Jack Eldridge mission notes

October 16, 1944

Motorweirke.  St. Valentine.  Double Mission. 28 guns reported 100% 

October 17, 1944

Saurwerke – Vienna.  Double Mission 280 guns reported.  Picked up 1st flak

Oct 23, 1944

RR Bridges – Brenner Pass.  Single Mission No guns 

Nov 4, 1944

M/Y in Munich.  Double Mission 280 guns reported

Click here to read a more detailed account

Nov 7, 1944

RR. Bridge Brenner Pass.  Single mission. No guns

Nov 12, 1944

RR lines Brenner Pass.  Single mission No flak

Nov 16, 1944

West M/Y Munich.  Double Mission 300 guns reported

Nov 18, 1944

Avisno Air Filed, Italy.  Single mission.  No flak

Nov 20, 1944

Zenike RR line, Yugo.  Single Mission.  No flak

Nov 23, 1944

RR bridge at Zenica, Yugo.  No flak Single mission

Dec 2, 1944

Florisdorf Oil refinery, Vienna, Austria.  314 guns reported Double Mission

Dec 6, 1944

Graz M/Y 28 guns reported Single Mission no bombs dropped.

Dc 16, 1944

Innsbruck Hall M/Y  59 guns reported Single mission.  Bombed

 

Dec 29, 1944

Bressonne RR Bridge, Bremer Pass, Italy.  Rough target! 2 wounded, one engine shot, C-1 out, compasses shot, “G” box out, etc.  Single mission. 22 guns reported.  Hit Bolzano flak.  Hit tgt.  Enemy B-17 is giving ground gunners our alt, airspeed, etc.  Next time we’ll shoot him down.

 

Jan 15, 1945

Vienna NE M/Y.  Bricked six days. 100 guns over tgt.  Pilot had flak tear through his steel helmet.  Uninjured.  Fair tgt.  15 sorties.

Feb 1, 1945

Mooserbaum Oil Refinery.  90 guns.  Most important tgt in Eur at this date.  Weather turned us back to hit Pola Navy Yard. No bombs dropped.  16 sorties

Feb 8, 1945

Vienna South Goods Depot. 90 guns.  Good mission. 17.

 

Feb 25, 1945

Linz M/Y 160 guns.  Clear over target.  My 1st mission as group lead.  Also my birthday!  Enemy plane tried to drop bomb on cable through our formation.  Unsuccessful.  We dropped visually and hit the tgt area.  Good mission.  Lots of flak. 18

 

Feb 27, 1945

Salzburg M/Y.  Solid undercast.  40 guns reported.  No flak in our box.,  Flew wing deputy today.  19.

Mar 2, 1945

Bresica M/Y.  Good mission No flak.  Po Valley. 20

March 8 ,1945

Kamaron M/Y, Hungary.  Weather socked in.  No bombs dropped.  Made run on Maribor, but G.A.C. screwed up. Caught MAH flak there.

 

March 9, 1945

Maribor M/Y, Yugo.  Terrible weather.  Had to go to 28,000 feet to get through.  Tgt. Was covered, went north to bomb Bruck.  That tgt was also socked in.  Lost an engine over Bruck, and later got it back.  Lead ship had to go down to safe altitude and I took over lead at Fiume, Italy.  We hit flak at Graz, Bruck, and Maribor.

 

March 15, 1945

Schechat Oil Ref. Vienna area.  Mickey went out at IP, turned off bomb run and bombed Weiner Neustadt visually.  Missed target.  No flak.

March 16, 1945

Weiner Neustadt M/Y.  I flew box lead, we had to do a 360 because of clouds over tgt,  The next run was PFF and we slightly missed the aiming point,  No flak over target, but Sopron near IP tried to hit us,

March 19, 1945

Landshut M/Y.  Flew over target at 16,500 ft. and carried 40x100# bombs.  We hit the target, and did not experience flak on the entire mission.

March 20, 1945

Nueburg A/D.  No guns.  Me 262 jet field.  We destroyed 10 planes on ground.  Long mission.

March 22, 1945

Vienna South goods M/Y.  120 guns.  Target was CAVU.  Flew Group lead. Co-pilot Adams crashed in Yugo, is OK.  Flak not bad.

3-23-45

St. Valentine M/Y.  40 guns.  Hit target good.  Flak was accurate.  Lost engine, came back alone.

March 25, 1945

Cheg-Oberschon AD.  Used 500 lb GP on hangers.  Farthest penetration into Germany for this wing.  Hit 20 Me262 jets on ground.  No flak.

March 31, 1945

Linz North M/Y.  150 guns.  Flak hit #1 box, lost 2 ships, another lost Bombardier.  Target was visual, missed target, ship had two holes.

 

FINITI KAPUTE!!

227:05 combat hours