From the S&S archives: B-17 crew's mission to bomb bridge didn't turn out quite as planned By Dave Diehl, S&S U.K. bureau European edition, Thursday, June 7, 1984 NORWICH, England - The 82nd Airborne Div had begun its D-Day assault on Ste. Mere-Eglise. The heavy B-17 bombers had already flown hundreds of sorties over the beaches of France to "soften up" the Germans. Tail gunner Hubert Robert and his crew on the Eradicator had returned from their first bomb run over the beaches that morning. Robert and his crew had flown 28 missions with the 452nd Bomb Group by this time in the war. They were the most experienced crew in the group - good candidates for the next special mission. That second mission on D-Day was. to be their last of the war. They had already flown their quota of 25. The D-Day flying missions were "milk runs," Robert said. Most. of the hundreds of crews flying out of East Anglia before D-Day were flying long, tiring deep penetration runs into Germany, where they met with a lot of anti-aircraft fire and German fighters. The three-hour missions to the French beaches on D-Day presented little challenge for the crews. Robert had come back to the base with no idea what or when the crew's next mission was to be. In the briefing room, the 10 men learned that the bomb's target was to be a bridge near Ste. Mere-Eglise, and the mission was to cut off the enemy's advance. German Panzers were coming in over the bridge and hindering the 82nd. The 82nd called in for a hit on the bridge to stop the Panzers. The Eradicator's only objective was to take out the bridge. "We made a couple passes on the bridge at low altitude," Robert said. "The bombardier was having a hard time lining up the bridge," he said, because the plane's sophisticated Norden sights were better suited to the high-altitude missions the bombers normally flew. "We were also worried about getting hit because we were flying so low," he said. The crewmen grew frustrated. They were flying low and were drawing ground fire. The low altitude made them much more vulnerable to ground artillery. "So finally, we said, 'Let's get rid of that thing and get the hell out of here,'" Robert said. "We ended up missing the bridge and we knocked out a church steeple." Their failed mission, it turned out, was a big plus for the 82nd. Robert learned a few years ago, while at an 82nd Airborne reunion, that the steeple had housed a German artillery spotter.