Mission 9 May 1st, 1944

We got in off pass last night just in time to eat and go to briefing.   We flew Lady Luck leading one section.  The target was a noball target.  We were only over France a few minutes as our I.P. was at Dover, England.  There was a lot of flak but Lady Luck wasn’t touched.  Only five ships dropped on the target.  We were one of those.  That part of the coast looks like cheese it has so many holes in it from bombs.

Mission 10 May 4th, 1944

I was a little worried when we took off cause we were going to Brusnwick where we ran into swarms of fighters the last time.  We flew Lady Luck leading the 2nd section with Major Henson as command pilot.  The vapor trails were so bad that we were recalled about 20 minutes from the target.  No flak, no fighters, no nothing!  The forts were going to Big B.

Mission 11 May 7th, 1944

The target was Germany again today.  We flew Lady Luck as deputy lead with Capt. Freeman as command pilot.  He’s a good one to fly with.  The target was at Osnabruck a very hot target, but we were bombing through clouds so even though the flak was heavy it followed our chaff.  We didn’t encounter any fighters which we are thankful for.  This could’ve been an extremely rough mission.  The forts hit Big B.

Mission 12 May 8th, 1944

It looks like the 8th of the month is always our rough day.  Today we flew Lady Luck to “Little B” or Brunswick as it is called.  As we were only leading the high right element in the 2nd section we got to fly without a command pilot.  Lt. Sullivan flew as navigator cause Lt. Haley has left for G.H. school.  The forts went on to Berlin again today.  We encountered gobs of heavy flak but our group seemed to be at the right place at the right time cause we missed all the flak, but of course it never is very accurate when it is overcast.  The enemy fighters were up in swarms.  The fighters seemed to be after the forts today and were we ever glad.  There was a group of forts flying out on our left and swarms of fighters about 50 at a time would pull up and go through them with a nose attack.  Then they would pull around for another pass.  All I can say is that the forts sure caught it today.  Losses will be around 40 heavies.  We had one attack by 6 ME 109’s from low and behind.  We weren’t hit but 20 mm’s were going on all sides & some bursted within three feet of the tail.  Our group didn’t lose any except one on take off.  Four men got out alive, which was a miracle.

Mission 13 May 9th, 1944

I guess number 13 wasn’t unlucky unless it was unlucky for those people on the target.  We flew Lady Luck leading 2nd section with Major Hensler as command, Lt. Sullivan as navigator, Lt. Thompson in nose turret to help pick out the target.  Toll didn’t fly.  The target was an airfield at St. Trond, Belgium.  It was a night fighter base and Lt. Hoobler really laid them in there.  I think our section was the best the first, but the whole group did a grand job.  A little flak.

Mission 14 May 12th, 1944

Well today was another long one.  We flew Lady Luck as group deputy lead.  Capt. “Pinky” Moore flew as command.  It was his 29th mission.  The target was a synthetic oil refinery near Lupzig, Germany.  The Germans were trying to lay a smoke screen over the target but they were a little late.  There was some flak but we hit the target.  Boy that was a pretty sight.  There was smoke & flame up to at least 12,000 feet from some targets in that area.  I saw a fort group really demolish one refinery.  We saw some good dogfights, but the escort kept them away from our group.  The 8th air force lost over 30 today so some boys really caught it.  Our #2 engine ran out of gas while we were still an hour over Europe.  We had a strong head wind going in so it seemed like ages before we got to the target.