80 years ago Sept. 27
World War 2's most spectacular air battle
On September 22, five days before the 80th anniversary of the most spectacular air battle almost nobody ever heard of, both the New York Times and the Washington Post ran articles about the recent identification of the remains of John Tarbert, who perished on the mission.
I’ve been fascinated by the Kassel Mission ever since 1998 when I visited the village of Heimboldshausen, Germany, which was the site of a major event in the history of my father’s tank battalion. The German historian Walter Hassenpflug took me on a side trip to the Kassel Mission Memorial in nearby Friedlos and told me about the battle. When I returned home I contacted the survivors’ association and began interviewing people involved with the mission. Last year I published “Up Above the Clouds to Die,” which is available at Amazon in print and for Kindle.
In my last Substack, I introduced some of the audio I’ve recorded. Today, in honor of the Kassel Mission, I’m going to reproduce a transcript of my interview with George Noorigian, a bombardier who survived the mission, along with some of the audio.
(There will be some slight discrepancies between the audio and the transcript, due in part to editing and in part to the fact that the transcriptionist wasn’t paid very much.
George Noorigian
Bombardier, Mercer Crew
703rd Squadron, 445th Bomb Group
Spring Lake, N.J., March 30, 1999
George Noorigian: See, he (Jack Mercer, the pilot) was up in the front. I was in the waist. Normally I would be in the nose with the navigator, but the B-24s are different. The B-17 had room up there, but the 24s were terrible for the bombardier. They had a nose turret, so you couldn’t see anything. You had to look down underneath. But when you flew on a mission, you didn’t have to worry about bombing yourself. The lead bombardier, just like the lead navigator, the lead pilot, you just followed them.
Aaron Elson: So when you saw the lead bomber drop its bombs, you would bomb?
George Noorigian: Yeah. Then you drop them, see. So what I did, instead of being up there in that hole, they said I could go into the turret in the front. But there was’t much room in there. And if I had to get out of there, forget about it. So I said, Look, give me a waist position. So I went to the right waist. There was a right and a left. And I wanted a gun in case something came up. So I had a .50-caliber gun in the right waist position. That’s where I flew most of the missions.
And according to Mercer, we were credited with seven planes. I was credited with one Focke-Wulf 190. And the co-pilot verified it. The co-pilot was on the right side, and this fellow was coming in from the right. They were coming in so close, they were coming in between us. No long-distance, they were right on top of you. In fact, I looked up, at the window, and I saw this FW-190, with the big swastika on it, and I could see the pilot, real clear. He was hunched over. And that day our squadron happened to be in the low position. There’s low and medium high and high. Usually you wanted to go into the high position because of anti-aircraft, but this day we were in the low position which was a good idea because the German fighters came from up above. And they came down, they swooped down on the squadron, on the whole group. And the whole group, within less than ten minutes, 25 of us were shot down.
There were planes blowing up. I saw engines go flying out of their hoods. I saw parachutes. Parts of planes. It was just one hell of a mess. And we had our .50-caliber guns, we had I think eight of them, shooting like hell. This is above 20,000 feet. It was one hell of a mess. And we got one shot from a Messerschmitt that came in. He was on the left side. It wasn’t on my side. He came in low, and the Messerschmitt had four 20-millimeter cannons. Four of them! Along the wing. And he gave us a shot there. One hit the tail, you know the double tails they have on the B-24? The one hit the tail and it made a mess out of the tail. The second one came in, I was sitting when I was firing; there are no seats in the back, and we had boxes of what they call chaff. The chaff you distributed in certain positions over there, and what that did was knock out the radar. They would throw out bunches of it, and from the ground, especially when you had cloud cover, it would look like there’s a squadron of planes there.
So we had the boxes of chaff and I sat on a box with my .50-caliber gun. So one shell hit the tail, and the second one came in on the side of the plane — blew a hole I could put my head in it — and it went into the box. It went into the box and blew up. But it blew in such a way that it blew it the other way. It’s a lucky thing I’m still here.
Aaron Elson: These 20-millimeter shells explode?
George Noorigian: Yeah, and what happened, one section of the plane in the back was all full of oxygen tanks, because we had to be on oxygen over 15,000 feet, and it blew out five or six tanks. Blew them out! Everything is white smoke. And the radio went out. You didn’t know what the hell was going on in the front. [I put my parachute on], because I didn’t want to be up in the air with a flak jacket with no chute, just taking a chance. You didn’t know whether you were gonna get out alive or not. But it blew out the oxygen tanks, and it made a hole on the side of the plane.
“I didn’t know what the hell, I was ready to jump out of the goddamn thing. The plane was gonna blow up.”
The third shell came through the bomb bays, where the gasoline tanks are. It made a nice hole in one of the bomb bays and went into one of the gas tanks. It knocked out part of the hydraulic system. But it went into the tank, and since there was no fire, it made a big hole in the tank. Those are self-sealing tanks, but this hole was too big for it to seal and the 100-octane gas was just going all over the plane. Hundred octane. Eight .50-caliber guns going. I tell you, I didn’t know what the hell, I was ready to jump out of the goddamn thing. The plane was gonna blow up.
And another one came in and it went into one of the engines. It hit the prop. And when we landed, you should have seen the mark that was on that prop. But that’s what happened, on that volley of four 20-millimeter shells from that Messerschmitt. So I’m here by the grace of God.
Aaron Elson: So you took one volley of four 20-millimeter shells from an ME-109.
George Noorigian: Yeah. A Messerschmitt. It was Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs. The one I had was a Focke-Wulf. I saw the Focke-Wulf there, see, and this was Hermann Goering’s squadron, Yellow-Nose Squadron. We were off course. We were supposed to bomb a tank facility down below in Kassel, and the lead navigator was slightly off course. We had this cloud cover, you couldn’t see anything, and what happened was, we got away from our main group, which had fighter protection.
Aaron Elson: Did you know that you were off course?
George Noorigian: No, we didn’t know. We wouldn’t know it. Above the clouds at 22, 24,000 feet, 22,000? We in the back of the plane didn’t know where the hell we were.
Aaron Elson: You were dependent on the lead ship?
George Noorigian: The only thing I know, the lead bombardier dropped his bombs and we dropped ours. Where they dropped, I don’t know. We didn’t know where the hell we were. But the only thing I know, we were off by ourselves.
Aaron Elson: You could see that?
George Noorigian: Yeah. And then, they saw that on the ground. And boy, they came up there, and they made one hell of a mess. Twenty-five out of 35 planes.
Aaron Elson: How could they see that on the ground if there was cloud cover?
George Noorigian: Well, they could; they probably had radar. You didn’t have a hundred percent cloud cover. And they had the radar, they could see. You understand?
So that was the deal in the back of the plane. See, Mercer didn’t know what the hell was going on in the back. And then his co-pilot, Paul Pouliot, Paul and I were very friendly, yeah, he was a French-Canadian, and I remember when we were going into London, we would get a pass to go to London maybe every three or four weeks, that’s where we went. We were based 120 miles north of London, so I would go down with Paul. He spoke real good French, and we would go down there and there were a lot of French girls down there, French-Canadian, boy, he used to make time with them.
Aaron Elson: What was it like inside the plane? Was it windy?
George Noorigian: Windy? No.
Aaron Elson: From all the holes and everything?
George Noorigian: Well, yeah, the one window — I had a window on my side, a big one, and there was one on the other. We had to have that open, so we could see what the hell is going on.
Aaron Elson: And you were flying at what, almost two hundred miles an hour?
George Noorigian: The planes used to go approximately 180 miles an hour, 180, 185. They were faster than the B-17. I liked the 17; it was more comfortable.
Aaron Elson: Did you fly in 17s too?
George Noorigian: I flew in 17s, but never on a mission. You had a beautiful view in the front; they didn’t have a nose turret. And the 17s, you could knock out the engines and the damn thing was like a glider. But on the 24, they had what they called a Davis wing. It was a very narrow wing. That was for speed. We could go 15 or 20 miles an hour faster than the 17. But if you lost an engine, or two engines, you had a tough time keeping that plane up. You didn’t have the floating power, see. That was the Davis wing.
Aaron Elson: You lost two engines coming back, didn’t you?
George Noorigian: We had the one engine was bad, but we had the three engines as far as I know that were still all right.
Aaron Elson: What was that flight back like?
George Noorigian: Well, what happened after the fighter support came in — finally we got fighter support and then the Luftwaffe got the hell away. And the fighter support came in and they helped us. They flew with us. And we didn’t know what the deal was, whether we’d have to dump the plane or not. But we had that one shell that went into the gas tank, and all that gas —hundred octane gas.
Aaron Elson: Could you smell it?
George Noorigian: Ohhh, sure! It was terrible. It was just leaking down into the bomb bay and we were in the back of it. And I say it’s a good thing nobody smoked. You know, there’s one thing about our plane — nobody smokes in the plane. I went on a mission — I had to take someone else’s place one time — and the guys were puffing a cigarette at altitude. In the back. I didn’t say anything, but that’s a hell of a thing. They were on oxygen.
But Jesus, finally what happened, the [co-pilot] came and stuck something in the hole to try to seal it. That’s what he did. So after that, there were just two planes flying, where normally we’d have ten or twelve in our squadron. It was just the two of us. The lead plane, they never shot him down. We were next to it. So they told the lead plane we’re gonna stop at Manston, because we’ve had a lot of damage on the plane and we didn’t know how much gas we have. At Manston, you could land a plane any way. The runways were just as wide as they were long. It was an emergency British base. Right beyond the White Cliffs of Dover. You know why they call it the White Cliffs of Dover?
Aaron Elson: No.
George Noorigian: All the pigeons roost on it.
Aaron Elson: Awhat did you think when you came in for that landing?
George Noorigian: Oh, well, we were all ready; we didn’t know what the hell was going to happen. Because they shot out the hydraulic system and we didn’t know how much brake we had. But they came in, and they just had enough brake to stop the plane. It stopped the plane. It came in, and boy, we watched the goddamn thing coming down. We were in the back, and it came in nice, and he did a nice job of it, coming in, Mercer. He and Pouliot, because you had to have two guys up there. Two of them. Not just one. It wasn’t just Mercer; he had to have Pouliot there. Because a lot of times when we used to come in for a landing, Pouliot would land the damn plane. But you had to have two. Mercer was good.
“That’s what happened, on that volley of four 20-millimeter shells from that Messerschmitt. So I’m here by the grace of God.”
Aaron Elson: Did you have wheels?
George Noorigian: Yes. We came in on wheels. We didn’t bottom out. But they had to hand crank them down. They hand cranked them, and it worked. And I remember, finally we came into the landing, and boy they had the fire department following us. They didn’t know what the hell was gonna happen. Finally it landed, and the plane stopped. Boy, I got out of that plane, it’s the first time I ever kissed the ground. Honest to Christ, just to be on the ground. It was the first time I got out of that plane and I kissed the ground. And you should have seen the mess! We had so many bullet holes, and that one hole on the side, and oh, Jesus, the tail was — and that was almost a new plane.
Aaron Elson: Really
George Noorigian: See, normally people think that when you go over there in combat they issue you a new plane. You don’t get a new plane until you fly about 16 or 17 missions. What they do, the old planes that were flying, you had to take one of the old planes. And a number of times in the beginning when we had the old plane, we had trouble with the plane; we had to come back. We never could complete the mission and we never got credit for it. But it wasn’t until the 16th or 17th mission that we were assigned a plane. And then the plane that we were assigned, they had a problem with the engines, so they gave us another plane, a new plane. And what a mess, I’m telling you. It’s too bad in a way we couldn’t go back to our base. If we had just gone back to our base, I wanted them to see the plane the way it was. They never did see it at the base. And you know what? Jimmy Stewart was the squadron commander there. He was the commander of the 703rd.
It’s the 445th Bomb Group, and the 703rd Squadron. There was a 703rd and a 702nd, 700th and 701st, there were four squadrons in a bomb group. Jimmy Stewart was connected to the 445th. And I used to talk to him; every once in a while they would have a dance in the officers’ club, and he would always be there, and the Red Cross would get a bunch of girls from town, and they’d get a GI orchestra to come in. And all the girls would be there. But then you would talk to him there. He was a regular guy. I talked to him, and I never forgot the day he stuck his hand in his pocket and he came out with a knife. He said, “You see this knife? This is my good luck piece. I always carry it with me, and I never have a problem.” From what I understand he flew about 13 or 15 missions. See, when you’re up high you don’t fly every time. I had B — every six missions you got an Air Medal, and I got another Air Medal for shooting down the fighter — so I have five Air Medals. I have the Air Medal and four clusters, so each cluster is an Air Medal, you put those on the original one. And then also when we finished our missions, we were given the Distinguished Flying Cross, which I have, in fact my son wanted all this, I had it upstairs, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with the oak leaf clusters.
Aaron Elson: Did anybody take pictures of the plane when it came back?
George Noorigian: Not that I know of. We didn’t have any cameras that I know of. That=s why I say I hoped they would have come back to our base. The pilot was very cautious and he wanted to go to Manston, but we had enough fuel I think to land at our base in Tibenham. And I wanted the guys who were there waiting for us to see the plane, because they were all waiting for us to come back.
Aaron Elson: What was the reception when you did get back the next day?
George Noorigian: Oh, Jesus. They took us in for briefing, see, we waited, and they gave us a plane. I don’t remember staying there overnight. Mercer said we stayed there overnight, and then they gave us a plane to go back. That I don’t remember. They had a plane there, from our squadron, that they worked on and it was all ready to go back, so they gave us the plane to take back to our base.
Aaron Elson: So you flew back?
George Noorigian: Yeah. We flew back to our base. He says we stayed at Manston overnight. I don=t remember.
Aaron Elson: Did your plane have a name?
George Noorigian: Usually, when you got a new plane, they wanted you to put a name on it? So you had a crew chief on the ground. One crew chief, he took care of that plane. He didn’t take care of two or three. Just one. Him and maybe there were four or five others underneath him. That was their job, to take care of that plane. So when we got that plane, a new plane, and we were talking about naming it, he came over to us and said, “Fellows, can I say something?”
I said, “Sure.”
He said, “Every time they put a name on a plane, the plane gets shot down. Do me a favor. Don’t put any name on this plane.” And we never put a name on it. Ain’t that something? The plane gets shot down, he says, every time they give it a name, maybe not the next mission but it’ll get shot down. And some of those names they had were — I had a list of those names, I don’t know what happened to it. And then, what they used to put on the plane, every time you flew a mission they would put a bomb on it. And it showed you how many missions that the plane flew.
We had one plane there, they called it the Cat. You should have seen all the bombs on that damn thing. They couldn’t shoot that damn thing down. And the crew chiefs, day and night they’d have to work, they only had trouble with that plane. They said, “Gee, one of these days it’s gonna be shot down and they’re gonna give us a new plane.”
So what happened — this is before the mission — there was one group that had a bad time. They lost so many planes on the missions that they were going to disband the group and move the guys and the planes to the other groups. So what they did, they distributed the planes. They said, “We’re gonna give one to the 703rd Squadron.” Right away they said, “Ohhh,” the fellows with the Cat. “Finally we’re gonna get a new plane.”
So what happened, they told us to go and fly to the base, which wasn’t far. You had to be careful when you flew there because they had so many groups there, all close together, when you’re in a flight pattern you had to be careful you were not in somebody else’s flight pattern. So we went there. I wasn’t gonna go at first, but “Ahh, let’s go. Let’s go.” My co-pilot, Paul, says, “Let’s go.”
I said, “All right.”
We went there, and there were six of us. We were gonna get rid of the Cat. We were gonna take the Cat up there, leave it, and come back with a new plane. So we went on that base, and we went up to the tower and said, “We’re from the 445th. You’ve got a plane for us?”
“Yeah,” he says, “there’s the jeep. He’ll take you out to it.”
And so we all got in the jeep and we went out there. And we’re going along and we’re seeing all these planes. So finally he stops in front of this one plane. I said, “Is that the plane?”
“Yes, it’s here. That’s your plane.”
It was another Cat! We looked at it. What a mess that plane was! I said, “We were supposed to get a new plane!”
“I’m sorry. This is what was assigned to you. You’ve got to take it, fellows. You’ve got to go back with her.”
Well, Jesus Christ, we looked at that goddamn plane, and I’m telling you, when they got the thing ready to go, and they were starting up the engines, they had trouble starting the engines. It was terrible. So the co-pilot, Paul, called me in the back. He said, “George, put your parachute on. I don’t even think we can get back to our base. We may have to ditch this plane.” He said it was terrible.
So we managed to take off, and we only had a short distance to go. So we went there. And we pulled into the base. And they were all waiting for us to come back. Well, we came in for a landing, and each plane had its own place to park, so we knew where to go. We pulled the plane down and we went into the parking spot. When we pulled that plane in that parking spot, the crew chief that was there and the guys, I think they all cried. They said, “Where’s the new plane?”
“This is what they told us to take and that’s it.”
Well, the guys almost died. They almost died. You know, that plane was shot down after two missions. I found out later. Can you imagine that? Jesus Christ.
I was married and I had my one son that was here, Dennis. I was married before Pearl Harbor, and I had a son, he was about two years old at that time. So I had a picture of my wife and my son together, and I had a bunk; we had nissen huts, you should have seen, the accommodations were terrible. Jesus Christ. If you wanted to take a shower you had to go outside. No toilet. The toilet was outside. To get toilet paper was a project — and if you got toilet paper, you should have seen the toilet paper. It was like sandpaper. I sent some home to my wife. It was terrible. Then the showers, every time you went to take a shower, cold as hell. Every once in a while somebody went there, he’d come back, “Hey, fellas! There’s hot water!” Jesus, everybody’d be running out there. You had to go out there fast before all the hot water disappeared. But I had this picture of my wife and my son. I kept it by my bunk. And there was another nice guy in our squadron, he was married before Pearl Harbor too, and his wife was expecting. He used to see that picture. He’d say, “George, I just love it. My wife is expecting. I hope she has a boy. I want to have a picture taken of her and the baby.” And one day I’m in the bunk there taking it easy, he comes running in, he says, “George! George! George!”
I said, “What happened?”
He says, “I just got word from my wife. She had a baby boy!” And, he says, “Boy, I’m gonna have that picture taken. Sure as hell.” He says, “I want it right next to me.”
A week later, his plane was shot down and he was killed. A week later.
World War II Oral History is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
For more about the Kassel Mission, visit The Kassel Mission Historical Society web site. And for more firsthand accounts, check out Up Above the Clouds to Die.
