Loading List 1, Box I




Loading List 2, Box II

Missing Air Crew Reports, Aircraft Accident Reports, and other incidents

Date	Report		A/C Serial # Type	Mis- sion #	Bomb Sq	Location	Personnel (Status when available)
Jul 31, 1944 Monday	No_Report		43-9221 A-20G	110	671	Normandy (Strip B-4)	Merchant, William A. (Not Injured) Harp, Clifford J. (Not Injured) Brown, Kenneth P. (Not Injured)
Jul 31, 1944 Monday	AAR 45-7-31-523		43-9745 A-20G	110	668	Westfield Farm, near Little Madham, Essex	Lesher, Robert D. (WIA) Hedrick, Harold R. (WIA) Antanaitis, Adolfos J. (Major Injuries)

To view more information regarding an Incident/Report, click on the Report hyperlink.
( = Entries having actual Reports available for review.   = Entries having additional Images or Photos.)
To view an individual's Memorial page, click on the "Name" hyperlink.

Included are Box, Flight and Position; Bomb Squadron; Aircraft Serial Number, Fuselage Code and Model; and Crew Members
transcribed from individual mission Loading List documents by Chris and Mary Adams and Carl Sgamboti.
Some information, such as Squadron, Serial Number, etc. has been expanded from other documents.

Group and Unit Histories

Mission # 110 -- July 31, 1944, Monday PM
Mantes Gassicourt, France -- Railroad Bridge

"416th Bombardment Group (L) - Group History 1944"
Transcribed from USAF Archives

The bridge had to be knocked out so that in the afternoon 37 planes were again sent out to do the job. This time, the results ranged from good to excellent. The bombs scored hits and near misses on the embankment and bridge and probably destroyed the latter. Major Willetts, Lt Royalty, B-N, and Lt Cole, Lt Basnett, B-N, led the boxes. Lt Merchant was forced down on the beach-head, but no one was injured. Lt Lesher crashed when one engine cut out on the take-off. He and one of his gunners escaped injury, but the other gunner, Staff Sergeant Adolfos J. Antaneitis, suffered a fractured leg. The plane was completely destroyed.

That was the final mission of the month, No. 110 for the Group. During the month of July, we had flown 762 sorties and had dropped 701 tons of bombs. We lost two combat crew members. One, Lt Walter L Pentilla, of the 669th Bomb Sq (L), was killed on the 11th, while flying on a routine formation training mission. At 1,000 feet, one engine cut out on him. The plane dove into the ground. He died while being taken to the hospital. He was buried at the Cambridge American Military Cemetery, Cambridge, England. The other fatality was Pfc Byron K. Allen, of the 4th Combat Camera Unit, who was killed on the 5th, when his parachute failed to open.

"Attack Bombers, We Need You! A History of the 416th Bomb Group"
Ralph Conte
Pages 115 - 118

Mission #110 - 31 July - PM - Mantes-Gassicourt Railroad Bridge. Major Willetts and Lt. Royalty, BN, Lts. DeMand and Hanlon, BN, Lts. Osborne and Forma, BN, and Lts. Meagher and Burg, led flights. Lts. Cole and Basnett, BN led Box II. Bombing results were classified from good to excellent. No enemy action.

Ninth Bomber Command Press Release

The Public Relations Release of the July month-end summary by Ninth Bomber Command relates to the 416th operations and our other group operations.

D-Plus 55 - July 31st, sees the German war machine reeling backward from the shank of the Cherbourg Peninsula under the sledge-hammer impact of the American offensive there; while in the center of the Normandy line the British front has exploded into action and Rommell's defenses are being rolled slowly backward onto the heels of a bulky and badly pounded support system; and still further east the Canadians have anchored the bloody line on Caen and have refused to budge in spite of murderous counter assaults.

This, in a paragraph, is the picture which Marauder and Havoc crewmen see on the ground thousands of feet below them as the sum-total of a difficult month of invasion warfare.

If the pre-invasion month of May could be described as a "softening-up-period," and the invasion month of June labeled a "close-in-support month" - then July might well be a month devoted to strangulation of the enemy's life-lines, choking off the battle front from reserves and supplies, confusing and disrupting his movements, forcing him to expend vital fuel and equipment, and generally "tripping him up" where the fall would hurt him most. Perhaps, in a sense, the month of July was a combination of the strategy and tactics of both June and May before it.

July has been a month in which the first feverish surges of the invasion battle settled into a more stabilized situation; in which both invader and defender more or less retarded tempo in order to catch a second wind. Battle lines straightened and solidified and ground progress was at first slow, while supplies and re-enforcements came up and the generals marshalled their forces for the all-out fight that now appears to be in development.

For medium and light bombers of the Ninth Air Force, here was a special task. While Montgomery arrayed his forces on the ground, their job was to make life miserable for Rommel - disrupt - delay - destroy - wear him down.

In a summer month which Britons declare to be one of the filthiest weather in nearly half a century, the Marauders and Havocs went at it, day after day, from early morning missions to those which saw them swarming their home fields in partial darkness; flying in weather so bad that not many months ago they would not have ventured off the ground; bombing through heavy clouds - and all the while maintaining a remarkable record of accomplishment.

Now, thirty one days later, it is obvious that without this aggressive type of operations, the present ground drive doubtless could not have been mounted.

In the early part of July, Ninth medium and light bombers began operations with a series of attacks on bridges, railheads, communications, and fuel dumps, climaxing this on July 6 with assaults on 44 targets - more than any single day in the Ninth's history in the ETO. The Marauders and Havocs already had smashed the bridges over the Seine and wrecked or rendered useless most of those over the Loire. The Germans were frantically attempting to repair the broken spans or swing temporary structures over the valleys. But, meantime they were being forced to funnel troops and supplies through the Paris area, except on those remaining bridges which had been temporarily erected or could be temporarily repaired. With the enemy transport thus bottled up, the Ninth Bombers aimed at further blocking their movements, and struck at six important rail links in the area west of Paris serving the battle front. The lines were blasted at 36 points in all, and embankments, fills and spurs were severely damaged. As a result of this round of pummeling a crack Panzer Division moving toward the front was completely blocked and subsequent pounding of road and junction points in the area still further delayed its movement. To date, intelligence indicates, this division has not yet reached an area of effective employment.

This was all part of the program to force the Germans to movement by road, compelling them to transfer troops and equipment from rail to highway, throwing an added burden on already overstrained motor transport, forcing a high rate of fuel expenditure and shortening the limited life of tanks and heavy tracked vehicles whose normal life-spans range from 600 to 700 hours. Thus, time and gasoline wasted on the backroads of the war theater were just that much the enemy could not use in the battle lines. At the same time, these tactics jammed the highways with vehicles which laid open to strafing or drove them to slow and costly night movements.

On July 7, the Ninth bombers went out to polish off the last of the principal bridges spanning the Loire. Three of the four bridges attacked were temporarily destroyed. To accomplish this, the Marauders flew with full bomb load at extreme range - more than 750 miles for the round trip.

During the middle portion of the month, the Marauder-Havoc team continued its attacks on communications and fuel dumps, and also went after P-Plane launching sites, troop and equipment concentrations, and targets in the battle area.

Flexibility, which characterized this month's operations was demonstrated in repeated switches from strategical to close in tactical targets. On July 9, the bombers joined in a combined assault on the Caen area which resulted in driving the enemy from its positions in the easterly section of this strong-point, an operation which was described by the Army as "decisive."

Between the combined hammering of inland refineries by the heavies, and the constant beating being given to road and rail arteries in western France, intelligence reports of organizations raiding each other's fuel supplies to meet their own need, came in and it was indicated that Rommel was hard pressed for fuel. Seizing upon this, the Marauder-Havoc team went into play against large fuel concentration points in the feeder area behind the front. In spite of bad weather and heavy clouds these missions were run, mostly using Pathfinder techniques, and remarkably satisfactory results were reported.

Again in the middle of the month, Marauders and Havocs switched to close-in support and this time went ahead of American ground forces in the St. Lo area. Similar support was again given in the latter part of the month ahead of ground troops when they pushed through St. Lo and began their current drive to the Southwest beyond the bitterly contested town. The joint operation has been described as "paving the way for the most successful offensive on the Normandy front since Cherbourg."

July 23 was the biggest single day in the history of the Ninth bombers' blind activities. Eleven separate group attacks were made on ten targets - nine bridges, and a fuel dump - all employing Pathfinder technique.

A review of statistics for the month reveals that the total bomb-tonnage dropped was not as large as in previous months, due in part to the consistently bad weather which restricted flying and to some degree by the nature and extent of targets attacked.

For those who like the figures, the Ninth bombers flew a total of more than 6400 sorties involving a gross bomb tonnage well over 9,000 tons against a total of some 150 targets. Losses for the period totaled 30 ships, 24 Marauders and 6 Havocs. The figures, in themselves, are less significant than the fact that these operations were carried out in the face of unfavorable flying conditions and a majority of the missions were on blind bombing.

The real essence of this Month's activities lies in the fact that at all odds, the mediums and lights carried the air war forward during a vital period when the Allied situation was being compressed for the drive that is now so evidently in progress.

"668th Bombardment Squadron (L) History"
Transcription from USAF Archives

On the last day of the month, Staff Sergeant Adolfos J. Antanaitis, armorer-gunner, suffered a broken leg when his pilot, Lieutenant Lesher, successfully crash-landed his aircraft in Southern England. after he had lost an engine en route to the target.

"670th Bombardment Squadron (L) History"
Transcription from USAF Archives

The flying for the month of July came to a close on the 30th and 31st with a total of 25 sorties for this squadron in three separate missions, against the Caumont strong point in the Nazi defenses and the Liseux marshalling yards on the 30th, and the Mantes Gassicourt bridge on the 31st.

"671st Bomb Squadron (L) Unit History"
Gordon Russell and Jim Kerns

July 31st , 1944

The 416th got back on its two a day schedule on July 31st with formations going out at 1000 and 1730 to strike at railroads near the Paris area. The morning mission did not meet with very good results as clouds covered the primary target and the ships had to go on to a secondary, which was also partially covered. One box dropped some of the bombs hitting on the track.

In the afternoon the target was a railroad bridge on the Seine River, just west of Paris. Bombing was done by flights and the mission went down as very successful. Major Willetts and Lt Royalty received an excellent rating with their flight and Lt. Cole and Lt. Basnett's bombing was credited good.

Lt. Merchant and his gunners, S/Sgt. Harp and S/Sgt.K.P.Brown, made a forced landing near Caen, going in when his oil pressure dropped way below normal. The crew returned in their ship, A-20G 221, on August 2nd with a new oil pressure pump; and a few souvenirs. This was the second 671st crew to land in France.

[July 31, 1944], HQ Twelfth Army Group situation map Map showing Western Allies and Axis troop position details in Western Europe as of approximately 1200 hours, July 31, 1944 World War II Military Situation Maps Collection Library of Congress

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