From a 2005 10-part series in the Main Post, (a German Newspaper), detailing the second raid by the US 8th AirForce on Schweinfurt in October 1943. It uses the downing of the B-17 “Iron Maiden” and the capture of it’s crewas the central theme. The Iron Maiden was piloted by Roland Martin, now of Carmel Valley, CA.

Part 2

Kimbolton is the home of the 379 bomber group in the east of England. That is where, On October 14, 1943, themission of the "Iron Maiden" to Schweinfurt begins. The plane will not return to it’s home base. The picture isby courtesy of the 379 US bomber group and on the Internet

DEADLY SILENCE WHEN THE CURTAIN FALLSThe story of the emergency landing of the Iron Maiden near Gerolzhofen in 1943 (part 2)

It is a pitch-black night in Kimbolton, easternEngland, the American Air base and home of the B-17 “Iron Maiden”. The crew resides in a corrugatedmetal building. It is wet and cold at 3:30 AM whenit’s time to wake up. The men walk through thepuddles to breakfast in the crew’s mess

Iron Maiden pilot Roland Martin: “For some it wasthe last meal, for others like me it was the last mealas free men, for a long time.”

After breakfast, at the "Briefing", the up to thensecret target for the European–based US 8th AirForce on the 14th is announced. The flight crewsget a special better breakfast: fresh eggs and freshfruit. The others, who remain on the ground, getpowdered eggs and canned fruit. Daniel Sirianniremembers that very well. He is a 21-year old fromOlean in upstate New York and is a waist-gunner.

With a slight hint of sarcasm, Pilot Martin says:“Powdered eggs are great as long as you are hungryenough. Anyhow, these guys are from thehinterlands”.

“For some of us it would be our lastmeal”Pilot Roland Martin, about breakfast on 14October 1943.

The briefing is at 0700. The big map is still coveredup by a cloth as the men enter the briefing room.The hall is filling up with more and more people.The briefing will cover the importance of themission and the details of the flight including: theevacuation routes in case of an emergency landing;what to do when planes have to leave theformation; and not to unload and clean the machineguns before landing in Britain. For good reasons:

Only a few month before, nine of the 94 B-17squadron were lost on the way home over theEnglish Channel because the crews could no longeruse their guns.

After everyone has taken their seats, theCommanding Officer opens the briefing and turnsthe floor over to one of the senior officers. Themap is slowly uncovered and piece by piece theflight route is shown as it is plotted over Hollandand Belgium and deeper and deeper into the southof Germany. When the entire curtain falls, thetarget name that they have all been waiting forappears: Schweinfurt.

That name deeply impacts the men in the smokefilled room. There is deadly silence in the hall. Theshock has to be digested. The prospect of not

returning is paralyzing. Most of the crew memberrealize that the long mission deep into hostileterritory replete with concentrated air defenses isgoing to be hell. Those who do not believe this, willsoon be disabused. Among the participants in thehall are the crew of the Iron Maiden.

When the crew-members leave the building it is nolonger dark outside. Now, only poor weatherconditions over Schweinfurt can keep the men ofthe Iron Maiden from the peril of their mission andtheir date with disaster. The available alternatetargets are Ludwigshafen and Saarbrücken. Thetime is quickly approaching where the decision tofly the mission or to abort is to be made.

P a r t 3 w i l l f o l l o w s h o r t l y

Photo of the control tower in Kimbolton. Membersof the 379 bomber-group waiting for the IronMaiden to come back from the second daylightmission to Schweinfurt during WWII.

Photo of the Iron Maiden with painting of the wellendowed girl painted on the plane by a British"artist". The crew-members paid for the paintingout of their own pockets.