Once the force of 339 B-17s (2) was assembled, it then flew out over the English Channel and over the Northern coast of France. As a bid to decieve German air defences, the flight plan involved a route that, at least in the beginning, implied that the force was going to bomb Nürnberg or Schweilnfurt (1). Then, south of the city of Fulda, the fleet changed heading towards the Northeast, and the awaiting city of Halberstadt.

Flightplan of the Pink Lady for the Halberstadt mission: flightplanh.jpg

In his own words, Brigadier General Frederick L. Anderson (not on the Pink Lady, but participating in the same mission) recounts what then happened when the destination was reached by the fleet:

"(...)When we arrived in the Mosquitos, we saw the squadrons of bombers coming in from the south. To our right were the Harz Mountains; we could see the Brocken (highest peak of the Harz mountains). The planes flew over the southern portion of the city, dropping a few bombs as a prophylactic measure on exit roads where the inhabitants, responding to the air raid alarm fled towards the mountains.

The squadrons then regrouped at the north eastern corner of the city, over the road leading to Magdeburg. They circled twice until all the squadrons had joined the formation so that they could fly the attack in a close formation. The orders were for saturation bombing, i.e., concentration of bombs on the southern or middle section of the city. We didn’t know the city, had only a map to go by and our first visual impression. From this we knew that the main streets went through the middle from west to the east, in the north small villages, to the south mountains. We didn’t have time to dwell too much on the lay of the land since we still had the attack and flight back home ahead of us. We looked for the cardinal points of the city."

(...)We looked for the main arteries and the exits. Also where it would really burn. You know yourself where that is in an old city. You don’t have to be a medievalist to know that such cities were founded in 800 A.D. With that in mind the bombers concentrated on the corner houses so we could block the streets. Ideally a pile of rubble at the entrance and exit of every street.

The trap was sprung after we opened up the houses on either side of the streets. Then followed with incendiary canisters and fire bombs, etc. Then a third and fourth wave again to detonate the houses and burn them. This led to a criss-cross effect even though we always flew along the same path. Buildings that were still intact were hard to set afire. First the roofs had to be destroyed, opening made that go down to the second or ground floor where all the flammable material was. Otherwise we didn’t get area fires or fire storms, etc. (...)" (1)

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The bombing would leave about 300 people dead, and would create 1.5 million cubic meters of rubble that would need to be removed from the city (3). Three days later, the American ground invasion of the city would take place, followed four weeks later by the end of World War II.

Arial view of Halberstadt today: halberstadtbyair.jpg