USAAF 303rd Bomb Group - Deployment of GB-1 Glide Bombs, Cologne, Germany 28 May 1944
- 2 years ago
Operation Grapefruit
Under the command of Brigadier General Robert F. Travis, commander of the 41st Combat Bombardment Wing within Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle’s VIII Bomber Command, the raid was flown by 59 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers including 19 aircraft of Colonel Kermit D. Stevens’s 303rd Bombardment Group (Heavy).
The 59 aircraft involved carried a total of 113 XM108 (Aeronca GB-1) glide bombs against the Eifeltor marshalling yards at Cologne.
The result of the attack was disappointing, for the GB-1 revealed poor accuracy: many of the weapons failed as their batteries discharged during the attack glide and, bereft of gyro stabilisation, crashed. Only a few of the weapon impacted anywhere near the marshalling yards.
Many drifted far off target or glided more or less sharply than the bombardiers had wanted.
Under the command of Brigadier General Robert F. Travis, commander of the 41st Combat Bombardment Wing within Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle’s VIII Bomber Command, the raid was flown by 59 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers including 19 aircraft of Colonel Kermit D. Stevens’s 303rd Bombardment Group (Heavy).
The 59 aircraft involved carried a total of 113 XM108 (Aeronca GB-1) glide bombs against the Eifeltor marshalling yards at Cologne.
The result of the attack was disappointing, for the GB-1 revealed poor accuracy: many of the weapons failed as their batteries discharged during the attack glide and, bereft of gyro stabilisation, crashed. Only a few of the weapon impacted anywhere near the marshalling yards.
Many drifted far off target or glided more or less sharply than the bombardiers had wanted.