Wilhelmshaven Hit 3d Time; Norwood Boy’s Plane Leads Raid-This Day In Norwood History-March 23, 1943

Lieui. Ralph Nutter of Norwood, navigator of the leading plane of the “Boomerang Boys” squadron which came back from its fourth consecutive raid without losing a plane, told Gladwin Hill of the Associated Press last night that he and Lieut. Charles Malee, bombardier, saw three strings of bombs hit the closely clustered docks of Wilhelmshaven when Flying Fortresses and Liberators raided that German naval base in daylight yesterday. It was the third raid on the German city. Lieut.

Nutter was the first Harvard man to bomb Germany proper since the outbreak of the war. He is 22, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Nutter, 64 Elm St., Norwood, and was an outstanding athlete at Norwood High.

He attended Syracuse University and Harvard Law School, enlisted in the Army Air Forces on January, 1 1942. He received his commission last October and was sent to Eng land soon afterward.

Hill’s report on the raid said it was a good test of high-altitude daylight precision bombing with good visibility except for a smoke-pot haze over the port’s target region.

Hill quoted Lieut. Malee assaying, ‘ I saw three strings of bombs hit. The first two went across the end of the slip and the other across the middle. It was covered by a netting or camouflage of some sort.”

“You hit it! You hit it!” yelled Lieut. Nutter.

“Nutter v.as jumping up and down he was so excited,” Malee told Hill.

“If he hit it. we hit it. because ours went right in there after his.” said another pilot, and the waist gunner of another Fortress said. “Whatever was in those docks, it’s sure going to hell because that was the sweetest pattern of bombs we ever laid down.”

(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)