Back Into the Fight

Ten days after returning to Wendling, the Hummel crew was back where they had always belonged—inside the briefing room. The war had not ended while they rested in Southport. If anything, it had only intensified as Allied forces pushed deeper into Germany. The transportation network feeding the German front lines had become one of the last targets still worth striking. Rail yards, bridges, and marshalling stations were now the arteries keeping what remained of the German war machine alive. On the morning of April 16, 1945, the crews of the 392nd Bomb Group gathered for another mission briefing.

The target: the marshalling yards at Landshut, a rail hub located between Munich and Regensburg in southern Germany.

By this point in the war, the rhythm of missions had changed. The Luftwaffe was largely absent from the skies, and the massive fighter battles that once filled the air over Europe had mostly faded into memory. Still, the distance alone made this mission dangerous. It would be one of the longer routes the group had flown in weeks, deep into southern Germany where the war still held its grip.

At 0730 hours, thirty-one aircrews received their briefing. Maps were unfolded, routes traced, and the familiar routine returned once again. Engines would start at mid-morning.

At 1015 hours, the B-24s began their takeoff rolls from Wendling.

Clear skies greeted them as they climbed into formation. From above, England slipped away behind them, followed by the long crossing over the Channel and into the continent.

For the Hummel crew, this mission was significant. Just weeks earlier they had crashed, been captured, fought on the ground, and barely escaped with their lives near the Rhine.

Now they were back where they started.

Back in the sky. As the formation approached Landshut, smoke and haze already hung over the rail yards. Previous bombing missions had scarred the area, leaving fires and wreckage that partially obscured the aiming points below. Bombardiers worked carefully through the haze as the formation steadied for the run.

When the moment came, the bomb bay doors opened.

Across the group, 286 five-hundred-pound general purpose bombs fell toward the rail network below. Though the smoke reduced visibility, the results were still considered solid. Roughly sixty percent of the bombs struck within two thousand feet of the intended aiming point, continuing the steady destruction of

Germany’s transportation lifelines.

This time, the skies remained quiet. No German fighters appeared. No flak batteries rose to challenge the bombers. The war in the air was slowly fading as Allied forces closed in from every direction. After the long flight home, the bombers began touching down at RAF Wendling around 1915 hours. Another mission completed.

For the Hummel crew, the significance was simple but profound. They had returned to combat.

The sky that nearly killed them weeks earlier had accepted them back.

And the war—though clearly nearing its end—was not finished yet.