank and auxiliary tanks. Every one in his crew bailed out safely" The Marauder lost was one of Rehr's favorites, Ole 33 Gal, "She was one of the older, faster models, the ones manufactured before the made changes to the wing to shorten take off and landing runs. We'd flown a lot of missions together, even had a picture of my crew taken with her. Ole 33 was the Marauder Dale Rush was killed in.
(Recent letter on this topic): Date: 11/4/2002 Time: 8:03:37 PM (B.26.Com)
I am trying to verify some information that was passed to me from my Uncle (deceased). His name is Arthur E. Briggs and was a navigator on B-26's. In recent e-mails with Ted and Ray Harwood, they seem to confirm that Art is indeed the 'navigator' as seen in the 'the crew' pictures and the 'bombardier?' as seen in 'the people 'pictures of your web sight. Do you confirm this too? Also, my uncle gave my dad a picture of 3 b-26's with flak all around them and he told my dad that he was the navigator on the flight and a friend died on that mission. Also, he gave my dad a picture through a bombsight of the port of Dieppe. The flight of 3 B-26's picture is also found on the b26 tail gunner web site, page 3, 9th picture down. The Harwoods told me that it is a 456th plane the "Ole 33" (Is this the whole name, I’ve seen reference to 'Ole 33 and Gal'?), the mission date was June 20, 1944, the mission was over Dieppe, the bombardier was Dale Rush and he died and the tail gunner named S/Sgt Johnnie McClelland also died. DO you have record of the navigator on board the lead plane in the picture? Or who the pilot may be? I have other questions, but am hopeful to hear from you soon on these. Thank you Jeff Briggs
Jeff,
The records for both missions on June 20 1944 are missing so I cannot confirm the full crew make up of 1.Lt Paul E Warf's (pilot) B26. I can confirm that the bombardier Lt Rush was killed and that S/Sgt Johnnie V. McClelland died later of his wounds. The name of the B26 was "Ole 33" and "Gal”. Trevor Allen Historian www.B26.com
Mission 29:
Mission 30
Mission 31
Mission 32 Mission 32
This plane used Harwood's on Mission numbers: 868 ??
Mission 33 Mission 33
Mission 34
Missions 35
Mission 36
Mission 37
HARWOOD'S Mission 37, official 323rd Bomb Group, 456th Bomb Squad
combat mission/ target number # 364, 364 was flown on the afternoon
of 4-08-45 and lasted 3:45 hours. 52 ships went up at 11,300 feet. Harwood's plane,
Martin B26 Marauder; 41-34967 WT-R ( Hell's Belle), dropped 8 500l b.
bombs on the Nienhagen Oil Refinery at Hanover, Germany. official
323rd Bomb Group, 456th Bomb Squad target name Nienhagen Oil
Refinery. Visual attack. Mission leaders: Helper, Van Ausdale & Snap.
According to post war accounts by Major General John O. Moench,
because of recent heavy losses the attack on the Nienhagen Oil Refinery at Hanover,
Germany was made in concert with the 387th, 394th and 397th Bomb
Groups and was classified as highly successful: one large storage tank was destroyed, eight buildings destroyed, three smaller storage tanks
left burning and severe damage to three other buildings. Smoke at the target was so dense
that several formations had to make repeated bomb runs to achieve the
desired results. On this date two aircraft were lost and 44 sustained damage,
6 air crewmen were lost from the 323rd and four men were wounded.
According to Moench, the names of the MIA and WIA have not been located in the
historical record but according to post war accounts Harwood and his
crew were on the MIA list until recovered, and the official log of this
mission may be in error. Crew: Theodore V. Harwood (P) 2nd/1st Lt.,
Eugene T. Muszynski (CP) 2nd/1st Lt., Anthony B. Caezza (NB) S/SGT., James N.
Night (?) T/Sgt., George W. Boyd (RG) S/Sgt., Raymond Deboer (TG)
S/Sgt. Base of operations; Denain/Prouvy, France. The following
is a detailed post war account by 1st. LT. Theodore V. Harwood: It
was our 37th mission, April 8th, 1945, in the afternoon. Fifty two B-26
marauders of the 232rd Bomb Group, 456 Bomb Squad, took off toward
our target in Hanover, Germany where we were to drop our bomb load on the Niemhagen
oil refinery. We were still under evasive flight Pattering just about
to the "I.P." when our tail gunner, Anthony B. Caezza S/SGT., called "Flak
at six o'clock". Just then, the thunderous roar of flak, like a hail
storm on a tin roof and the sound of tearing metal. The engineer came up. He was
covered with hydraulic fluid. The flak had severed the hydraulic
height pressure main hose. Flak also penetrated the ammo on the package gun in the
bombardier's compartment where the ammo storage was. The radio man
came up. His chest mount parachutes had been shredded by Flak (pilots had back
mount parachutes). The main fuel cell on the left inner wing was
punctured, spewing fuel all over the exterior panels of the plane and into the
sky. I broke out of formation and turned back toward base. We thought
about bailingout but with one parachute short, we all decided to go down with the
ship. At that point, the flight engineer cranked open the bomb bay
doors by hand.
We had no hydraulic power at all. We manually jettisoned the bombs
and flew on. We came in sight of a secondary field and went in for a
landing.
With no hydraulic pressure the main gear would not lock down. We came
into the landing strip, touched down, and violently skidded to a
stop. The
crew got out so fast that I didn't even know they had 'exited the
craft and they exited right over my body! When I realized I was
alone, I quickly got
out. That night we spent sleeping on the ground beneath the wing of
the disabled B-26 that had brought us safely to earth. The crew
camped under the
protective wing of Hell's Belle until they were rescued by ground
troops.
MEAONCH RECORDING OF HARWOOD the only other thing I say that may be
of interest on my 37th mission to Hanover, Germany, we were bombing a fuel dump and I was in ship 967, this was on April 8th, 45, we has eight 500 pound bombs and ah going into the initial point to the bomb release point I was hit with flak on my main fuel cell left between the Nacelle and the pilots compartment -we got a big rupture in the
main fuel cell and the ah hydraulic system out, our electrical system was out and
the ah engineer went and automatically cranked open the bomb doors
triggered out the ah bombs -cranked the bomb bay doors shut -started transferring
fuel from the outer wings to the inner tank and we kept the engines
running and Called to Johnny Kuzwara who was the flight leading bombardier/
navigator on that mission and he gave me a heading to the alternate
field which was a Spit-Fire base just behind the bomb line and ah- we proceed there -
crash landed. The wheels went down but they wouldn't lock cause
there was no hydraulic pressure, but our crew managed to get down and we lost no
one -had no injuries on that flight, they picked us up the next day
in a B26 and went back to our base and they ah- loaded me on another mission on
April 10th so they didn't give me time to think about it, but that
was our only other real thrill as far as ah close calls.
Mission 38, official 323rd Bomb Group, 456th Bomb Squad combat
mission/ target number #367 was flown on the afternoon of 4-10-45
and lasted 4:40 hours. 40 ships went up at 11,300 feet. Harwood's plane, Martin
B26 Marauder; 41-31708 (The Gremblin II), dropped 4 1000lbs bombs on
the railroad yard ( Triptis Marshalling yards) at Triptis, Germany.
Damage to the latter included 35 wagons, rail tracks cut, factorys
damaged severely, goods depot destroyed as well as the engine shed and train station.
Gen. Moench states that due to heavy smoke at Triptis a second target
at Posnech (communications center) was also hit by the 323rd Marauders. Crew:
Theodore V. Harwood (P) 2nd/1st Lt., Eugene T. Muszynski (CP) 2nd/1st
Lt., Anthony B. Caezza (NB) S/SGT., James N. Night (?) T/Sgt., George W.
Boyd (RG) S/Sgt., Raymond Deboer (TG) S/Sgt. Base of operations;
Denain/Prouvy, France
MARTIN B26 MARAUDERS OF THE 323RD BOMBARDMENT GROUP. 456 BOMB SQUADRON, MISSION JOURNAL BY 1ST LT. T.V. HARWOOD :
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1ST CREW:
Harwood (CP) 2nd/1st Lt.John W. Kuczwara (Nav) 2nd/1ST Lt.John W. Kuczwara . (P) 2nd
Lt/1st Lt.Jack A. Reynolds (TG) Cpl./S/Sgt.John H. Knight ( E ) Cpl/SgtVelton J. O’Neal Jr. (
RG ) Sgt T/Sgt..
2ND CREW;
Theodore V. Harwood (P) 2nd/1st Lt.Thomas O. Harves (CP) 2nd/1st Lt.Duran (John or Manual
J ?), Alan Hammel (Aaron) S/Sgt, Richard P. Baily ( ) T/Sgt, John H Stewart ( TG ) Sgt
3rd: Crew:
Theodore V. Harwood (P) 2nd/1st Lt., Eugene T. Muszynski (CP) 2nd/1st Lt., Anthony B.
Caezza (NB) S/SGT., James N. Night (?) T/Sgt., George W. Boyd (RG) S/Sgt., Raymond
Deboer (TG) S/Sgt.
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