We arrived in England in September 1943 and were soon sent to the 100th Bomb Group, which was located near a small town named "Diss". We flew our 1st mission to Bremen, our second to Marienburg, our third to Munster on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of October 1943. The 100th Bomb GP launched 13 aircraft this day and I do not recall what position in the group formation we were assigned. As yet, we were not assigned our own aircraft. Therefore we flew the one assigned to us; Royal Flush. If my memory serves me correctly, the briefing officer stated we were to bomb as much of the center of the city as possible. The theory behind this was; if the civilians were killed who would man the equipment to help fight the war. Seemed sound at the time.

Air Battle

The Group as a whole ran into considerable flak but the fighters were much more of a threat by far then the flak. It has been said in numerous books that the Munster Mission was one of the hardest fought battles for both sides of the entire war and I for one am inclined to agree! Twelve of the Group's aircraft were shot down either before bombs away or shortly thereafter, leaving the Royal Flush all by herself. I believe at one time we tried to attach ourselves to the 95th Bomb Group for protection, however this did not last for long. Flak had knocked out one of the left engines as well as one on the right wing making it impossible to keep up with any formation.

Once we were completely alone the fighters really started their attacks. I think at this time I should say what follows are through the tail gunners eyes as I was far to busy to look around. The fighters were very well coordinated and were coming in waves of four abreast. Thery were not firing until approximately 800 yards and neither was I. I lined up on the number two man form my left and fired three short bursts. His left wing flew off over his plane and crashed into the plane to the outside. Both went down on fire. I then switched to their inside plane on the right and fired at him. Smoke started coming from the plane and the canopy came off, the plane rolled over ejecting the pilot. I couldn’t follow his plight as I had one more plane to deal with. Just as I brought my sights to bear on him, he peeled off to his left (my right).

There was a period of about 4 or 5 minutes respite, then they started again. I believe we may have been about 15 thousand feet as two Ju-88’s joined the fray, with two engines out there was no way we could maintain high altitude. Again there were 4 FW 190’s, only this time they were staggered more or less one behind the other, not in a straight line as were the first bunch. This time however the two Ju-88’s were on each end of the 4 fighters making six aircraft lined up on us. For some unknown reason, I decided to try for the bigger aircraft first. I thought I noticed something hanging from the bottom of their aircraft. About that time, here come the rockets. A total of 8 rockets come at us in about 1 minute of time, all missed. It dawned on me that what I saw beneath the aircraft were their flaps. They needed to lower their flaps to give them a more stable platform for their rockets.

I started firing at the Ju-88 on the left and soon he was on fire and sliding off on his right wing. The other aircraft had closed to within 600 yards, and I just started raking my fire from left to right and back again. During this exchange two of the FW-190’s in the center crashed into each other, as I believe I hit them both at the same time. So we have a total of six planes shot down and we don’t know how many, if any, were damaged. About this time I believe you ordered me to fire off my remaining ammo and come out of the tail position. At this time we were below 10,000 ft and did not know if we were going to ditch or not. We began throwing anything that wasn’t nailed down out to lighten the aircraft. We were successful and didn’t ditch.

After searching in bad weather conditions for our field, we finally found it and landed safely. I remember sitting on the grass and vomiting for what seemed like an eternity. I was asked to secure my guns, which I did. I do not recall whether any of us put in claims for downed aircraft, as this was superficial compared to losing the entire Group except one plane. Besides, it wouldn’t have done any good as we all knew any aircraft shot down had to be verified by at least one or two aircraft other than your own. I remember your going in the ambulance with John Shaffer (waist gunner). A few days later we were sent to the flak house for R&R. What an absolutely lovely house and grounds and the locals could not have done more to make our stay more pleasant

Bill DeBlasio gave me a copy of this letter to Rosie and asked me that his account of the Munster mission not be posted while he was still with us. Bill left us 8/12/2001, not long after sharing these memories. He was a humble man, not searching for medals or recognition but wanted his Family to know what hell he had seen from his tail gun position. He was simply doing his job that day protecting his fellow crewmembers and aircraft from the onslaught of German fighters. He did that job above and beyond the call of duty. I thought it only appropriate that 60 years after that mission, his story be told. The nightmares are now over for Bill, and we wish him eternal rest and our sincere gratitude.

Michael Faley-100th Bomb Group Photo Archives and Historian

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