While Herman was out of commission with the ruptured eardrum, his crew flew seven missions. At the end of each flight day those not flying would wait in anticipation for the B-17's to return, counting each one as they appeared in the sky....
The assigned target was I G Farben Industrie plant at Ludwigshafen deep into Germany. This was an important chemical factory, critical to supplying Germany's war effort. An interesting aside is the fact that IG Farben also had a plant near Auschwitz which used slave laborers...
The target on this mission was the port city of Ludwigshafen, deep into Germany. The city was at the junction of two rivers and was an important Allied target because of its oil refinery and chemical factories....
On Sunday, December 5th, 1943, Herman was awakened for his 2nd missions at 2:30 am. The target for the day was the factories at the airport near La Rochelle, deep in France, southwest of Paris....
Charles L. "Steve" Stevenson was the navigator of Herman's original crew. He and Herman flew side by side in "the nose" of the B-17, and they became close friends....
From Moses Lake, the crew moved east to Kearney Army Air Field in middle Nebraska for additional Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Training. Kearney was a heavy bombardment processing center, a "staging area" where the crews were prepared for overseas duty....