European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 9, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse They hit upon their method by a Lucky but the members of this Burma bomber have a record of 114 targets destroyed and 51 More y this is what the Daga River Railroad Bridge looked like before the Bridge busters went after by Dave Richardson yank staff correspondent a a medium bomber base in Northern Burma b25 with the Skull and wings painted on its sides banked sharply to get around the last of the mountains and then roared toward its a thousand feet above a Bell shaped Pagoda that glistened in the Noonday directly sprawled across the Green Plain at an Elbow of the Blue ribbon that was their Rawady River five Miles were rows of City blocks and clusters of theres said someone Over the somehow the Mattero fact Way he said it didst fit the fabulous City of killings thumping the largest City in Central but this bombers Crew want interested in and for All its history and in want the target the b25 be longed to one of the most specialized bombard ment squadrons in the Burma Bridge who operate on the principle that destroying a Bridge will do More to beat the japs in Burma than bombing an enemy today i was Riding along with them to learn How they do and the plane banked until the City was then it nosed into a thundering 300mile per hour Power the bomb Bay doors rum bled suddenly twin Banks of machine guns began to Clatter along both sides of the their tracers darting into the Trees and the open ground tripping the triggers of the nose i added to the fire by spraying possible Tackack the whole ship shivered in then through a break in the foliage we spotted the it was a Road Bridge about 100 feet spanning a narrow River and mounted on two Concrete no sooner did we spot it than a puff of White flak blossomed dead almost directly Over crouched beside me in the 2d Bloodworth of the yelled Hope that the last burst in that Well be there in about 10 the plane levelled out and we quit from his Cabin just behind the 1st John Reynolds of the kept his Eye close to the machine gun reflector sight that he bombs with and made final adjust ments of the planes the bomber jolted bombs were just As the plane raced Over the we noticed a Railroad Bridge what had been a Railroad Bridge but was now nothing but a half submerged mass of twisted on the tracks near it were a dozen empty freight we knocked out the Railroad Bridge eight Days Bloodworth shouted in my its on the Only rail line from Mandalay to the japs in Northern the bomber flipped into a Steep climbing turn to get away from some Tackack ahead As the bomb Bay doors rumbled almost simultaneously our delayed action bombs exploded kicking the ship a solid Boot in the Tail gunner to Tail gunner to crackled the our bombs missed the landed Short and to the it sure As hell looks like the leaning Tower of Pisa banking we caught a glimpse of the next b25 making its bomb run through the Blue Gray smoke of our we passed another of the squadrons target bound ships on our Way by the time we one of the bomb ers had radioed the Field of a direct that explained the Squadron Intelli gence that weve Cut the Only Railroad and the Only Good motor Road to the japs North of of course they will float and hand carry supplies across the River to trucks on the other Side until they can build new Bridges but that a slow As soon As they build a new Well Knock that by doing the same kind of precision bombing week after week against enemy Supply routes All Over the Bridge busters have destroyed 114 Bridges and damaged 51 beyond use in less than a record which is probably unequalled in the entire army air strangely what got the Bridge busters started on this record making rampage was a Mission that and stranger the Type of bombing i had just the Type they have used in wiping out most of their hit upon purely by Al though it has now become As Standard a tech Nique As diver up until a year the Bridge busters were just another Runof Hemill medium bombardment activated in december 1942 As the 490th Squadron of the tenth air Force in for 10 solid months they pulled the usual routine missions against such targets As Jap Supply ships and occasionally the Crews had always dreaded Bridge targets most of because they were hardest to whether the planes of the 490th bombed in formation from feet or attacked singly at Treetop they Seldom could hit a one Day at briefing they were told their target was the Mitt a River Railroad Over which the japs were pouring supplies into South Ern Burma for a possible invasion of the intelligence officer warned them that the Bridge was probably the most important target they had yet been Given and that the brass hats had declared it must be the b25s of the 490th went out in full strength that Day and literally saturated the target area with leaving the surrounding territory a mass of bomb but when the smoke cleared much to their Chagrin the Bridge was still even direct hits had plummeted right through the then exploded harmlessly deep in the the Mission had been a dismal when the Crews of the 490th came Back to their Field that some of them were humiliated and some of them were fighting and every body thought they were going to catch hell when the Robert Mccarten of called the combat Crews together for a he told them that the last were going to learn How to Knock out Bridges if its the last thing we after for hours a the 490th practice by aiming Dummy bombs at a target on a nearby Rice having read of the Success of skip bombing against Jap shipping in the Southwest they tried it against but they found that a bombs skip cannot be determined on ground As it can on open especially with Trees and houses in its nor is a Bridge solid that will Stop a skipping like a the bombs either ricocheted off their skipped Clear Over the Bridge or Slid under it to explode on the other they tried div bombing but found that the b25 int built for the necessary Steep dive and Quick they tried attacking at Treetop level but found that big bombs didst have time to turn before hitting the ground they would either hit on their sides and skid off at an Angle or enter the ground sideways and not go off at to make the bombs turn sooner after leaving the plane at Low Altitude and prevent them from they tried air brakes on the then spikes in the then parachutes on the these tricks but they were too much trouble and far from it was after All these weeks of expert i that the 490th stumbled upon hop bomb ing purely by the squadrons target on new years Day 1944 was the my River on the important rail Road line from Rangoon to Central Roar ing in for the attack at Treetop Rob Ert Erdin of Squadron operations officer and that Days Squadron saw a Large tree looming in his he gunned his plane upward to avoid hitting by the time he got Back to the predetermined Altitude of he was already on the so he dumped his the plane was then nosed downward in a shallow cursing the tree that spoiled the bomb the Crew looked Back to see How far the bombs had what they saw changed the whole course of the squadrons eventually had an effect on the course of the War in Northern two trestles of the 480foot Bridge Lay toppled in the River in the smoke of the bomb that it yelled Erdin to his that what weve been looking bring on those Bridges arriving Back at the Erdin who is now Squadron co explained what had Hap the shallow dive just As the bombs were released at Low Altitude sent them earthward at an Angle which prevented them from skipping or failing to go off on the Squadron soon added other refinements to bring hop bombing to the pilots Learned to sight during the shallow dive through the machine gun reflector they found that with their new near misses would do More two weeks after Verdins the 490th got Sweet revenge when Angelo Boutselis of destroyed River target which the entire squad Ron had missed Only two using the new hop Boutselis was so Happy he conducted prayer meeting hymns Over air Field Lef Rufo Utaga Bridge with three of its trestles the Osipaw Bridge intact and an Aid to the enemy before the b25s attacked the hop bombers scored direct hits and the Osipaw was accounted Foi
