"Aug. 17, 1943, Over the Atlantic Ocean 300 Miles West of Lisbon" -- Capt. Hugh D. Maxwell Jr. of the 480th Antisubmarine Group out of Port Lyautey, Morocco, pilots his B-24D Liberator bomber on his way to cover an Allied convoy.

Cruising on instruments in solid weather at 1,500 feet, he gets a radio message that a pair of German Focke-Wulf 200 Condor bombers from the Luftwaffe base at Bordeaux, France,  are also headed for the convoy. Maxwell's navigator calculates that the enemy planes and the B-24 will arrive at the convoy at the same time.

"Ordinarily we kept complete radio silence when we were out on patrol, but in this case, when they got the intelligence report back at the base, they broke radio silence to radio us and tell us about these two Focke-Wulf 200s," Maxwell said in a telephone interview from his home in Florida.

A modified B-24D of the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command

By August 1943, it says, "the FW-200s began to appear, heavily armed with rapid-firing 20-millimeter cannon which gave them marked fire superiority over the B-24", the history says. Although B-24 casualties increased rapidly for the 480th, it says, the "final record is...one of which the group may well be proud." From March through October 1943, the 480th shot down "5 FW-200s, 2 DO-34s, and one JU-88; probably destroyed 1 JU-88, and damaged 2 FW-200s and 2 JU-88s." It lost 3 B-24s to enemy aircraft.

Focke-Wulf 200C Condor

Maxwell's encounter was  "The most spectacular air action for the American antisubmarine squadrons", according to Schoenfeld..

Maxwell's radar operator reported a contact at 15 miles, than another shortly thereafter, Schoenfeld writes. Turning toward the contacts and emerging from the overcast at 1,000 feet, Maxwell saw the two Condors about a mile ahead just as they were beginning parallel bombing runs on the convoy, .

"The nearer FW-200 broke off its bombing run, opened fire at a long range at the rapidly approaching Liberator, and went into a turn to the left. Maxwell closed up onto its tail, and the second Condor came in behind the B-24. The three aircraft then proceeded in line ahead, all firing vigorously."

The lead Condor "descended to just 50 feet off the sea, followed by the B-24 and the second Condor," Schoenfeld writes. "All three aircraft were taking heavy punishment" but the lead Condor was in particularly "bad shape and crashed into the sea. As Maxwell flew over its wreckage, struggling to control his badly damaged aircraft, his top turret gunner was able to join the tail gunner, and also occasionally the right waist gunner, in returning the fire of the second Condor.

"The plexiglass cover of the B-24's dorsal turret had been shattered and blown away so that the top gunner was exposed to the slipstream as he fired on the second FW-200," Schoenfeld says. "The B-24 was now almost out of control, and the crew took up ditching stations. The bombardier was unable to get rid of the depth charges because the hydraulic lines had been cut by enemy fire. The navigator, however, was able to jettison them by using the emergency release and they dropped away barely a minute before ditching."

Maxwell himself, now 98, picks up the story in an Aug. 5, 2014, email: "Just before crash landing, my No. 3 and 4 engines were out, the right wing on fire and with gaping holes from the cannon shells. It was no longer flying and I couldn't raise it even with full left rudder and aileron. I knew that when it hit the water we would almost certainly cartwheel, break up, explode and become a fiery mass of wreckage. In a last second desperate effort to avoid catastrophe, I kicked in full right rudder and threw the plane into a skid. When the right wing hit the water it put out the fire. The plane broke in two, but it did not cartwheel, break up, explode or burn."

The  high wing of the B-24 and the design of its bomb bay made it difficult to land smoothly on water, and the fact that seven survived the crash is testament to Maxwell's piloting skills, Schoenfeld writes. Maxwell was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for the action. 

Maxwell says today that "our miraculous survival was not of my doing, but that of a Supreme Power who decided it was not yet time for us to die.... I invite you to raise a glass and drink a toast with me to those intrepid airmen, friend and foe, of long ago. But I would also like to make it a toast in praise of The Miracle Worker who saved us."

He says there was "a rather elaborate procedure for recognition when approaching a convoy. Of course we approached with our IFF (identification friend or foe) pinging away, then we approached from a predetermined geographical quadrant, and with an Aldis lamp [flashing] in code an established ID. (We always maintained radio silence.) The flagship would flash a response. We would exchange any current info and begin coverage.

"On one occasion I had gone through the recognition procedure and was circling the flagship while my radio operator read a message, when I got too close to one of the warships and he opened fire on me. I had to back off and repeat the procedure. The flagship apologized. I have no idea what they said to the guilty warship.

B-24 Liberator (Wikimedia photo)

"On another occasion," Maxwell continues, "a convoy coming up the coast of Africa had reported being shadowed all night by submarines. As I was making my initial approach we saw the wake of several torpedoes streaking into the middle of the convoy from the far side. One hit a ship in the middle of the convoy, evidently one with load of armaments, and it blew sky high. I promptly dropped down, opened bomb bay doors and headed directly for the subs over the middle of the convoy. The entire convoy promptly opened fire on us. Fortunately their aim was faulty.

"Incidentally," Maxwell writes, "we judged that offensive hunter-killer missions, where our patrols went where intelligence indicated there were submarines, were a better use of our B-24s than defensive convoy coverage, but the Navy insisted on the latter so we had mixed missions.

"Further incidentally, intelligence is of critical importance in military operations. So says this old timer who became a career intelligence officer after the end of WWII."

On Jan. 4, 1944, the 480th received a Presidential Unit Citation. It said, in part, that the Group "has contributed with heroism and superior efficiency to the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic. Its record is inspiring and worthy of emulation."

For other aspects of the Battle of the Atlantic, see a display at the National Museum of World War II Aviation at Colorado Springs Airport.

Docent

Former Editor of Aerospace Daily