In April 1944, the skies over the English coast became a hunting ground. American bombers were returning from a massive raid on the Hamm marshalling yards in Germany, tired and low on fuel. The Germans had other plans. They decided to relaunch their intruder attacks, hoping to cut down the huge flow of Allied bombers that pounded Germany by day.
The first big strike came on the night of April 22nd to 23rd, 1944. Between twelve and twenty Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornets, led by 23-year-old Major Dietrich Peltz, took off from bases in the Netherlands and France. Their mission: catch the returning U. S.
bomber streams over the North Sea, just off the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, and hit them hard as they prepared to land. The Me 410 was a deadly machine, a two-man bomber destroyer with heavy firepower. It carried two machine guns and four cannons firing forward, plus two more machine guns in rear positions. The Hornets flew low, skimming just 50 meters above the waves to dodge British radar.
Their own radar and radio gear scanned the night for enemy chatter and targets. As they reached the English coast, they got the order to climb fast to 14,000 feet and join the bomber stream. The U. S.
bombers were coming in thick, lights blazing for safe landings, and the ground radar was overwhelmed. The Hornets slipped right in among them. The first American plane to fall was a B-24 Liberator from the 446th Bomb Group. It was approaching the coast near Southwold in Suffolk, lit up like a beacon.
A Hornet stalked it, pumped cannon shells into it, and set it ablaze. The crew didn’t want to bail out into the freezing, dark North Sea, which was almost certain death. They fought to make land. As they passed the coast, some jumped.
The pilot, First Lieutenant James Munsey, and his co-pilot, Second Lieutenant Robert O’Crowley, held the burning bomber steady until the other five crew bailed out. Then the plane exploded, killing both men. It went down near Kessingland. Not far away, another Liberator from the 448th Bomb Group, named Repulsor, was shredded by German cannon fire.
It crashed into marshland, killing all ten crew aboard. A third B-24 took heavy hits, its number two engine blown out and hydraulics gone. All aboard bailed out, and the plane slammed into a railway line near Worlingham. Six men died, and the rest were badly injured.
Another bomber went down at Barsham in Suffolk, where just three of the crew escaped with their lives. The other seven were killed in the crash. The history books give different numbers, but a broad count is twelve B-24s lost that night, including those shot out of the sky and others written off after struggling back to base. But the Germans didn’t get away untouched.
Two Me 410s were shot down by the bombers’ defensive guns. One Hornet attacked a 389th Bomb Group Liberator side-on, using its own guns to strafe the American plane. The Liberator plummeted into marshland at Cantley, killing six of its crew. The other Me 410 went down near Mary in Norfolk, exploding and killing both German crewmen.
That Hornet and its crew were never heard from again. The Germans considered the trade a fair exchange: losing four airmen to down thirteen enemy aircraft. This attack came on the same night as the first Operation Steinbock raid on London, the Luftwaffe’s failed attempt to restart the Blitz. The intruders would return to England once more in March 1945, in an even bigger operation.
If you ever want to see a Messerschmitt 410 Hornisse up close, two survive today. One sits in storage at the Smithsonian. The other is on full public display at the Royal Air Force Museum at Cosford, a true relic of those dangerous night skies.
