THE ELITE CREW
Crew #41 (or was it #49 or whatever)
Funny how one forgets some things but remembers others. I completed Armament school in Denver, Colo. some of us were sent to Pocatello (or was it Boise. Idaho) I can' t recall which came first but I was sent there to become part of a B-24 crew.  When I arrived I was assigned to the crew that had this huge Texan as Pilot (Bill Bonner) and some kid who looked like he just got out of high school as co-pilot (John Richmond).  I just turned 19 myself but after basic training, gunnery school and armament school, I aged, Most of our flight training was local flights around Idaho and Washington - swinging compasses and practice bombings.  We did go cross-country once to Fairfield Susan Air Base out of San Francisco.
 
We were really disappointed after we completed our crew training and discovered that we weren't going to fly to Europe but were going by boat (the Queen Elizabeth).  We would be replacement crews.
 
We departed New York on November 2. 1943.  We were told we would not have any submarine escort for the Queen could outrun any German subs.  We arrived in Scotland, November 5th.  It was an uneventful trip, 28,000 men, 24 men to a stateroom for two, that held 12 bunks, 3 high so far down .in the hole that you felt you were below the engine room.  We had to take turns sleeping below or above deck.  Above deck was just that - on the deck.  There were perpetual crap and card games.  We ate twice a day (standing up) and I can remember my first British meal. Stewed Tomatoes and Bacon. (The ship was crewed by English sailors.)  If I recall correctly they served meals all day long but there were so many of us we could only eat twice a day,
 
Upon arrival in the U.K. we traveled by train (those funny narrow gauge compartmental coaches) to a replacement depot, (I can't remember the name), We were assigned to the 448th Bomb Group in Seething, an Air Base close to Norwich, England,
 
We were assigned quarters in Quonset huts, the enlisted men in one along with other crewmembers, the officers another.  The first week we all suffered from diarrhea (we had to eat from mess kits, and either the lack of cleaning or the soap didn't quite agree with us).  The huts were heated with potbelly stoves and we took turns feeding them.
 
Life was real dull when we weren't flying.  We all seemed to have some sort of hobbies - mine was drawing and writing letters.  Most of our mail was V-Mail (one sheet of paper that was photographed, censored by the officers of the group, sent to the U.S., printed and sent to the addressee.  We didn't have to use stamps.  We received regular letters and packages from the states. It seemed like ages before I received my first letter.
 
Laundry service was available if you weren't flying on the one day each week you could turn in your bedding and personal clothing.  We had to do our own dry cleaning (by 100 octane aviation gas)
 
Our meals consisted of dehydrated food and sometimes "K" rations or "C" rations or some other (initial) rations.  We did get fresh eggs before a mission and believe me we all made up for the powdered eggs we usually received for breakfast when we weren't scheduled to fly.
I can remember how we used to assemble at the flight line when we were not on a mission, counting the aircraft as they landed, wondering whom it was that didn't make it back when all the aircraft did not return.
 
We got paid once a month - most of us had allotments, where some of our pay was sent home to wife or family.  We had the usual crap or poker game after payday.  If you won you went on a 3 day pass to London, Manchester, 1 or wherever.  If you lost, you bummed enough money for smokes (cigarettes cost $1.00 a carton) hoping next month you'll get lucky.  The Red Cross also passed out smokes and candy bars after each mission,
 
There never was enough hot water for everyone to take showers - so many a shower was a fast rinse under cold water or a sponge bath.
 
I recall there were a couple of factories between our Air Base and the town of Seething,  It seemed like they only employed women.  I remember we did a lot of flirting but it never got beyond that stage.  Our form of transportation was a bicycle, the English kind with skinny tires and hand brakes.  The town of Seething was a wide spot in the road with one or two pubs that seemed to be always out of (warm) beer, or was it called ale? The city of Norwich was larger but you had to have an overnight pass to go there - I believe I was there once and all I can remember about the city was a bunch of skipping down the street arm in arm singing "Merzy Does".
 
I can't seem to remember whether we had an enlisted men's club on the base.  I know the only time we had hard drinks were after a mission when we were all offered a shot of "Old Mathusla"(Government issue whiskey), The Red Cross girls were there with cigarettes, chocolate, coffee and donuts, Hard liquor was almost impossible to get, the English pubs seemed to always run out of scotch and whiskey, the beer or ale was warm except in the winter (they keep their beer kegs outside).  My favorite drink was a boilermaker ~ a shot of gin or scotch dropped into a mug of beer - I could never drink more than one, two at the most.  I can't remember ever being drunk, in fact 1 can't remember any of our crew ever drinking to excess.
 
Funny how little things come to your mind. The dart games that were popular in the pubs.  Bicycles for transportation, always with a group of men when in town.  The lack of food when on pass in the cities, paying extra for a plate of French fries covering fresh eggs.  Having beans on toast for lunch, tea with milk in it at railroad stations, The Red Cross clubs in London where literally thousands of G.I.s gathered - sleeping on floors or cots in huge dormitories.  Soldiers from Greenland with hundreds of dollars just throwing it around  (six months since they saw a girl).  The M.P.s stopping you to see if you were carrying a pro kit, I can remember once being in London during an air raid - can' t remember whether I was scared or just didn't give a damn.
 
I sat down to just write a few words before I wrote up the diary of our missions and so many things came to my mind, I just had to put them in writing.   I can still picture us enlisted men in our Quonset hut - Gil (Mounsey) seemed to be the most sensible one   I can see his unapproving scowl when we weren't ready for inspection.  Jean and Carl were pretty quiet, Joe was always there to lift up our spirits.  Early to bed prior to a mission for it was 2-3 AM when we had to get up, get to the mess hall for breakfast, then briefing.  Picking up our flying gear and carrying it with us on the 4X4 truck that carried us to the hard stand where our assigned aircraft was parked.  Checking out the aircraft and just sitting around the aircraft for start engine time and sometimes we had to wait what seemed like ages when weather was a problem and our flight was delayed.
 
In the briefing room and prior to flight is when we were the closest, as a crew.  We did some training together, but once ready for a flight we were family.
Let’s back up a little for some background about the war in England. On July 4, 1942, the first USAAF bombing operation took place - crews of the 15th. Bomb Squadron flew 6 RAF Boston Bombers to bomb Dutch airfields, 2 aircraft were missing and one came back badly damaged.  On August 17th. 2 B-17s of the 97th. Bomb Group (BG) flew their first sorties.  12 acft. flew bombing missions and 6 acft. were used as diversion.  The first B-24 Liberator, the 93rd, BG assigned to the 1st, Bomb Wing along with B-17s flew their first mission on Oct. 9th.  They dispatched 24 aircraft, 10 were effective, lost one and damaged one and suffered 12 casualties.  They bombed a factory in Lille, in the Northern part of France.
On November 2, 1942 the 2BW was formed and on 7 November the 44BG put seven B-24s in the air for diversion for 68 B-17 & B-24 of the 1st. BW to bomb U-boat base at Brest.  On 27 January 1943 the 2BW consisted of two bomb groups, the 44th. & 93rd, they flew 27 sorties, the first raid on Germany for the 8AF; their target was Wilhelmshaven Naval Base.  B-17s from the 1BW found the target but due to weather and poor navigation, none of the B-24s were able to locate the target.
 
At the end of May 1943, the people of England were surprised at the amount of Liberators flying formation at low level - they were taken off high altitude bombing missions.  On August 1st. the Plosti oil fields were struck from North Africa.
 
On September 6, 1943 the Liberators flew their first mission after returning from North Africa, they consisted of the 44th.  93rd., 389th. & 392nd. BG forming the new 2nd. Bomb Division. They flew diversion for 262 B-"17s who were bombing Stuttgart and various other German targets.
 
On December 22, 1943 the 448th, Bomb Group flew their first mission. 26 aircraft dispatched to strike Osnabruck, Ger., 12 struck the target, 10 returned. 3 damaged and one man wounded and 21 MIA.
 
JANUARY 11, 1944 - Our first mission.  We were assigned aircraft #768 "The Proud Wanderlost".  We were briefed to bomb a factory in Brunswick, Ger, We were recalled so we dropped our bombs (12 - 500# G, P.) on Neppin (a target of opportunity), we encountered flak on the coast, no enemy fighters; we arrived back at the base safe and sound.  2 other crews of the 448th. weren't so lucky, they never returned. Mission #1.
 
January 24th, - Target Zukenft Power Station, Eschwieler, Ger.  We took off but due to weather the mission was scrubbed, we landed with our bombs - No mission.
 
JANUARY 29th. Target: Industry plants & marshalling yards at Frankfurt, Ger. - our acft was #988 "The Sad Sack".  We got 18 miles into enemy territory and had to turn around - we couldn't keep up with the group formation. We didn’t' t get any flak - had good P-47 and P-38 escort so we landed safely. The rest of the group was also recalled prior to point of no return because of bad weather over target.  Because we penetrated enemy territory we got credit for MISSION #2,
It seems like every other day we were scheduled to go on a mission, but they were scrubbed prior to takeoff, mostly due to weather over Europe. On February 1st. I had my first 3-day pass.  I went to Norwich, got back the night of the 3rd.  Guess what happens the next day?
FEBRUARY 4, 1944 - 0330 hrs. out of the sack. Takeoff at 0800 hrs. Target: Frankfurt, Ger., Ship #115.  "Hell's Bell".  To our dread we were carrying 52 - 100 M-47 incendiary bombs, (it only needs a piece of flak to penetrate the bomb bay and the aircraft just becomes one ball of flame). Frankfurt was overcast so we bombed Russelheim area (target of opportunity), The flak was so thick we could have landed on it - lucky we did not encounter any fighters, 633 bomber aircraft were effective today, 18 B-17 and 2 B-24s were lost, 359 aircraft were damaged, 203 men MIA, 7 killed and 20 wounded. This was our first real encounter with heavy flak but not our last.  This was MISSION #3.
 
FEBRUARY 6 - This was to be a milk run - 0745 takeoff. Acft #683. "Sweet Sioux" We were bombing V-2 rocket emplacements on the coast of France (St. Pol/Siracourt, Fr.) we encountered very light flak, we dropped 10 - 500 pounders someplace - the rocket sight was overcast.  We returned safe, found out one of the 448th. aircraft dropped their bombs over England - unarmed of course.  MISSION tf4.
 
FEBRUARY 10 - Acft. #683. "Sweet Sioux".  It was miserably cold up there. I never saw so many contrails, our target was Gilze Rijen. Holland, the target was overcast so we didn't drop any bombs.  During assembly, over England I saw one Liberator gust blow up for no reason, found out later the Bombardier and one rear gunner bailed out.  Also learned later that one of our aircraft and a P-47 fighter aircraft collided, one survivor, 9 killed.  We lost 2 acft, - 16 men killed - 3 wounded and this was considered an easy target, no fighters and very little flak. MISSION # 5.
 
FEBRUARY 11 - Guess they felt sorry for us and decided to give us another milk run, acft. #447, "The Comanche", loaded with 12 - 500 Ib. G.P. bombs. Our target was another V-2 sight at St. Pol, France.  Target again overcast, we returned with our bombs, no losses. MISSION #6.
 
FEBRUARY 20 - Nine days and then we get assigned a target in Gotha, Germany. ("Flak Heaven” it was called), our acft. was #768,  "The Proud Wanderlost", 10 - 500# G.P.  bombs.  Our target was overcast but we still dropped our bombs.  The flak wasn't as bad as expected and our fighter escort took care of the enemy fighters.  Of the 584 Liberators on this mission, we lost 8. damaged 37. 77 men MIA. 10 killed and 10 wounded.  The 448th. didn't lose a ship.  MISSION #7.
 
FEBRUARY 21 - No rest for the wicked.  Acft.  #100.  "The Lady from Bristol".  Our target was Munster, Ger., the target was overcast, so here we are 214 Liberators and our group commander decides to leave the division formation and eleven aircraft went looking for another target.  We found Achmer A/F clear, made two runs on the target and dropped our bombs.  This was our first encounter with German fighters.  They came from the front, rear, above and below us, through the formation and we lost 2 aircraft and one damaged beyond repair, 21 men MIA, 3 wounded and 6 acft. damaged.  I was able to hit one FW-190 but only got credit for damaging it.  We discovered flak holes all over the aircraft, no damage from fighters.  MISSION #8.
 
FEBRUARY 22 - 3 days in a row - guess they thought because we didn't bomb Munster yesterday we should try again today, Acft, #435, "Rabduckit", this time we were carrying 12 clusters of 500 M-17 incendiaries.  For some reason we were recalled after going 100 miles inland, so we were told to seek a target of opportunity.  We discovered upon our return to base that we dropped our bombs on Arnhem, Netherlands. We just dropped our bombs on the leaders command, sorry but mistakes happen.  Our group landed without casualties.  MISSION 19,
 
Our crew was standing down but on February 24th. the 448th BG flew a mission to Gotha, Ger. along with 169 other acft. - 33 acft. lost, 324 men MIA, 3 killed, 6 wounded and 28 acft. damaged.  The 448th BG lost one acft. The next day the 448th along with 172 other Liberators bombed Furth, Ger. losing 1 acft due to battle damage and one crash landed in England due to fuel shortage.
 
FEBRUARY 28 - acft.  #447,  "The Comanche", 10 - 500 G.P., our target a Noball (V-2) target, Ecalbs Sue Bucky, Fr. A real milk-run, only one aircraft in the Division damaged. MISSION ^10,
 
MARCH 3, 1944 - acft.  #447.  "The Comanche", we couldn't believe our eyes, target:"Berlin, Germany".  We are carrying 10 - 500 G.P, bombs,  748 B-17 & B-24 aircraft took off for this mission.  We climbed to 29.000 ft. over Europe trying to get above the clouds, temperature 68° below zero. We finally had to turn back and find targets of opportunity.  We didn't find one and landed with our bomb load. MISSION #11, 30 B-17's got to Berlin the next day (March 4th.) the first USAAF bombers to attack the German capital, they lost 5 aircraft.
 
MARCH 5 - Acft. #793, (No name). Target: Mont-de-Maisen. Fr. We bombed an empty field near Cognac, Flak was light but the Germans were able to send up fighters.  I saw 2 aircraft in our formation get hit, one straggling down with fighters following it.  I was able to destroy a ME-109, it came up behind us and I just started shooting until I saw the aircraft falling apart.  I called to Joe in the ball turret to verify my hit, he saw the plane explode.  We landed safely. MISSION #12.
 
We stood down today (March 6th.) but 730 B-17 & B-24's were sent to bomb Berlin and other targets in Germany.  69 aircraft were lost, 347 damaged, 6 damaged beyond repair, 686 men MIA, 17 killed, 31 wounded.  The 448th BG lost one over the target and 1 crew flew to Sweden were they were interned. On March 8th. We again stood down. The 448th. lost 2 acft, on a mission to Berlin, one aircraft ditched in the channel but only two men were rescued. The men returning said there were enemy fighters all over the sky and felt lucky to be back.  The next day on a flight to Hanover the 448th. again lost one aircraft and one ditched, three men rescued.
MARCH 18 - Target: Friedrichshafen. Germany, acft. #230. "No Name Jive".
Seems like missions are getting rougher instead of easier,  227 Liberators in formation bombing Friedrichshafen, 28 lost, 60 acft.  damaged, 286 men MIA, 6 killed, 9 wounded.  The 448th, lost one aircraft and one diverted to Switzerland, MISSION #13.
 
Just because I'm not describing what happened on each flight doesn't mean we were enjoying the flights.  One would rather forget how it felt when your electric heated suit shorted out, or moving around the aircraft with a flak jacket on, oxygen mask attached to a portable oxygen bottle and a chest parachute hampering your every move.  The temperature at altitude was always below zero and when you add the chill factor, with the side windows of the Liberator always open.  As an example, one drop of oil on our 50 caliber machine guns was enough to freeze them solid and make them useless, I don’t know if one ever gets used to seeing puffs of flak bursting in succession towards you and wondering if the next one had our name on it, We had 6 gun emplacements, four turrets with two fifty caliber machine guns each and one gun at each waist position.  This still didn’t' t stop German fighter aircraft from attacking.  It wasn't unusual that in formation, one group would be heavily attacked while another wasn’t even threatened.  Imagine 700 aircraft in the air at the same time; you were the unlucky one to be hit with flak or the target of fighters.  Many the times my prayers were answered.
 
MARCH 23  - Target 14 Munster.  Acft.  #638  (No name) 52 - 100 M-47 incendiaries.  Flak was light, no fighters and all 12 of our formation dropped their bombs on target.  We all returned to base safely. MISSION #14.
 
MARCH 24 - Just my luck, our crew wasn't scheduled to fly today.  One of the crews scheduled was missing a tail gunner.  You don't volunteer, you are told to go.  It was Flight Officer Rogers’s crew.  Acft,  #683, "Sweet Sioux", a new crew and our target was Nancy, France.  I sweated out the whole flight - it wasn't like flying with your own crew, with one's own crew you work as a team, you know what each other is doing and will do in case of an emergency.  A lot of flak but thank God no enemy fighters.  We carried 52 - 100 M-47 incendiaries, the target was overcast so we brought them back to Seething, and this was MISSION #15 for me.
 
MARCH 26 - Noball target at Calais, France. Acft, #981, "Carol-n-Chick". This was another milk-run - HA! - The Germans brought in the first team of A/A gunners; the flak was so accurate I swear they flipped coins to pick out which aircraft they were going to shoot down.  There were 138 aircraft in our formation, one got shot down, 38 damaged, 1 man killed, 5 wounded and 10 MIA, We were lucky we got back safe with just a few holes in our aircraft.  MISSION #16 for me #15 for the crew.
 
MARCH 29 - Target: Watten V-2 sight, acft. #322, "Wabash Cannonball". A milk-run, but this was the first time we carried 2000# bombs - 4 of them, 2 on each side.  During assembly over England I saw two aircraft from another group collide, I later found out only two men parachuted out.  We returned safely.
 
My MISSION #17.  If you ever heard an April Fools joke, that wasn't a joke.  On April 1st.   165 Liberators were sent to bomb Ludwigshafen, Germany.   Due to navigational error they were 100 miles off course and bombed cities in France and Switzerland, in error of course, as targets of opportunity.  The 448th BG lost 4 bombers, one diverted to Switzerland and one ditched in the channel off Dunkirk.  The cause of all this, heavy flak....Life just isn't fair anymore.  We were informed that a tour consisted of 30 missions now, it was 25.
 
APRIL 8, 1944 - Target: Brunswick, Germany.  Acft. #735 (No name), our co-pilot, John Richmond. wasn't with us today - he was breaking in a new crew.  Today was an example of how some bomb groups return seeing little flak and no fighters, like our group, and others being clobbered like the 644th. BG losing 11 aircraft to enemy fighters and the 466th. BG losing 6. 58 enemy fighters were destroyed, 9 probable and 32 damaged, my MISSION #18.
 
APRIL 11 - Target: Factory at Bernburg. Ger. Acft. #744, "Peggy Joe", 52 - 100 M--47 incendiaries.  We encountered some flak and fighters but we had good friendly fighter escort we returned without a scratch.  MISSION#19.
APRIL 12_ - Target: Oschersleben, Germany, acft.  #744,  "Peggy Jo". 6 - 1000 G, P, bombs.  Solid overcast all the way, we penetrated Germany but had to turn around before we got to the target.  We encountered a lot of flak but no fighters.  I saw a couple of Liberators from another group go down due to enemy fighter activity.  The lucky ones are damaged and the men either parachute out or crash land with the aircraft.  It’s hell seeing an aircraft either explode or go into a tail spin and just fall apart and see no parachutes.  We returned safely. MISSION #20.
APRIL 20 - Target: Calais, France, where the AA gunners were marksmen. Acft. #744,''Peggy "Jo".  Never thought we'd go anywhere today, we slept late and to our surprise we were notified of a dusk mission, takeoff 1600 hrs. and as expected all hell broke lose with flak.  I saw one of our aircraft leave the formation, must have been hit and on our exit from France another ditched North of Calais in the Channel.  I also saw a P-47 hit and go down in flames, I didn't see any enemy acft. so he must have been hit by flak. MISSION #21.
 
On 22nd. April while we were in our Quonset huts the air raid sirens went off.  We could hear shooting in the distance and instead of our going to the air raid shelters we climbed the nearest embankment to see what was happening.  The skies were lit up with AA fire, we saw what it looked like from the ground, and we could see our Liberators returning from a mission, It was dark outside and we could see them coming in with their landing lights on and right behind them were enemy fighters.  They made perfect targets with their lights on and the landing lights on the runway silhouetting the Liberator, it was like shooting ducks.  One aircraft was shot up something terrible crash landing on the runway and the 2 aircraft following it down for a landing ran right into him.
 
APRIL 24 - Target: Goblinger air field. Ger.. Acft. #793 (No name) (We've lost so many aircraft that there wasn't time to name the new ones.)  We really hit the target, we lost one aircraft because of flak and on our return over the channel we had to clear our guns so we wouldn't land with loaded weapons. One of the aircraft's turret guns, in our formation, ran away,  (started shooting and couldn't be stopped), the bullets hit another aircraft that had to ditch in the channel.  I understand 6 men were rescued.  MISSION #22,
 
APRIL 26 - Target: Paderborn, Ger. Acft. #644 (no name) Today we were carrying 216 Fragmentation bombs.  Early takeoff usually means a long mission. Our target was overcast and we had no Pathfinder aircraft in our formation so we didn't drop any bombs, we brought them back with us.  MISSION #23,
 
In September 1943 a new method of bombing, by radar, was initiated, certain aircraft were equipped with radar and the rest of the formation dropped their bombs when the PFF aircraft dropped streamers, indicating the target.  This way targets that were overcast could be bombed lessening the chance of killing innocent civilians.
 
APRIL 29 - Target: Berlin, Germany, acft. #575 (no name). 52 - 100 M-47 incendiaries, ••...I'll let Sgt, Joe Enovitch, one of the rear gunners relate what he wrote in his diary:  April 29, 1944 - Mission #23 I haven’t been writing up my missions for a while now for no good reason at all; just lazy, I guess!!  Well, I better write this one up, cause it may be the most exciting - also the most catastrophic as far as I'm concerned.  I wouldn't be writing this if I weren't lying flat on my back in a hospital ward.  So, under the circumstances, I have quite a bit of time to my self so I may as well utilize it.  They woke us up at 3:00 AM. Briefing at 4:30.  Before briefing I filled myself with four luscious fresh fried eggs, sunny side up.  That was more than I've eaten for a long time.  Got to briefing room just as the Chaplain was beginning his prayer.  Up went the curtain for the target.  Oh» oh - Berlin - Oh, my head! — Directly over the center, to boot.  This was the pay off, I was briefed on it three times before but never did get there so I was inclined to think that I wasn't destined to go to Berlin, but here it was again. Feeling was a bit uneasy —
Stations 6:50
Take off 7:20
Zero Hour 9:00
Cross enemy territory 9:55
Recross coast 13:35
Take off was fine.  Was a little tired so slept while rendezvousing,  Was supposed to ride in the ball, but considering the trip I decided it would be a good idea to ride the camera hatch. Hit the enemy coast as per schedule.  Didn't encounter much of any opposition until we hit Hanover.  Of course we were off course so we flew right over one of the heaviest flak areas in the Reich.
 
Well, being we were off course, they didn't stop throwing it up at us until we hit Berlin and then they just doubled up.  The sky was just one mass of black clouds from the puffs of flak.  Gosh, I never saw anything like it.
 
Nerves were kind of tensed and every now and then I would mutter a silent prayer.  If you asked me I think everybody did the same.  We finally dropped our bombs, that when a feeling of relaxation comes over the gang.  We got away with not very much flak that came close enough to worry about, but they were still throwing it up.  In fact, we were in it for two solid hours* It stood to reason cause we were bucking a 120 mph north cross wind that threw us south of the course, also.  So, we encountered flak from Hanover going in, up to Magdeburgh coming out.  Our fighter escort was fine going in, but coming out we had none so that naturally invites trouble and we got it.
 
Just about the time they stopped shooting flak, we spotted a bunch of FW 190’s below us.  Oh, oh, just like the movies, Spent 32 days in the hospital.
 
What Joe didn’t relate in his diary was that 679 B-17 and B24 aircraft were on this mission.  618 hit their target, 63 acft. were lost, 434 damaged, 68 men killed, 38 wounded, 606 men MIA.  He also didn't describe how the enemy fighters came up through our formation with 20 MM cannon blazing away, not just one pass, but several.  We were struck in the waist, a shell hit one of the 50 caliber gun belts exploding the shells and shrapnel was all over the waist.  Joe got hit and so did Bill Van Slyke (another gunner). our aircraft was hit in the nose and a shell went right through the top turret with Jean Beaulieu (our radio operator) in it.  He was lucky the round didn't explode.  The exhaust on #3 engine was shot off, we were lucky the engine didn't explode.  The fighter attack seemed to be over as fast as it began, I swear there were at least 100 fighters that swept through our formation. We lost 6 aircraft, two from our squadron, crew #43 & 46.  When it was safe to leave my tail turret I went to help Joe and Bill for they were bleeding badly, Gil was taking care of Bill and I started administering to Joe, he was hit in the groin, I tried giving him an injection of morphine but the serrate was frozen, had to stick it in my mouth to thaw it out.  He finally got the shot to ease his pain and I tried to bandage him up the best I could - how do you stop bleeding when the tip of your pecker is shot off?  You use a lot of gauze and pressure.  We were the first aircraft to land and the medics were there to meet us.  my MISSION #24,
 
The next day we went to the hospital to see Joe & Bill, Joe was the main attraction at the hospital, he told us all the nurses came around wanting to see his wounds.  He was real worried until the doctor informed him that the Russians discovered they could graft a new penis - Joe requested they add a couple of inches to his.  He later found out it wasn't necessary.
 
MAY 6, 1944 - Target: St. Pol, France, acft. #089 "Dual Sack", 8 - 1000 G.P., our target was overcast so we dropped them on a marker flare released by our lead aircraft.  We missed Joe & Bill, saw no flak or fighters and all our aircraft returned without a scratch.  MISSION f25.
 
MAY 7 - Target: Munster, Ger. Acft, #089. "Dual Sack". 52 - 100 M-47 incendiaries.  We were briefed on Munster Air Port if clear - if overcast we were to bomb the city PFF (Pathfinder), we bombed PFF. The usual flak and saw a few fighters but none threatening us.  MISSION #26.
 
MAY 8 - We were briefed on two targets today: A-Munster, B-Brumswick, Ger. We bombed "B".  Acft. #089 "Sad Sack",  52 - 100 M-47 incendiaries. 9
Plenty of flak but not very accurate, saw some enemy fighters but we had good fighter escort so they didn't bother us.  Saw 3 aircraft from another group get hit by fighters - all three went down in flames.  It really is hard to explain how one feels seeing acft. burst into flames and just fall apart without seeing any parachutes, you feel so helpless. MISSION f27.
 
MAY 11 - Target: Mulhouse. France, acft, #089. "Dual Sack", 6 - 1000 G.P., A few fighters but none threatening us and not much flak.  I did see one aircraft leave our formation and head for Switzerland, not from our group. MISSION f28.
 
MAY 19 - Target: Brunswick, Ger- acft. #089, "Dual Sack", 12 - 500 M-17 incendiaries. Boy was I mistaken when I thought the Germans were running out of fighters and ammunition.  The flak was very accurate, saw over 100 German fighters, all makes and sizes penetrating each group formation with Liberators either blowing up or falling out of formation with fighters following them down.  We were lead aircraft and I was so P.O.'d, every time I got a good aim at a fighter one of our wing aircraft got in the way and I couldn't fire my guns for fear of hitting one of them.  We made three runs on the target before we finally dropped our bombs by PFF.  We lost 12 Liberators, 64 damaged, 1 man killed, 8 wounded and 119 MIA, MISSION f29.  One mission to go. Was briefed for a mission today. May 12th. but due to fog the mission was scrubbed.  Went to visit Joe & Bill, both were doing fine.
 
MAY 22 - Noball target at Siracourt. France, acft. #089. good ole "Dual Sack", carried 8 - 1000 G.P. bombs.  We bombed PFF due to target being overcast.  I saw exactly 4 bursts of flak and no enemy aircraft. 
 
MY 30TH, AND LAST MISSION.  The next day the remainder of our crew flew their last mission to Orleans, France on "Dual Sack".  All but Joe & Bill have completed their 30 mission tour.
 
While flying with the 448th, Bomb Group, from January 11, 1944 thru May 5, 1944, 53 aircraft from our group were shot down, 20 plus crash-landed. too many to count returned damaged and I just don' t want to think of how many men lost their lives.  I returned to the states after VE Day.  The 2nd. Bomb Division was designated the 2nd. Air Division 1 January 1945.
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