William Schultz
The following account was taken from the August 1994 issue of The Raven newsletter of the 301st BG association.
1944 Near Munich, Germany The 15th AAF began night raids, calling the operation "Lone Wolf." The (LW) after the date, designates a Lone Wolf mission. The following account by William A. Schultz, a 419th pilot, describes the use of RADAR on one of the few missions of this type flown by the 15th AAF.
Oct. 29 Mission #365 - Munich West M/Y (night mission) Twelve pilots were selected from the 5th Wing (B-17s) to fly the first night mission by the U.S. Army Air Force in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. As one of the pilots, my scheduled bomb drop was 2:15 A.M. The crew assembled for briefing and was jeeped to our plane at 10:00 P.M., take off was 10:30. Our twelve plane bombing intervals were approximately 15 minutes. This nuisance raid was significant in that not only was the mission at night, but we were equipped with twelve 500 pound bombs with six instantaneous explosives and six delayed action fuses from 5 to 72 hours. Demoralizing! In flight, over the Adriatic, the crew test-fired our guns about 10:45 P.M. We saw tracer flashes ahead and signaled with our scope light the proper call letters. As we approached the north shore of the Adriatic enroute to Munich, we could see by the moonlight heavy cloud formation over the Alps. It had to be a cold front coming down from Germany. At 20,000 feet there was a "saddle back" in the frontal mass of clouds and we picked this to go through. We encountered severe down drafts and lost 1000 feet of altitude in seconds, then through the opening, we encountered up drafts that made the plane rise like an elevator another 2000 feet. As we approached Innsbruck, the IP, we were above the clouds at 26,000 feet when we encountered tracer shells coming toward our plane. T/Sgt. Dominick Walicki, crew chief and top turret gunner yelled, "Ju-88 at 10 o'clock!" It looked like a twin-engine aircraft. We immediately dove down into the clouds. I told the crew members to hold their fire as we had no flame dampeners on our guns and we did not wish to give our position away to other enemy aircraft that might be in the vicinity. Note: Our plane was equipped with a "Mickey Scope" (radar) that could "see" through the clouds. The Mickey navigator informed me when we were over the IP and gave directions to the West Marshaling Yard at approximately 1:45 A.M. We had broken out of the high-scattered clouds when a strange phenomenon occurred. A light blue colored ball of fire approximately three feet in diameter appeared about 40 feet off of our right wing tip. It actually flew along with us for about 30 seconds with streams of fire trailing down, but it was too large to be a plane. To this day, I don't know what it was. As we approached the west side of Munich, we encountered heavy antiaircraft fire and surmised that we were too close to the German Airdrome S.W. of Munich where the Me-262s were being manufactured. Upon encountering heavy flak, we made a sharp turn to the left to avoid the concentration. The navigator said to take a 90-degree course to the target. This of course put us right through the middle of the flak, but the correction was made and I related to Lt. Jess Miller, our bombardier, to keep the bomb bay doors closed until we were about one minute from the target. The flak was intense. We made the drop and immediately dove and banked at 45 degrees to our right, approximately 200 feet. Our tail gunner, Sgt Orvin Larson, relayed to me the track of shell bursts, and taking evasive action, rolling 45 degrees to our left, there would be a cluster of shellfire at the point where we made the turn.
That old B-17 was creaking from the strain of doing over 200 MPH during the evasive dives. Over the target, we were hit at the chin turret and that was disabled. The windshield in front of the pilot was cracked. The rudder became like a sieve and my radio operator, Sgt. Stempien, had his oxygen mask hose cut by a piece of shrapnel. Shortly after taking evasive action, the #2 engine was hit and feathered. Sgt. Phil Smith, the right waist gunner, advised that he thought the #2 engine was on fire and this was extinguished and the prop feathered before we lost our hydraulic oil.
Veterans History Project http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/bib/2414 William Schultz Collection
Biographical Information Name: William A. Schultz Date of Birth: 1921 Place of Birth: Minneapolis, MN Gender: Male Race: Unspecified Home State: FL War or Conflict: World War II, 1939-1946 Status: Veteran Dates of Service: 1942-1946 Branch of Service: Army Air Forces/Corps Unit of Service: 301st Bomb Group, 419th Bomb Squadron, 5th Wing, 15th Air Force Location of Service: California; Marfa and Wichita Falls, Texas; Tampa, Florida; Roswell, New Mexico; Munich, Germany; Italy Highest Rank: Captain Prisoner of War: Unknown Service Related Injury: Yes Collection Information Type of Resource: Manuscript: Memoirs [1 item] ; Video: VHS-C [1 item] Interviewer: Darlene G. Larson Donor: Darlene G. Larson Donor Affiliation/Organization: Daughters of the American Revolution, Willmar Chapter Collection #: AFC/2001/001/2414 Subjects: Schultz, William World War II, 1939-1946 -- Personal Narratives United States. Army Air Forces/Corps. Cite as: William Schultz Collection (AFC/2001/001/2414), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Capt. William A Schultz was assigned to the 301st BG 419th Squadron.
Military Occupational Specialty (MOS): Pilot.
The following information on William Schultz is gathered and extracted from military records. We have many documents and copies of documents, including military award documents. It is from these documents that we have found this information on Capt. Schultz. These serviceman's records are nowhere near complete and we are always looking for more material. If you can help add to William Schultz's military record please contact us.
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Rank |
General Order |
Date |
Notes |
Award |
Ribbon & Device |
William Schultz |
2nd Lt |
3286 |
09/11/1944 |
|
AM |
|
William Schultz |
2nd Lt |
3779 |
10/03/1944 |
|
AM/OLC |
|
William Schultz |
1st Lt |
4857 |
12/04/1944 |
|
AM/2OLC |
|
William Schultz |
1st Lt |
4992 |
12/13/1944 |
|
DFC |
|
12/13/1944 15th AF GO 4992 - Awarded for actions on mission to Rosenheim , Germany Oct. 23, 1944 - DFC 4/2/1945 General Orders 2040 AM/3OLC
Please contact us if you can assist with any biographical data, pictures or other information regarding the service and life of William Schultz.
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