Sometimes the flak was accurate, sometimes it was not. The flak gunners had it just right on January 13, 1945 when the 303rd Bomb Group was given a rail bridge at Mannheim to destroy. The weather was clear and cold and the radar prediction was precise, for the flak salvos brought down three, severely damaged fourteen and caused minor damage to seven of the 38 B-17s involved. The losses were all from the 427th Bomb Squadron formation. 2/Lt O.T. Eisenhart's 338689/GN took a direct hit in the tail and plummeted earthwards. No one escaped, probably held by the gravitational forces of the rapid descent. The lead plane of a higher squadron caught the plunge with its strike camera. Over 900 bombers were out that day and only four others were lost. (USAAF)
