VICTORY IN ITALY
- Aviation Features
- Victory in Italy
By
THOMAS McKELVEY CLEAVER
26th March 2025
FEATURE
With World War Two approaching a conclusion, the climactic air combats during the last days of the Italian campaign are documented.
Spring finally arrived in northern Italy in mid-March 1945 as the deep snow in the Apennine Mountains began to melt. The war was in what turned out to be its final stages, with the battle for Europe reaching a desperate climax.
At the end of the month, 1st Lt Dave Lewis of the USAAF’s P-47-equipped 57th Fighter Group (FG) wrote in his diary about ‘the big picture’ as he saw it: “During the last weeks of the winter, the fifteen daily missions the group flies had become somewhat frustrating because there weren’t as many juicy targets left to shoot up, but the flak was still intense. Everyone was thinking that the way had been cleared so when does the offensive start? On a few occasions, the group escorted bombers into Austria without losing a single bomber under its control.”
‘Yellow Tail Mustangs’ – a superb colour view of North American P-51D Mustangs from the 52nd Fighter Group in 1944. Nearest the camera is 44-13287 WD-M ‘Miss Ruth’
USAAF/NARA
The finale to the war in Italy saw the 57th Bomb Wing’s (BW) North American B-25 Mitchell bombers leave Corsica in early April, a year after their arrival, for bases on the mainland. With new targets in Austria and northern Yugoslavia, and the front lines in the Apennines moving north, Corsica was too distant to allow the bombers to operate with full loads.
Gaining ground in Italy had been a long and hard struggle. The previous year, 1944, had notably seen the arrival of the 332nd Fighter Group, better known as
the Tuskegee Airmen. Operating out of Ramitelli airfield and flying red-tailed North American P-51 Mustangs, they escorted Fifteenth Air Force bombing raids into Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Germany. The unit, famously comprising all-black fighter pilots, earned an impressive combat record.
A Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress of the 97th Bomb Group hits the Gothic Line in 1945
USAAF/ NARA
The 57th’s 310th Bomb Group (BG) began the move from Ghisonaccia to Fano, an airfield on the Adriatic coast, on March 30, 1945. The main group arrived on April 6 and the entire move was finished by the 10th. Everyone was impressed that Fano was a well-built seaside town located at the end of the old Roman Via Flaminia, an ancient high road that had escaped the ravages of war. The airfield was located a mile south of the town. The new quarters were long, single-storey structures which had been divided into three-room apartments. Most importantly for the groundcrews, there were dedicated hangars for maintenance work.
The 321st BG commenced its move from Solenzara to Falconara airfield on the Adriatic coast on March 31, when the advance ground echelon departed for the mainland. The group flew its first mission from Falconara on April 5, when Dan Bowling, a newly promoted captain, led 20 bombers as the 321st’s contribution to an 80-aircraft strike against German Defence Area ‘Harry’, where they dropped fragmentation bombs on troop positions and gun emplacements. While sorties were still flown to hit targets in the Brenner Pass, situated on the Italian border with Austria, the focus was now on missions directly supporting the forthcoming Allied ground offensive.
Lockheed P-38 Lightning 43-28650 ‘Nellie Ann’ of the 82nd Fighter Group, the top-scoring P-38 group in the Mediterranean theatre
USAAF/NARA
Mitchells in action
On April 4, the 340th BG commenced its move to Rimini, south of Venice on the Adriatic coast. Morale perked up when it was discovered that quarters would be in Miramare and Riccione, which were fashionable summer resorts that had been popular with holidaymakers before the war. After nearly three years under canvas from North Africa onwards, they would be indoors at last.
The 340th’s war diarist wrote: “The rooms have running water, are wired for lights, and have suffered no bomb or shell damage. Everybody is blinking with amazement at finding himself plunked down in these pleasant little towns with fairly well-dressed people, attractive girls, and small shops.”
All the wing’s personnel quickly discovered the widespread presence of military police. The days back on Corsica of not worrying whether one had shaved, if clothes were oil stained, and that all officers were saluted properly by enlisted men were gone. Crew chief Fred Lawrence noted in his diary that “people are complaining about having rejoined the Army.”
The final Allied offensive in Italy began with massive aerial and artillery bombardments on April 9, 1945. The 57th FG flew 30 missions that day, targeting enemy command posts and heavy artillery positions. Groundcrews worked with renewed vigour, seeing the tangible results of their work.
Meanwhile, the 57th BW were now operating with “maximum effort” to support the Allied armies. All three groups and the 12 component squadrons flew multiple missions every day. Capt Jackson, the 321st BG war diarist, wrote on April 11: “With the new Italian offensive rolling along, the target for today was the Argenta Reserve Area. Wing called for another maximum effort day, and we came through with 48 Mitchells taking off at 0758 hours, and 24 more taking off at 0853 hours. The past three days, briefings have begun in the early morning darkness, but no one seems to mind, just so the offensive keeps going.”
Mission 846, bombing the troop assembly area at Argenta in front of the Eighth Army’s Australian division, was Capt Dan Bowling’s 60th and most memorable mission of the war. He led eighteen 445th Bomb Squadron (BS) Mitchells at the head of 48 B-25s from all four 321st group squadrons in
Flo, one of the newest bombers in the 445th.
The pre-mission briefing had emphasized that timing was of the essence. It was feared that the two German divisions at Argenta were ready to mount a counterattack. Bowling and his bombardier Joe Silnutz were told Allied troops would light smoke pots to mark their lines; the target was very close to the Allied positions. “If the white smoke changes to yellow, do not bomb,” they were told, as yellow smoke would mean the Allied troops had started their attack.
The thousands of fragmentation bombs they were to drop over the enemy would give Allied troops the cover needed when they commenced their advance. Bowling asked for information regarding the defences and was told there were over 200 anti-aircraft guns. “We were to bomb at 10,500 feet and 200 miles per hour,” he recalled. “This was the most heavily defended target we had gone against. I knew it was going to be tough.”
A P-51D Mustang of the USAAF’s 31st Fighter Group. The aircraft displays 13 ‘kill’ markings
USAAF/NARA
Republic P-47D Thunderbolt 'Torrid Tessie' of the 346th Fighter Squadron escorting bombers while being flown by Lt Homer St Onge on February 25, 1945
USAAF
Take-off time was confirmed to be 0758hrs. A preview of things to come came when it took three tries to get
Flo’s right engine to turn over and start. When Bowling stopped short of the runway to make his pre-flight check, there was a sharp drop on the right engine magnetos. With one turn over the field for joinup, Bowling led the 48 Mitchells on a 40-minute flight over the Adriatic to Ravenna, the point where they turned inland to head for Argenta. “When we were climbing to 10,500 feet, I realized the plane was very sluggish,” he wrote. “When we got to altitude, I had to set the engines at nearly full throttle to maintain 200mph, and the cylinder head temperatures on both engines were nearly at the red line.
“I had to do something to save the engines, so I notified the formation I was reducing speed [by] 20mph and climbing 500 feet. Three minutes from the target, we would dive back down to the correct altitude and pick up the right speed.” It was crucial that the bombers were flying at the right speed and altitude when they dropped their loads; those were the settings in the Norden bombsights.
The formation arrived over the target three minutes early. Bowling increased power and dived back to 10,500 feet, picking up speed to 200mph. When the bombers turned on to their run, co-pilot Mitchell announced he could see yellow smoke on the ground. Silnutz replied: “Bomb doors closing.” Sensing something wrong, Bowling screamed at Silnutz to re-open the doors. “Roll forward six or seven hundred feet and bomb! I’ll take the blame!”
Mitchell argued they were too late. “Then the flak was all around us,” Bowling remembered. “The plane on our right was hit twice and gone. I pulled to the right and had both engines past the red line, waiting for the explosion.” The formation followed. Enemy gunners then put a solid field of fire right into the place they would have been. Bowling turned back left and 45 seconds later Silnutz called “bombs away!”
Bowling immediately rolled left and reduced power. “The engines sounded ready to blow, so I got us headed back to the Adriatic, where at least we’d have a chance of being picked up. Moments later, the cylinder head temperatures came back down to red line.”
When the bombers returned to Ancona, there were two jeeps with four officers waiting at
Flo’s hardstand. “I thought we’d done it, hit our own troops,” Bowling rued. Silnutz and Mitchell climbed out while Bowling shut down. “I saw it was the intel officer, ops officer, group bombardier and the deputy group CO. I figured we’d had it. And then they grabbed Silnutz and Mitchell and were shaking their hands.” When Bowling crawled out, he was told the mission had been perfect – they had hit the enemy directly on target with a 100 percent drop.
Five pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group, popularly known as the Tuskegee Airmen, at Ramitelli airfield. Left to right: Lt Dempsey W Morgan, Lt Carroll S Woods, Lt Robert H Nelson Jr, Capt Andrew D Turner, and Lt Clarence P Lester
USAAF