May 19th, 1944 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
The USAAF's Eighth Air Force in England flies Mission 358: 888 bombers and 700 fighters in two forces are dispatched to hit targets in Germany; very heavy cloud cover forces the bombers to use H2X PFF methods; Luftwaffe resistance is heavy and 28 bombers and 19 fighters are lost; U.S. fighters claim 77-0-33 Luftwaffe aircraft:
- 588 B-17s are dispatched to Berlin; 495 hit the primary, 49 hit the port area at Kiel and one hits a target of opportunity; 16 B-17s are lost.
Dick Johnson remembers his second combat mission:
Mission Memory: My first mission on May 15 was a true "Milk Run," no more dangerous than delivering milk. Today, May 15 is my second mission and the target is to be BERLIN. No milk run today!
I rejoined my pilot, "Bud" Beiser who had flown the May 19 mission with an experienced pilot just as I had done. This is SOP in most groups in order to teach the new guys all the tricks to getting in position in a large group.
Each B-17 from our group (303rd Bomb Group, Hells Angels) was loaded with 2,700 gallons of gasoline and 12, 500 pound bombs. Kiel was to be our secondary target in case Berlin was socked in. Our escort was P-38s and the older P-51s and they kept us pretty clear of German fighters. But with not enough range to go to Berlin they all dropped off just past Hamburg. However, we never saw enemy planes, but the flak was unbelievable. It was like a solid black line that we had to fly through. One of our planes (Lt. E.L. Roth in "Sky Duster") in the number 3 position received a direct burst just after bombs away at 26,000 ft. We counted five parachutes from the stricken plane.
We were in position number 5 and our plane was forced out of position by about a hundred feet which put us directly behind the lead plane of the group and when he released his bombs we flew directly through his marker smoke which ruined all the plexiglass. Maybe it was a MILK RUN after all since all the plexiglass was like milk. It made it difficult to fly the plane when we had to look mostly out the side window glass. We got a few flak holes but were listed as major damage due to the ruined plexiglass. Only four of nineteen planes of our group escaped damage of some sort.
We had to fly home in formation very carefully as visibility was very limited.
He was forced off his marker because we were flying off our lead and he was flying too close behind his leader.
And since we were off his wing it put us directly behind the Wing leader who was about a thousand feet ahead of us and 500 feet above us.
The lead plane of every wing carried sky markers so that the following formations could see the target area. Many observers have thought that those were rocket trails that the Germans were firing at us and when, after 24 missions as copilot, I went to pilot in command I took new crews on their first mission the same way Beiser and I had done. Nearly always a crew member would shout on the innercom 'They're shooting rockets at us' which I had to correct.
(Dick Johnson, Old Fort Driver)
- 300 B-24s are dispatched to the industrial area at Brunswick; 272 hit the primary and one bombs a target of opportunity; 12 B-24s are lost.
Escort is provided by 155 P-38 Lightnings, 182 P-47 Thunderbolts and 363 P-51 Mustangs of the Eighth Air Force and 264 Ninth Air Force aircraft; the P-38s claim 0-0-2 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 1-0-0 on the ground, the P-47s claim 29-0-16 in the air and 2-0-0 on the ground and the P-51s claim 41-0-5 in the air and 4-0-10 on the ground; 4 P-38s, 4 P-47s and 11 P-51s are lost.
GERMANY: Stalag Luft III: In one of the worst atrocities of the war involving PoWs, the Gestapo has shot 50 Allied airmen who were recaptured after escaping from a prison camp near Sagan, in Silesia, in March. The killings were without doubt carried out on Hitler's orders. Told of the escape of 79 PoWs, the Fuhrer screamed abuse at Himmler - the head of the Gestapo - and made him personally responsible for their recapture.
Only three of the PoWs - two Norwegians and a Dutchman - have reached England; they got to Stettin, on the river Oder, and got on a ship to Sweden. Others got as far as Saarbrucken, near the French border, before being retaken. All were handed over to the Gestapo instead of the to the Luftwaffe as required by the Geneva Convention. The killings took place at Gorlitz prison, near Dresden.
Twenty men were sent back to Stalag Luft III, where they told fellow PoWs of the killings. The Germans have warned the PoWs that all areas within several miles of camps are now "death zones"; anybody entering these areas without authority will be shot on sight.
One man still in the camp is the Canadian pilot Wally Moody, the mining engineer who applied his skills to design the escape tunnel; the alarm was sounded before his turn came to use the tunnel.
U-2328 laid down.
BALTIC SEA: On this day U-1014 rammed U-1015 west of Pillau, sinking her with the loss of 36 men (14 survived).
ITALY: US troops occupy Gaeta and Monte Grande.
The USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force in Italy dispatches 500+ B-17s and B-24s to hit communications targets, ports, and oil storage in northeastern, central and western Italy; B-17s hit oil storage facilities at Porto Marghera and railroad bridges at Casarea, Latisana and Rimini; B-24s hit port areas at La Spezia and Leghorn; fighters fly 250+ sorties in support. These operations are notable for the absence of enemy fighter opposition.
At the Turchino Pass outside Genoa the SS shoot 59 Italian captives from the Marassi Prison in Genoa in revenge for an attack on a movie theatre for German troops four days earlier that killed five German soldiers and injured 15. One of those present is senior Nazi official SS Major Friedrich Engel. He claims the German navy ordered the shootings.
The prisoners were bound in pairs and forced to walk onto a plant laid over the open grave, where they were shot. The victims then fell into the pit, on top of he freshly killed bodies. (Lisa Arns AP)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-960 sunk in the Mediterranean NW of Algiers, in position 37.20N, 01.35E, by destroyers USS Niblack and Ludlow and RAF 36 and 500 Sqn Wellingtons. 31 dead and 20 survivors.
At 1755, the Fort Missanabie in Convoy HA-43, was torpedoed and sunk by U-453 south of Taranto. The master, ten crewmembers and one gunner were lost. 35 crewmembers and 13 gunners were picked up by the Norwegian merchantman Spero and Italian corvette Urania and landed at Augusta, Sicily. The Fort Missanabie was the last success of U-boats in the Mediterranean.
BURMA: Pte. Clifford Elwood, of
High Street, Nantyfyllon, Bridgend, Glamorganshire, and Bugler Robert Hunt, of
King Street, Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, both stretcher-bearers, were
returning to their lines on the Arakan front with a casualty when they heard a
rustling in the bushes and the click of a rifle-bolt.
Out into their path stepped a 6ft. Japanese with his rifle at the ready. He
looked straight at the two men and the third man they carried on the stretcher,
and then without a word or gesture dropped the muzzle of his rifle and stepped
back into the jungle.
London Evening Mail
PACIFIC OCEAN: Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery's Task Group 58.6, consisting of the aircraft carriers USS Essex (CV-9), with Carrier Air Group Fifteen (CVG-15), and USS Wasp (CV-18), with CVG-14, attack Marcus Island in the North Pacific. The new light aircraft carrier USS Jacinto (CVL-30), with Light Carrier Air Group 51 (CVLG-51), is detached to the north to screen for the rest of the force. Two of the purposes of the raid are to test new target-briefing procedures and also determine the effect of high-velocity attack rockets (HVARs) on ground targets.The Japanese establish a line of submarines in the South Pacific (Operation "NA") to intercept USN aircraft carriers however, the USN has deduced the purpose and location of these subs based on radio traffic analysis. On 18 May 1944, the destroyer escort USS England (DE-635, Lt. Commander Walton B. Pendleton) got underway with two other destroyers and during the next eight days, she sinks five of the submarines, starting with HIJMS I-16 (Lt. Commander Yoshitaka Takeuchi) today. (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)
CANADA: HMC MTB 746 commissioned.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-172 was commissioned. She was assigned to the Southwest Pacific area and sunk two miles off Mugil Point on Cape Croisilles, New Guinea.
U.S.A.: The Undersecretary of the Navy, James V. Forrestal, becomes the Secretary of the Navy.
Submarine USS Spot launched.
Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-175 was commissioned. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area.