European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 9, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The interphone and twirled his 10inch Mustache All the Way Back to the then the 490th started begging for Bridge mis got the squadrons ships ripped apart the Meza Railroad 800 feet Over which had passed 90 percent of supplies and reinforcements for the Jap front lines in North Ern exactly a month after stumbling upon six of its b25s destroyed three Bridges on a single a few Days six other planes blasted out two More before the week was the Squadron had accounted for eight when the news reached Howard commanding general of the tenth air he sent this message to Mccarten to your Bridge busters and All the boys on the ground who keep pm flying on their successful my personal congrats your devastating results have been received with although that was the first time anyone had Ever called the Squadron Bridge the name from then even though the Squadron kept its Skul landings it be came officially known by the new name and has specialized in knocking out Bridges Ever within a few the Bridge busters Dis covered that bombs would do More damage with near misses than smaller so they figured that putting More of these big babies on each ship would reduce the number of ships needed to wipe out a what they did about this would have turned an air plane designers hair they loaded one More bomb on their b25s than the plane is designed to when the ships still flew Okay with this William Mclntyre of Nash Squadron armament decided to try still bet you 150 declared a fellow of that the b25 cant get off the ground and go anywhere with that Mclntyre took the packed one More Pounder into each ship and won his 50 Bucks hands Down when the ships not Only took off and but five planes knocked out three the monthly average since then has been three to four planes to Knock out one Burma on a Relief map looks like a huge strip of it is just a series of mountains and mostly running North and in every Valley Are Rivers there Are thousands of these Rivers and this Means that any Road must Cross water at intervals along its this is Why Bridge busting became so valuable in hampering Jap the Bridge busters most spectacular Mission was smashing the 11span sitting River of the biggest in Burma and vital link in the Railroad connecting Rangoon with the Only route to in to accomplish 1st William Cook of used the glistening rails As his guide in Bright his bombs toppled several Hundred feet of the Long but the Mission nearly resulted in the loss of Cooks just As he banked sharply to evade ground fire after leaving the his left Wing hit the spire of a burmese which ripped four feet of the Wing tip he managed to nurse the lop sided ship 400 Miles Over the mountains Back to the he was later killed in a then there was James Grain of Chat who lowered himself into the open bomb Bay Over one target and kicked Loose some bombs that had failed to there was David George of first Crew chief to Send a plane out on Loo consecutive missions without a mechanical there was Marvin Beckman of who bailed out of his ship when it was hit in a half hour running Battle with 25 watched the zeros strafe and kill everyone else in the Crew As they parachuted Down near him and then walked for five Days in the Jungle be fore staggering into an Allied and there were those like Arthur Sand ers of who turned the controls Over to his Copilot above Rangoon so he could photograph another running fight with zeros with his Amateur movie later he was missing in and 1st Joseph Meier of Jersey who used to put up such Bullet inboard notices As pay Call 1300 crap games 1305 hours and when he went up on just one Mission to see got a purple heart As the Only Man on the Mission wounded by ground when the Battle for my Itkina began last the Bridge busters had knocked out 40 important Span in the soften up the Jap base for the during the summer they carried out 65 missions in four months through thunderstorms and Low when Good weather returned in they opened up in full blast again by destroying 13 Bridges in 13 the Bridge busters have had to do other kinds of bombing they joined other outfits of the tenth air Force in sinking River steamers that used to ply the Irrawaddy Laden with Jap although they do most of their bomb ing in they Send a few planes out on Moonlight nights to spot and wreck anything that moves in Jap held trucks or Small the japs do most of their mov ing at every week planes pull missions against enemy bases or troop but the Jap engineers keep the Bridge busters busiest in their the engineers either repair an important Bridge that has been bombed out or build a bypass Bridge nearby As soon As possible after a while they Are doing this the Bridge busters just Fly by occasionally to see How things Are As soon As there sure a Bridge is nearly rebuilt or by they pay another visit with their Pounders and Knock it out the Squadron had to Knock out the Bagyo River the 100th Bridge in a few recently there have been two or three off handed tributes to the Bridge busters one was the discovery in a Village taken by chinese forces of 150 emaciated Jap All showing signs of having starved to death for Lack of sup ply another was an official statement that the japs Are retreating from Northern leaving Only Small delaying garrisons partly because of their inability to get More sup plies and troops up from Central and then there was the British Engineer who buttonhole an american intelligence i old complained the would you mind telling those Bridge Buster chaps of yours that we think they Are doing a bloody Fine Job but that old it is making things blast edly inconvenient for us in every time our forces Como to a they find the Bridge bombed army Pum cation issued weekly by Branch information a education War 205 East 42d new York reproduction Riatt real rioted As on Page entered As class july or fhe Post office at new under the of March subscription Price s3 printed n the us a the my Tho Piombing Success them River Bridge after it Hod been two of its trestles were destroyed