Joseph J. Bitzer, Mission March 14, 1945

Then there was this railroad bridge up at Varazdin, Yugoslavia, that needed to be strayed. Up over the Adriatic on March 14, knock it out and came home. Not quite that simple, of course. Bridges can be rebuilt but it takes some time, and enemy troops needed supplies constantly. "Zo knock dose B24s out of the sky und save our bridge." Our Norden bombsight was touted as the best tool for pin-point bombing the world knew. The B24 with its box-like structure, and mathematically designed thin Davis wing, not only enabled it to fly faster per unit of horsepower (therefore farther), but made it a very stable platform for discharging bombs. Natura1ly, when bombs are ready to be released, a small fraction off at 10,000 to 18,000 feet will result in there straying from the intended projectile. And turbulance around all these giants tended to upset the bombing platform. To hit a bridge then, or for that matter anything else, the bombsight was used to zero in on the structure from lead plane, with all other planes toggling their bombs to form a large pattern und the bridge, destroying the bridge with only a few bombs, and making many big splashes in the river with all the others.