487th Bomb Group (H)
Station 137 - Lavenham, Suffolk, UK
22-Sep-43 to 7-Nov-45

Lonnie Rogers - 836th Squadron

Lonnie Rogers was a gunner in the 836th squadron. These are notes from his missions.

Date Target Mission Notes
Tuesday, August 08, 1944 St. Sylvain Altitude:10,500 Flight time:6 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 100 lbs Ground support near Saint Sylvain, France- “British were supposed to put up a yellow smoke screen but they moved too fast and we got some of the British tanks. We were at 10,000 feet. There was a big hole in my plane above my head from flak. When we got back Hatfield said “I gotta take a nervous piss.” Crew 102 (pilot – Lloyd Reed)
Wednesday, August 09, 1944 Nuremberg Altitude:24,000 Flight time:8 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Nuremberg Ball Bearing works original target, (“Hit a wall of clouds and had to turn back. We were at 24,000 feet. Navigator said the clouds were from the ground up. We spent what seemed like 45 minutes with the Bombay doors open before we moved on.”) target of opportunity marshalling yard in St. Vith Belgium actually bombed. Crew 102 (pilot – Lloyd Reed)
Friday, August 18, 1944 Friday, August 18, 1944 St. Dizier Altitude:12,500 Flight time:8 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs St. Dizier Airfield, France. Crew 102 (pilot – Lloyd Reed)
Friday, August 25, 1944 Rechlin Altitude:20,800 Flight time:9 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Rechlin Experimental Airfield, Germany “Duffy fell asleep in the ball and scared the hell out of us. Rechlin was like our Wright-Patterson Airfield, a lot of experimental stuff going on. The weather was so bad that we dropped to 17’ above the water. The water was spraying on Duffy in the turret.” Crew 102 (pilot – Lloyd Reed)
Sunday, September 03, 1944 Brest Altitude:8,500 Flight time:6 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Tactical Targets, France “This was the first mission that the Germans used rockets instead of flak.” Crew 102 (pilot – Lloyd Reed)
Sunday, September 17, 1944 Schouwen Island Altitude:12,000 Flight time:5 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Flak gun emplacements, Holland “As we were flying out we saw the troop carriers C-46 pulling gliders with paratroopers.” Crew 102 (pilot – Lloyd Reed)
Monday, September 25, 1944 Ludwigshafen Altitude:26,000 Flight time:8 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Marshalling yards, Germany “Just remember that it was damned rough. I can’t remember the names of the crew I flew with, just remember they didn’t shave until they had to.”
Tuesday, September 26, 1944 Bremen Altitude:29,000 Flight time:7 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Motor factory, Germany “We saw ME262’s the German jets. They were so fast we couldn’t get a gun on them. My oxygen froze up, my hands froze to the plane, we were at 29,000 feet. I beat the shit out of that gauge and finally got it back at 50 pounds. We had two lines and had to swap over to the line by the left waist. Mission was to knock out submarine pens, don’t know if we accomplished it or not. We dropped our bombs but didn’t get a report. The pens were in concrete caves or something. I was still with the group that didn’t shave”
Wednesday, September 27, 1944 Ludwigshafen Altitude:26,000 Flight time:8 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Chemical plant, Germany
Wednesday, October 18, 1944 Kassel Altitude:25,400 Flight time:8:15 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Marshalling yards, Germany
Thursday, October 19, 1944 Mannheim Altitude:30,000 Flight time:7:10 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Motor transport works, Germany
Saturday, November 04, 1944 Neuenkirchen Altitude:25,000 Flight time:6:45 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Coking plant, Germany
Thursday, November 09, 1944 Saarbrucken Altitude:23,400 Flight time:6:30 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Fort at Thionville, France and Marshalling yards, Saarbrucken, Germany
Saturday, November 11, 1944 Oberlahnstein (Coblenz) Altitude:25,000 Flight time:6:30 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Marshalling yards, Germany
Thursday, November 16, 1944 Langerwehe Altitude: Flight time: hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Troop concentration, Duren area, Germany
Tuesday, November 21, 1944 (recalled) Altitude:28,000 Flight time:8 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Target was to be oil refinery, Merseburg, Germany “Recalled due to bad weather, then we went.”
Saturday, November 25, 1944 Merseburg Altitude:29,000 Flight time:8:30 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Oil refinery, Germany “We went there 4 times. We couldn’t knock it out. The flak was always so thick over Merseburg it looked like you could get out of the plane and walk on it.”
Thursday, November 30, 1944 Merseburg Altitude:27,000 Flight time:8:30 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Oil refinery, Germany
Saturday, December 02, 1944 Cobbling Altitude:24,000 Flight time:6:30 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Marshalling yards at Cobbling, Germany (mission recalled near I.P.) “That made us awful mad to get to the I.P. and be recalled”
Monday, December 04, 1944 Mainz Altitude:24,000 Flight time:7:10 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Marshalling yards, Germany
Wednesday, December 06, 1944 Merseburg Altitude:25,000 Flight time:8 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Oil refinery, Germany – “I saw the plane on right wing disintegrate. There was nothing left, not even a fingernail sized piece. They were just gone, never had a chance. I saw a lot of stuff, but that hit me hard. (They {Germans} had 2000 flak guns – that’s the report we got) Even at 30,000 feet we weren’t safe from the flak. They were showing off that they could get us. I was so sick of Merseberg, I told them during briefing that we’d hit that sucker with the wheels down. You could’ve heard a pin drop. I didn’t fly again until February.”
Wednesday, February 14, 1945 Dulmen (Bentheim) Altitude:25,000 Flight time:6 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Oil storage depot (Tony Bamberg was the pilot). #3 engine caught fire twice in 5 minutes. We changed planes and ended up “tail end Charlie. This was Bamberg’s first mission and the only time I flew with him.”
Friday, February 16, 1945 Hamm Altitude:22,000 Flight time:5:30 hrs Position: Tail gunner Bombs – 1000 lbs Marshalling yards, Germany
Tuesday, February 20, 1945 Nuremburg Altitude:24,000 Flight time:10:30 hrs Position: Left Waist Gunner Bombs – 500 lbs Railroad station “We usually banked off to the left, but that time we banked off to the right. Don’t know why the air leader did that but it took us right back over the town. I could see flak all over. I said “My God, how are we going to get through this?” Steck kept saying the plane wasn’t flying right and had us check everything we could. We couldn’t find anything. Then Steck said “Navigator, find us a place to land.” I remember the Navigator said “Find a place to land?!?! Why?” Steck said “We’re out of gas.” The clouds were so thick that we couldn’t see through them. I saw a hole that looked about this big (5”) and said “There’s a hole at 10:00 low.” Then the Navigator saw it and we went through it. We landed in a little town called Merville, France. We were there for 3 days and someone said we were listed as MIA but I don’t think we were officially declared MIA. Our right aileron was cut in half just like with a pair of scissors. I counted 124 holes in the plane, we were all shot up. Steck told the Engineer to fix it and the Engineer said “I can’t fix this!” Steck told him “This is my plane and I’m not going back without it.” Harold D. Steck was the pilot. I flew 9 missions with him, he was one hell of a fine pilot.”
Wednesday, February 28, 1945 Kassel Altitude:24,000 Flight time:7:30 hrs Position: Bombardier Bombs – 500 lbs Marshalling yards - Steck was the pilot.
Thursday, March 01, 1945 Ulm Altitude:22,000 Flight time:8 hrs Position: Bombardier Bombs – 500 lbs Marshalling yards - Steck was the pilot.
Friday, March 02, 1945 Dresden Altitude:20,000 Flight time:9:30 hrs Position: Bombardier Bombs – 500 lbs Traffic center – “Whole town was destroyed, it was a scare tactic. We usually went after a single target not a whole town.” Steck was the pilot
Wednesday, March 07, 1945 Castrop-Rauxel (Dortmund) Altitude:24,000 Flight time:7:30 hrs Position: Bombardier Bombs – 500 lbs Oil refinery at Catrop-Rauxel and Marshalling yards at Siegen - Steck was the pilot.
Thursday, March 08, 1945 Frankfurt (Giessen) Altitude:25,000 Flight time:7:30 hrs Position: Bombardier Bombs – 500 lbs Jet engine factory at Frankfurt and Marshalling yards at Giessen - Steck was the pilot.
Wednesday, March 14, 1945 Hannover Altitude:23,300 Flight time:7:30 hrs Position: Bombardier Bombs – 500 lbs Tank factory – Steck was the pilot.
Thursday, March 15, 1945 Oraienburg (Berlin) Altitude:22,000 Flight time:7:30 hrs Position: Bombardier Bombs – 500 lbs Marshalling yards – “50 miles northwest of Berlin on our way back home a 4 battery gun opened on us, knocked 2 of our planes down. We were almost hit by one of our own planes trying make evasive action. We were told not to bring our bombs back. They told us that if we had a problem to put the plane on a 270° heading and bail out. These were delayed bombs, set to go off every half hour. If it hadn’t been for Steck we’d all be dead.”
Saturday, March 17, 1945 Ruhland Altitude:26,000 Flight time:11:30 hrs Position: Bombardier Oil refinery – Steck was the pilot on this one. I told him that Nuremburg was going to happen again. He said “Oh, we’ll make it back” We ran out of gas again, and landed in the hills Liege (Belgium) occupied by the British who got us 1000 gallons of gas to get back. I remember it like it was yesterday. The Brits said “I say Yank, what’s your trouble?” They brought us high test, don’t know where they found it and didn’t care. They brought us back some food too. On our way back we were flying over the North Sea. We were a “lone duck” and the Brits tried to shoot us down. We did everything that a lone duck was supposed to do, and they still shot at us.


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