Genshagen

The Mission That Earned the Cross

On a Sunday in August 1944, Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Burns flew in the lead ship of the 351st Bomb Group’s “A” box to the Daimler-Benz aero-engine works at Genshagen, just south of Berlin — a factory building the engines that powered the Luftwaffe. Thirty-four of the Group’s Fortresses crossed into enemy territory that day. Two did not come back. This room rebuilds the mission from the 351st Bomb Group Association’s own files — the field order, the flak log, the formation, the battle damage, and the crews’ own words in the debrief — and sets it beside Bob’s Form 5.

Date

6 Aug 1944

Target

Genshagen, near Berlin

His position

Pilot, lead box

His rank

Lt. Col.

His ship

42-97967

Recognition

Distinguished Flying Cross

01 / The Plan, as Briefed

From the field order in the mission file: when they started, where they were sent, and what they carried.

02 / The Route, in Flak

Every burst of flak the Group logged that day, by the clock and by altitude. They crossed the German coast near 20,000 feet around 10:40, climbed above 25,000 over the Berlin defenses, put their bombs on Genshagen at 12:24 — the apex of the day — and came home back across Heligoland at 13:33. Filled markers are moderate flak; open markers are meager. The exact log is in the table beneath the chart.

03 / Three Boxes Over the Target

The Group attacked in three boxes. Bob flew in the lead — which held the longest, straightest bomb run of the three: eighty seconds on a fixed heading while the following boxes needed only nine. The two aircraft lost to flak were both shot down over the target, out of the low and high boxes.

The lead bombardier that day, Capt. Allan D. Behrendt, flew with Bob and reported the run clean: The briefed aiming point was easily identified and was used.

04 / The Cost

The battle-damage list runs for pages — flak and 20 mm cannon damage to wings, tanks, stabilizers, oxygen lines. One representative entry, on a 508th Squadron ship, reads:

Lt. Kenneth C. Law

One of the men who did not return. Recorded Missing in Action and memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten. Awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. The two aircraft lost over Genshagen carried men; the numbers above each have a name behind them. (Burial record courtesy of the American Battle Monuments Commission.)

05 / The Voices in the File

The 351st preserved the crews’ verbatim comments from the debrief. On 6 August they were blunt — the Group had flown twelve-ship formations instead of the eighteen they trusted, and they had been sent within range of the Heligoland guns twice. These are their exact words.

• Want the 18 ship formation back— A/C 156-R, 509th Squadron (Crew)
• Twelve ship formation is ineffective— Lt. McGee, A/C 252-K, 510th Squadron
• There was no reason whatever for going within range of flak at Heligoland— Lt. Underhill, A/C 926-X, 509th Squadron
• Why did we come back over Heligoland?— A/C 696-Z, 509th Squadron (Crew)

The flak chart above answers them in data: Heligoland appears twice — 10:40 inbound and 13:33 on the way home — exactly the doubling the crews objected to.

06 / Where the Sources Differ

This archive weighs its sources against each other and shows the seams rather than hiding them.

• “Berlin” or “Genshagen”? — Our own mission index records the target as Berlin; the field order names it Genshagen / Daimler-Benz Motoren Works, about twenty miles south of the city. Both are true: Genshagen was the aiming point, “Berlin” the shorthand. We use Genshagen here, after the primary record.
• His ship: 42-97967, or “Z-965”? — The crew loadlist assigns Bob aircraft 42-97967; the Combat Bombing Flight Record logs the lead ship as “Z-965.” A common transcription variance between the two contemporaneous forms; noted, not resolved.
• ✓ His Form 5 confirms the file. His own flight log records 6 Aug 1944, B-17G, 8:30 — matching the mission file’s lead-crew record of take-off 0705 and landing 1535 to the minute.
• How many missions did he fly? — His combat total is itself contested across sources (the 351st records, his own recollections, and wartime press give different counts). That open question is tracked separately; this page documents one mission, not the tally.

07 / His Crew That Day

Eleven men in the lead ship, from the Group loadlist.

• PilotLt. Col. Robert W. Burns351st HQ · air commander
• Co-pilotCapt. Sterling L. McClusky
• Navigator1st Lt. Billy V. Gwyn
• BombardierCapt. Allan D. Behrendt
• Top turretS/Sgt Paul C. Reilly
• Radio op.T/Sgt Herman Appelman
• L. waist gunS/Sgt James D. McNeill
• R. waist gunS/Sgt Jim H. Foster
• Mickey op.2nd Lt. James S. Lunan
• Tail gunCapt. Morris V. Harman
• Navigator2nd Lt. Benton F. Love Jr.“Ben Love”

08 / From the Mission File

The primary artifacts, presented as documents rather than decoration. Track charts plot the route the navigators logged; the portraits are the men recorded in the Mission 185 file.

Men in the mission file

Portraits preserved by the 351st Bomb Group Association, identified by surname as filed.