The 384th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force

This is a record of the 384th Bombardment Group based on records from my father, Capt. Henry G. Horak(ret) of the 106th Weather Squadron.  As I am able, I'll be posting scans and digitized images from his two volumes of photos and records along with those stories that my brothers and I can pull together.

N.B.:  Clicking on an image will bring up the full-sized photo or scan. Higher resolution images are available to any who are interested.  Please contact the blogger. 

Henry is now 91 and his memory of those days is not so sharp, but he still tells tales of the sacrifice made by the brave crewmen flying their B-17s over Germany in daylight bombing raids.

The major sources of material are two bound scrapbook volumes measuring 11x14 inches.  The cover plus first four pages are very powerful, summarizing the October 14, 1943 raid on Schweinfurt.  Only one aircraft of the 19 that were airborne returned to base.  Recall that each B-17 carried a crew of ten.  Only ten of 190 men who made it to the target landed at Grafton-Underwood after that raid. 

Without further adieu, here is the beginning of the story... from a war so long ago.

A deceptively peaceful cover of the photo album.  There is no indication of where or when Henry obtained it.

The title page of the first volume showing the "Keep the Show on the Road" logo of the 384th Bombardment Group.  Two Eighth Airforce patches and a paper logo hand labeled "WEATHER."  Below that is "18th WX. SQDN." and "DETACH. 106."

The frontspiece, labeled "Contrails."  No doubt a B-17 formation but no date information is given.

The mission summary.  "19 airborne, 6 returned early, 3 landed other fields, 3 crashed over England after bailing out (on return).  6 missing.  Only 1 aircraft ret. to base."  Only ten men who saw the target slept in their own bunks that night.  Probably 60 lives were lost. (For more details, see the 384th mission summaries.)

The formation sheet.  Planes piloted by Ogilvie, Kopf, Kauffman, Harry, Keller, and Williams were lost.  No idea of how many bailed out or who the crewmen were.

Henry told me once that of the 640 aircrew (64 original aircraft) with him at Grafton-Underwood, about three dozen survived the war as POWs and a handful who bailed out made it home with help from the resistance.  A couple planes flew 25 missions and their crews went home.  But nearly 600 men perished on these daylight missions.  Words fail me....