Quotes from
Lt. Daniel McDuff appear in red lettering
I've highlighted in yellow (above) Dick Spingler's mission to Cancello on September 2, 1943 because there is an excellent description
of this particular mission in the diary of Lt. Daniel McDuff who is listed
as the pilot for the Cancello mission in Spingler's log. Since their aircraft (#000)
was on the left wing of the flight, the copilot Spingler, sitting on the right side of the aircraft towards
the inside of the tight bombing formation, did the piloting over the target. McDuff's description of
the mission is taken from his pamphlet: "World War II - Combat, 1943" by
Lieutenant Daniel R. McDuff (A Civilian in Uniform) and shown in red text below.
Dick Spingler kindly sent me one of McDuff's pamphlets. It reads like a diary and seems to have been written for his
wife back in the states although that's not obvious from this excerpt:
"On September 2, 1943 I started what I hope will be my last month of combat
by participating in a second raid on the Cancello Store Depot and Marshalling Yards.
It was my 42nd mission and I hope the next eight are just like this one!
Heretofore most of our raids have been coordinated with raids by the 310th,
the B-26s and sometimes by the heavies. In that way fighter opposition was split up
among all or concentrated on one. But recently fighter opposition has increased
considerably and has been taking a heavy toll on whichever flight they hit.
The B-25s, when they behaved themselves and flew formation, had proven they
could take care of themselves pretty well. We, the 321st, bow to the 310th for
proving this since we have yet to encounter heavy fighter opposition over Italy.
The 310th has also proven that when they don't fly in formation, they get shot all
to hell- as witness a recent raid on which they lost three ships because their escort
could not cover their flight which broke up into two scattered sections.
The B-26s have had very poor luck. Although they have claimed formidable
scores in fighters shot down, they seldom go out that they don't lose at least one ship.
And this raid has proven just why the B-25 has it all over the B-26. As I describe it,
I'll try to draw a parallel with the way the B-26s would probably have done it.
But first let's start at the beginning. Our formation consisted of 72 ships
in two flights of 36 each. That is a lot of airplanes to try to handle in one bunch-
and our assembly over the field was very ragged. In fact, we weren't assembled until
we were half way to Maritimo Island- then we settled down and flew fairly close
formation all the way in.
We were out alone. Our raid was a solo job. No one else was in the vicinity
at the time, and if there was fighter opposition in the area, we would get it. But,
to allow the enemy as little time to get in as possible, our escort had asked us to
delay our climb as long as possible, then climb faster than our usual rate. We did-
and could have done better since we were at altitude fully five minutes before we went
over the coast. Our rate of climb was between 500 and 600 feet per minute at 185 m.p.h.
I'm not certain how B-26s climb, but I understand that about 400 feet per minute is
maximum. Their speed, I imagine, would be around 170 m.p.h. in the climb. Therefore,
to attain the 8000 to 10,000 ft. altitude for bombing, they would have to start sooner
and farther out to sea. Enemy radar spots a formation as soon as it leaves the deck,
so a flight of B-26s would be detected much sooner than a flight of B-25s.
As soon as we got to the coast we began to get a little scattered flak. We
were lined up in a Vee of three flights consisting of 12 ships each in Javelin down-
and did evasive action! It was a job to stay in there, and it is doubtful just how
much good it did to whip our ships around the little we managed. We didn't get hit,
though, and I suppose that is proof enough!
Since we were on the left wing, Spingler did the flying. He's a little guy
and had quite a tussle holding old "Ruff Stuff" in place. But he did a darn good job,
and I just sat there and watched, looking out for fighters and keeping him off of
collision courses.
We hit the coast just north of Salerno, went in east over the mountains, turned
north to go over the target, and then left in a diving turn to the west and the sea.
Just before the first turn, our flight of twelve went under the others to get into left
echelon for the run. That's not easy to do with three ships, so with 12 it was a
tough job. We were the last ship of the 12 and if we were not wide open catching up,
we were shut down trying to slow up! Then we made the turn, being on the inside of it,
we had to slow up- and since we had not had time to settle down, it caught us with full
throttle. DeMoss, leading our element, couldn't slow up either, so we had to pull out
for a while and come back in. We managed very well, though, and got settled down early
on the run.
In looking out for fighters I had little time to look over the country-
something I had not been able to do since I lost Nixon. We were inside Mount Vesuvius-
a gaping hole about 3500 ft. high. The immense crater looked like a bed of blue/black
embers giving off a slight smoke that seemed to spread out immediately into the thin
haze that filled the sky. On the western rim of the crater there was a thin geyser
of steam or smoke rising from an impertinent little spout above the wide crater. It
looked almost silly up there by itself!
Then we were almost east of Naples and I could look down to our left and see
a fairly large airport. I counted five large transports- probably the six-engined
Me 323- and probably 30 or 40 smaller craft. As I looked I could see tracers from
the waste gun of some ship ahead going right for the field. But we were too high
to do any good, and whoever it was stopped after a few bursts.
Off to our left and slightly behind I could see flak bursts- the grey puffs
of light caliber- all too high to worry us. We were on the bomb run anyhow and so
couldn't be bothered.
I glanced at the air-speed. The needle was steady on 210, which is our usual
speed over. B-26s go over the target at 185. They can go faster, but their ships are
hard to hold in formation at higher speeds.
Suddenly the increase in breezes through the ship and the hollow roar of the
wind in the bomb bay told me our doors were opened. Bombs began to fall out of the
ships all around and I looked at the indicator light on the instrument panel just in
time to see the last light come on and go out. The interphone said, "Bombs away!
Doors closed!" And as though every pilot heard it, the whole formation turned to
get the hell out of there!
Richardson, leading our flight of six, dove under the rest and came out on
the right in Vee again. Morton, who led the first six of our twelve, must have
stayed a little longer, but I was too busy on the props and watching the skies to
notice who went where.
It took all "Ruff Stuff" had to stay in position. At one time, when I
happened to look, our air speed was 280. It may have been higher and it often is-
sometimes hitting 310 and 320.
Lalum called on the interphone- "Target well hit Blown all to hell!"
Flak followed us almost to the coast, but it never got near enough to worry us.
Then after we left the coast some guns on the island to our left opened up, but
their bursts were behind us. When we hit the deck we held an air speed of 250
for about 15 minutes when the second flight of 36 came up to us. Then we hit our
cruising 185 to 190.
In diving off target B-26s seldom get over 210. Their ships are too hard to
handle.
About 25 or 30 minutes after leaving the coast, six or seven enemy fighters
slipped up on us from the rear and fired about 10 or 12 shots with their rocket
flak guns. The bursts were all 200 or 300 yards behind us, and I would never have
known it if Lalum hadn't called me. Our escort got hot after them and claim to have
knocked one of them down.
As we left Italy behind, we had only a few of our escort P-38s with us. The
main body of 72 fighters were way to our rear, having engaged a large force of enemy
fighters that got up too late to intercept us. It must have been a real fight; the
P-38s claim 23 of the enemy destroyed to a loss of 10 of their own.
So, in this case our fast climb and our speed over the target got us out
before the enemy could intercept us. Going at slower speeds, climbing and diving
slower, it is understandable how the B-26s get into so much trouble.
But hell, the next time we may get our socks shot off!
Pictures of the target showed almost all our bombs in the target area. The railroad
yards were completely covered as was the stores area. All choke points in the yards
and around them were hit. All lines coming in were cut in several places and large
fires were started among the buildings in the area.
