My Grandpa Nearly Bombed the Ludendorff Bridge in WW2

2 points by BenMorganIO 6 years ago | 2 comments

Hey guys,

Last week I was at my grandfather's funeral and learned that during a bombing run as a tail gunner, his team failed to hit a target in Nazi Germany. The bombs were using up too much fuel due their weight and they needed to be dropped.

They came across a bridge and decided it would be a good spot to dump their bombs. They missed; again. That bridge was Ludendorff Bridge and was later critical during the Battle of Remagen.

Although this is talked about with quite some humor, I believe this is a serious footnote to the history of the Battle of Remagen and more importantly, the Ludendorff Bridge. To whom would I contact to help get this in the history books or at least cemented enough to earn a small Wikipedia reference?

NeedMoreTea 6 years ago |

RAF museum in Hendon has extensive archives, and holds a fair selection of squadron records, though mainly maintenance and base records I think, and a huge archive of photos and other papers. The National Archives holds most squadron operational records -- nearly all survived, so it should be relatively easy to check, and potentially get confirmation.

If you have his log book, a drop would be recorded by pilot and bomb aimer, but I'm not sure if that would be required for a gunner. Failing that if anyone in the family remembers their squadron # or plane's code (RAF were 3 letters -- 2 letter squadron code and 1 letter aircraft ID, so easy to remember and they'd usually fly the same plane each time), or has any bits with his service number, either will help narrow down an archive search and correlate with records.

The RAF museum have had several projects gathering anecdotes, and adding personal details to their formal archives, and an extensive research section.

I'm sure there's equivalents for the USAF, maybe through their museum in Dayton, OH? I'm sure both RAF and USAF museums are used to dealing with history enquiries and may be able to point you at other resources that may help.

ggm 6 years ago |

Contact his squadron/flight history people, which the USAAF history project (or the RAF equivalent) should be able to identify and confirm from notes in their holdings.

All flight crew had to detail things like this, because failure to drop bombs could mean not completing your "mission" which meant you were one less towards being rotated out of active duty. Therefore the records where pretty remorseless

(on drop, bombs caused a semi-automatic camera to fire and record where they were)

https://www.afhra.af.mil/

https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/