Mission 5 April 8th, 1944

Wow!  The missions before this one were milk runs compared to the one today.  I’ve read of aerial battles and now I can say I’ve seen one.  We flew Lady Luck leading the 2nd section with Major O’Neil as command pilot.  We went to Brunswick, Germany.  I’ve never seen so much flak before but it was pretty inaccurate.  We were jumped by enemy fighters about the time we entered Germany and from then on to the target and then all the way back to the Channel it was a furious running battle.  There must of been about 200 enemy fighters in all, mostly ME 109’s and they would attack in waves of about 20 planes.  We had fighter escort but is was out numbered so it seemed like we didn’t have any, but they were sure doing their best.  We all owe those fighter pilots a lot.  It was sure a terrible sight to see.  There were bombers and fighters going down all around us.  The sky was just full of burning and exploding planes & too few parachutes.  It was possible to see the 20 mm shells bursting like sparklers in the night and then a plane or so would spin in.  On one pass I saw three B24’s go down from the combat wing ahead and then three from the group flying our high right.  It was about 20o below zero but we didn’t need any heat.  We were sweating as it was.  I would’ve given anything for a gun.  I never thought I would give up but today I almost gave up hope of coming back.  Our sqdn. lost Wabbit Twaks.  The last we saw it was on fire going down with three 109s right on its tail.  Lt. Davidson brought his ship back and it was completely riddled but not a man hurt.  He flew along low on our right so we kept our eyes on him cause we knew he was in bad shape as we could see the large 20 mm holes, etc.  Innis got credit for one fighter that I’m not sure he got cause he didn’t have a sight but Toll and Donovan who really mowed one down didn’t get credit for any.  It was given to some Lt. who was flying a nose turret in the ship behind us.  He was operating his turret by hand so I really don’t believe he got it.  The 8th air force lost over 30 heavies today.  I think the only hole we got was in the dome of the tail turret.  We sure earned our air medal today!!

Mission 6 April 10th, 1944

Oh happy days.   Why can’t we have more like the one today.  We flew as Deputy lead in Satan’s Mate with Major Jameason as command pilot.  The target was an air field & factory located about the center of France at the city of Bourges.  We were leading the 96th wing & today was the first time it has flown as a wing.  It was overcast all the way but cleared up right at the target.  The bombing was good but the best was that we didn’t see any flak or fighters.  This one today brought our morale up some I think.

Mission 7 April 20th, 1944

Well this evening we flew another noball raid and again we brought our bombs back as the lead ship said the target was under a cloud.  We carried 8  1,000 lb bombs.  We flew the Flak Magnet but for once we didn’t get hit even though there was a lot of flak.  I am satisfied in one respect anyway and that is that I don’t think we will be bothered with paddlefeet (or ground officers as they are called) again.  Today’s was a short mission so some of them wanted to be big shots and go on a mission.  Well they got to,  Lt. Carter our supply officer flew with one crew.  They got shot up & crash landed near London.  Lt. Carter had to jump.  I think that was his first and last mission.  If they want to fly combat they should get on a crew and not wait on an easy one.  I think it tickled all of us.

Mission 8 April 25th, 1944

It was Germany for us again today.  We flew Bomb-ah-dear as an element leader to a rail yard at Mannheim. I’m afraid we didn’t do much good as the target was covered by clouds and we didn’t have a P.F.F. ship.  Our group was leading the 8th air force for the first time.  We ran into meager flak at about five places.  Okie had a piece of flak come thru the dome of his turret just missing his head.  We had one attack by about 10 enemy fighters near Paris but our grand fighter support took care of them.  The last I saw was about 20 of our P 47’s hot on their tails.  We weren’t so lucky though cause just that one attack cost us one bomber.  It was Lt. Combs of another sqdn. flying deputy lead.  It must of had the controls shot out cause it nosed up and then spun in.  It leveled off for a few seconds at about 5,000 feet.  I think most of the fellows got out.  We had two bombs that didn’t release and on the way back I was looking out up front when I heard a bang right behind me.  I thought I’d had it but it was just that the bombs had released & dropped through the door.  We came back minus one door and the last part on three engines.  I thought we never would get back as we were bucking a strong head wind.