The planes that went were split into two groups: A group and B group. No bombers had ever bombed there before and it was known to be heavily guarded. It was used to block the Germans radar so the Germans could not aim at the planes.Īnother memory that Mr. Chaff grenades were grenades that explode and shoot small, aluminum pieces around. If he was not bending down and throwing chaff grenades, then he would have died. Hammond has is when he was on the plane and he had to throw chaff grenades out of the plane when bullets came shooting right above him, where his seat was. Most times, the shells hit something before it reached its height limit. These shells would shoot up and explode at a certain height. Also they would be shot at from the ground with shells, an exploding kind of weapon. It took about 90 minutes for the planes to get over the point the planes were supposed to bomb and they would be in the air about 20,000 feet, but along the way, the planes would be shot at by fighter planes which were planes armed with machine guns. Each bomb group consisted of four squadrons, each squadron had about 21 planes. He was in the 100th bomb group and in the missions, he would travel with two other bomb groups. Every day that they had a mission, they would be woken up at 4:00 AM to be ready for the planes that took off at 7:00 AM. Hammond and his crew were stationed in Thorppe Abbotts, England. There were about four or five on a plane, but they protected the plane from various spots, like the waist of a plane, near the top of the plane, and at the tail. The gunners of a B-17 protected the plane from enemy fire. The bombardier for Our Gal Sal was 2nd lieutenant Glenn Hudson. The bombardier actually controlled the plane when it was about to bomb a certain place. He controlled when and where the bombs on a B-17 were dropped, so they went to their targets. One of the most important jobs on the B-17 was the bombardier. The navigator was 2nd Lieutenant Raymond E. He also used a machine gun to fire at enemy planes. The navigator directed the plane and had to know the position of the plane at all times. He also served as the commander and leader of the plane. He flew the plane and made sure that the crew was safe. The other crew of the plane all had different jobs on the B-17 bomber.
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