Night of the Intruders

The Mighty Eighth Podcast

In this episode, we tell the story of the Night of the Intruders, when Luftwaffe fighters followed a stream of American B-24 Liberator bombers back to England and shot them out of the sky as they tried to land.

It was a disastrous end to Mission 311, which took place on 22 April, 1944, less than two months before D-Day.

The raid saw 824 Mighty Eighth bombers target the nerve centre of the Third Reich's railway system at Hamm, in Germany's north-east Ruhr.

We experience the mission through the eyes of George Glevanik, of the 448th Bomb Group, stationed at Seething, south-east of Norwich.

We visit Seething Church of St Margaret & St Remigius, which includes a memorial to the 448th BG; and Seething Control Tower Museum, which includes artefacts from the Night of the Intruders.

We examine what went right – and what went wrong – and why the Mighty Eighth attacked Hamm in the evening, rather than sticking to its tried-and-tested strategy of bombing in broad daylight.

Our special podcast guest is author, historian and aviation archaeologist Ian McLachlan, whose book 'Night of the Intruders' is published by Pen & Sword.

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