12^th AIR FORCE

57^th BOMB WING

340^th BOMB GROUP (M)

MISSION APRIL 28, 1944

487^th and 488^th Squadrons of the 340^th Bomb Group on April 28, 1944

April 28, 1944

487^th The first bright, clear morning in three days brought forth a schedule of two routine missions plus the Group's first low altitude attack. The first raid of the day was to destroy two objectives, the Orvieto south railroad bridge plus another railroad bridge south of Attigliano. However, both elements of the nine ship formation reported no hits on either target. Ack-ack northeast and northwest of Orvieto was heavy, moderate and accurate although no ships were damaged, placing the raid in a “milk-run” category.

Takeoff was at 15:30 for the second mission of the day with the main railroad bridge at Orvieto as target for six B-25's of the 487th. A 48x500 lb. bomb load was dropped from 8600' at 16:50 which landed beyond the target northwest of the bridge. No enemy opposition was encountered chalking up the day's second “milk run.”

The most effective raid of many days was the Group's debut into low altitude work. Two planes from the 487th and two from the 489th left the field at 5:00 P.M. carrying 3x1000 lb. bombs each. They came into the coast at 8000', dropped to 400' and destroyed one of two bridges at Montepulciano which was their objective. After releasing their bombs in conjunction with the 20 ship Spitfire escort, they strafed everything in sight. This mission was considered as most devastating and is probably the fore-runner to many more similar attacks. Crew members claimed that they enjoyed it and actually had a good time. Credit: Dan Setzer and 57^th Bomb Wing website

(Crew sheet from Harry George)