1st Lt. Dave Hanst - Pilot

322nd Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group

A Distinguished Veteran

Mission #9. Tuesday, June 6, 1944 (D-Day). Target – Radar Station at La Riviera, near La Harve, on the French Coast. Flight Time – 5:00. Opposition – None. Damage – None.

Remarks: “Out of bed at 12:30 A.M., when we got to briefing, all of the 1st Division Combat Wing officials were there. We decided that something big was about to come off, a good guess too, the invasion was starting. We were told that there would be absolutely no returning today until we had dropped our bombs on the target. We were to keep going even if we had three engines out of commission, anyone turning back would meet a huge wave of other aircraft, 11,000 in all.

As the crews went to the gun shack and then on the trucks to their planes, element after element of P-51s were going over in formation with dim wing lights barely visible in the pitch-blackness. All bombing was to be done in six ship squadrons today, the other two from my element didn’t show up, so I flew diamond with only four ships in our squadron. Going across the Channel, we could see in the dim morning light the thousands of landing craft below; these were visible through an occasional break in the cloud layer below. The timing had to be perfect, because the ground forces would hit the beaches just 33 seconds after our last bombs were dropped. After we had our bombs out, we continued on into France for 10 minutes before turning west. Upon returning to the base, we were surrounded by swarms of ground crew men all asking questions about the invasion. When we took off early this morning, not one of them had known where we were going. Now everyone knew and wanted us to tell what we had seen.”

Mission #16. Wednesday, June 21, 1944. Target – Traffic Circle and Marshalling Yards, Berlin, Germany. Flight time – 8:20. Opposition – Flak heavy and accurate, Enemy Fighters – 60 to 70. Damage – Minor.

Remarks: “Today was my third trip to the ‘Big B’, Berlin, I hope it is my last. On the climb to the enemy coast, Ed Waters and Abbott were leading the 91st Group. The Wing leader climbed at too fast an airspeed, this made our formation string out behind. My crew and I were flying in the ‘Wild Hare’, the flaps kept creeping down and Goldy would crank them up about every three or four minutes. Nearing Berlin, our group was straggling and strung out. Off to the left we saw a large gaggle of bandits going toward the rear of the bomber stream. About five minutes later, Jo called me on the interphone and asked if we had any Beau-fighters in our fighter escort, I told him no, he said there were twin engine fighters coming up on our rear. About that time, 20mm shells began bursting all through our formation. The pilots flying those fighters certainly had nerve; they flew right through our group, then rolled over and dove away. Every gun in our plane was going full blast, the whole ship was shaking, the noise was terrible, and the cockpit was thick with powder smoke. The bandits numbered around 60 to 70; they were ME-410s, twin-engine fighters.