It was the first and only night mission we ever flew. But it stands out in my memory vividly. Even after 60 years I can visualize it all, in the night, as I drift to sleep remembering the past. This mission was flown under a bomber's moon. A bomber's moon is what we called a brilliant full moon that illuminated the ground below almost as though it was bathed in soft, dim daylight. But we could see every detail on the ground.
The sun was just slipping under the horizon in the West as we started our engines. But we could see a dazzling full moon slowly rising, throwing it's light over the landscape as we climbed for altitude heading east into Germany. Below us the moonlight caught the Meuse River and turned it into a snake with a shimmering surface. Soon after the Meuse slipped under us we could see the Rhine ahead bathed in the moonlight.
I was transfixed with the beauty of the images before me. A sudden series of flak bursts jarred me back to reality. I could see the red hot core of each flak shell as it exploded just to my right. In all this beauty death wasn't ever far away. I thought of the mission. Four thousand pounds of bombs that I would direct onto a target bringing destruction to a group of military warehouses below. How had I lost my concentration, seduced by the moonlight over the Rhine and allowed reality to slip away? Where was my head? How could I have forgotten, even for a moment, why I was there?
Now back to work. Norden switches on. Bomb bay switches on. Intervelometer on. Gyros up to speed. Check bomb bay station lights. OK. All on. We completed the mission successfully. Results were good. I don't remember the name of the target. But I do still remember the moonlight on the Rhine.
Copyright © 2002 Art Kramer and Coastal Computers, Inc.