1.  Gowen Field.  <Where is this> Engine cut out on take off at night.
Inverters went out.  We made a 3 engine landing ok.

2.  Fairmont, Nebraska.  We ran off the end of the runway on a formation
takeoff.  The plane was stuck in the mud pretty bad.  I got fined $5. by the
Colonel.

3.  On a bombing mission we couldn't get rid of our bombs and over Geneva
<Where is this> one bomb fell out.  It scared us all but no one was hurt.

4.  We got our new plane.  On our first ride in it the landing gear would not
come down.  We cranked it down by hand.  It looked ok, but when we landed the
nose wheel folded up due to the way the hydraulic system is fixed.  I didn't
know the set-up.  Cause: 1/2 mechanical failure, 1/2 pilot failure for not
knowing the plane.

5.  We left for overseas.  Pete was sick at Lincoln.  They told us he
couldn't come with us.  We got a new bombardier and he had lost all of his
clothes.  We waited several days for them.  They finally gave Pete back to us
so we left for Morrison Field. <Where is this> I was flying co-pilot for
Capt. Monroe.  It seems he didn't trust me to fly as pilot.  My crew didn't
like it.  We were at Morrison Fld 2 days, then left for Wallu (?) Field,
Trinidad.  2 days there then off to Belem, Brazil.  One day there and on to
Fortaleza, Brazil.  We pulled a 25 hr inspection on the plane, preparing for
the long trip across the Atlantic.  We took off at night and got to Dakar,
South Africa (ed. Note - He meant Dakar, Senegal) the next morning (my
longest nonstop flight 11:20 time 1780 nautical miles.)  We left there for
Marrakesh in North Africa.  That was our last stop before getting to our
destination of Oudua (?), a field near Tunis in North Africa.  We were there
about a month.  We flew 2 practice missions and slept the rest of the time.
We finally came to Verona, Italy which is our operational base.  We stopped
at Spinnazola (?), Italy which is only a few miles from there.  (Still
co-pilot to Capt. Monroe).  We got set up here and finally started flying
tactical missions.  (We named our plane "Rough Deal Lucille".  Johns the tail
gunner painted a sexy picture on the right side of the nose.)
 

#1  We went to Winora (VIA REGGIO) Italy to bomb railroad marshalling yards.
Our bombs weren't so good.  We had an oil leak in no. 2 engine and feathered
it coming home.  The engine was damaged quite a bit.  The Crew Chief Cox,
T/Sgt and his assistant: Ben P. Christ, Sgt worked like dogs to get it fixed.
 We landed with 3 engines ok.  Everyone o.k.   --  May 12th 1944.

#2  We went to Mistu (MESTRA) in Northern Italy.  We did a good job of
bombing more marshalling yards.  The trip uneventful except for a little
flack.  We flew Alexander's plane ours still being out.  It was awfully hard
to fly.  --  May 14th 1944.

#3  We went to Piombino (PIOBINO) in Northern Italy.  Our bombs didn't hit
the exact target but did a lot of damage.  We had quite a bit of flack.  One
piece hit our plane on the left side near the bombardier's compartment.  It
damaged two bulkheads, cut some wires to the A-5 pilot, almost severed to
(sic) mixture control cables, and cut a hydraulic line.  All of our fluid
leaked out except that in the accumulators.  The boys cranked the landing
gear down by hand and Bill pumped the flaps down with the hand pumps.  Our
brakes held ok.  Landing uneventful.  We were flying Owen's plane.  Ours was
still out.  I have started studying T. O.'s (ed. Tech Orders)  It seems that
everything is going to happen to us.  -  May 17th 1944

Installment #2
 

#4  This makes five for the enlisted men.  They flew with Capt. Monroe and
Col. Hublin for their fourth.  We flew "Lucille" today.  She was in good
shape except the interphone was out.  We went to VALMONTONE, Italy.  It is
just north of the Anzio Beachhead.  We saw smoke from the battle down there
(poor devils).  We had our worst flak today.  I was pretty scared.  We got
four holes in the plane and one piece hit the ball turret and another over
Bill's head.  No bad damage was done.  I don't know how the bombs hit the
target was overcast.  We all got home safe.  Two planes cracked up on
landing.  Two tail gunners were injured and one co-pilot was killed.  Not in
our squadron though.  Col. Arnold led the group.  We flew on Capt. Monroe's
left wing in the low squadron, first wave.  We bombed supplies and a
concentration of troops.  I think all the planes had flak holes.  -  May 22nd
1944.

#5&6  Today was a double mission.  We went to WIENER NEUSTADT in Austria, we
were sweating it out as it was supposed to be a tough one.  John's our tail
gunner was grounded so we took Pumenta from Bearden's crew.  We got nine flak
holes in Lucille.  One piece grazed Howard's face.  He just got a scratch.
Over the target we got behind the formation and trying to get back all the
turbos, and prop gourmans (?) tried to run away.  We had all kinds of
instrument readings for awhile.  When we came down #3 booster pump was out.
One piece of flak came through the windshield by Bill's head while we were
trying to get the engines straightened out.  No one was hurt very bad.  We
got the Air Medal today.  These double missions only count one on an Air
Medal.  When we got down they made Bill and I Group duty officers.  I don't
feel much like it.  Lucille has five bombs on her now.  We didn't drop our
bombs.  The whole mission was a miss.  May 24th 1944

#7&8  Today was another double one.  We went to Lyons, France.  It was a long
haul.  We got 8 hours and 35 min. time.  I was sweating out gas but we got
back with about 400 gal. left.  Our assembly wasn't so good but the rest was
o.k.  Our bombs looked very good although smoke obscured the target.  We
encountered no flack or enemy fighters.  That escort of  P51s and P38s look
mighty good.  Lucille acted like a thoroughbred.  Johns & Howard were both
grounded.  We took Fair (?) and Flowers from Bearden's crew in their place.
(No Date)

#9&10  Another double one.  We went to Detzerdorf (?), Austria.  It was at a
town named Leising (?).  The formation was Pitiful or at least our squadron
was.  There was lots of flak.  We got fifteen holes in our plane but no one
was injured.  Whalen had a close call in the nose and one came through the
glass in front of my face.  Our group lost two planes and another one cracked
up on landing.  We had good fighter escort but only saw two enemy fighters.
They didn't bother us.  We had no trouble with the plane except
#4supercharger gave us a little trouble.  May 29th 1044

#10&11  We only got credit for one mission when we went to Lyons, France so
this only makes eleven for us.  Today we went to Cluj in Romania.  It was a
milk run.  No fighters.  No flack.  It was eight hours long though and we all
got pretty tired.  Nothing out of the ordinary happened.  Lucille flew like a
queen.  Sgt. Lucas from Capt. Jones' crew was our tail gunner.  June 2nd
1944.

#12  Another milk run.  We went to Forli in Northern Italy and bombed the
marshaling yards there.  Our bombs weren't very good.  We saw not any flak or
enemy fighters.  Capt. Monroe went along for the ride.  Bill was sick and
Keith, Bielstein's(?) copilot took his place.  June 5th 1944

  I recounted the patches on Lucille.  We have thirty-five on her now.

#13  We were supposed to hit La Spezia, North Italy but it was overcast so we
hit the secondary target at Lighone (?)  There was some flak but not bad.
They were mostly shooting at the group ahead of us.  Our bombs weren't so
good but we got some good hits.  We got one ship in the harbor.  Nothing out
of the ordinary happened.  June 7th 1944

#14&15  Today was my first trip over Germany.  We went to Munich to bomb an
aircraft factory.  It was overcast so we bombed the marshalling yards there
by Pathfinder.  We had our first fighter attacks ME109's lots of them.  I
flew pilot for Capt. Mals (?) crew.  His gunners got several shots at them
and the ball turret gunner claims he got one.  This was the first time I flew
with Entiwistle.  We had lots of flak here and there but no hits to our
plane.  We were flying Alexander's plane.  It is a "G" and we had a little
supercharger trouble.  Nothing serious though.  I don't think I like Germany.
 June 9th 1944
 
 

Installment #3
 

#16  We went to Samdecor (?) Yugoslavia.  Our target was an oil refinery.
Part of our bombs hit it o.k..  We had a nice trip as we drew a gravy spot in
the formation, left wing of the lead ship.  Nothing unusual happened so the
trip was uneventful.  No flak and no fighters.  June 11th 1944

#17&18  Back to Munich, Germany.  One of our roughest so far.  We lost
Amenson(?) and his crew over the target.  My buddie (sic) Jack Entiwistle was
his copilot.  I think they all got out so I hope they are all still living.
We had several ME 109's make passes at us but our P 38 escort chased them
away.  The flak was pretty bad.  When Pete opened the bombay doors our bombs
fell out and knocked the doors off.  We came home with only one door left.
We got a couple of pieces of flak in three & four engines.  No serious damage
however.  Everyone got through o.k. in our plane.  I still don't like
Germany.  June 13th 1944

   (written in later - Jack Entiwistle was my roommate during part of flight
training.)

#20&21  They decided to make the France deal a double mission so instead of
19&20 this is 20&21.  We went to Vienna again.  This time to get an oil
refinery.  I don't know if we hit it or not.  We were only supposed to get
six heavy guns but from the looks of the flak we saw and were in, it must
have been 60.  We also had a running battle with ME 109's that lasted for
about two hours.  They didn't hit us though except for one shot that got
little Johns in the foot.  A Purple Heart for him.  It wasn't bad though.  We
got two flak holes no damage however.  We were flying tail end Charlie on
Eden's(?) right wing.  He led good but over the target lost an engine and
dropped behind the formation.  We stayed with him.  He lost another on the
way home and is in for the DFC (ed. Note -  Distinguished Flying Cross) for
coming in with two engines.  He put me in for it for staying with him.  Don't
know if we will get it or not.  A pretty rough mission.  We were flying
Lucille and she always brings us home.  Our P 38 escort was very good.  June
16th 1944

#22  A milk run to Forli in northern Italy.  We were to hit a marshalling
yard and did get some bombs on it.  I flew copilot for Major Nutt.  He was
leading the group.  My enlisted men flew with us.  We saw a few fighters and
a little flak but had no trouble.  June 22nd 1944

#21&22  Today was our longest combat mission to date.  We were up for 9.5
hours.  We went to Sete on the coast of Southern France.  We bombed a small
oil refinery there and knocked it out. The second wave got mixed up and
bombed the wrong target but did a lot of damage anyway.  We saw a little flak
and a few fighters but they didn't give us any troubles.  On the way home we
ran into some clouds and had to climb to 15000 ft to get over them.  Our
field was open though and we got in o.k.  June 25th 1944

#23&24  Back to Vienna.  That place is getting to be quite a nightmare.  My
fourth trip to there all of them rough ones.  We had the most intense and
accurate flak that we have seen yet.  I don't see how we came out with no
more damage than we had.  We only had about four flak holes.  Bossant(?) went
down and a couple planes out of other squadrons.  We saw one B24 explode just
in front of us.  That is a horrible sight.  Parachutes were thick around the
target area.  There were all kinds of enemy planes up to intercept us.  We
had escorts of 38's, 51's and 47's.  Some ME 109's came out of the flak at
us.  One of them got Bossant(?) and our tail gunner got him.  It was one of
our roughest missions.  June 26th 1944

#25  We started to Blickhammer (?) in Germany but ran into a big front not
far from Vienna and turned around.  We dropped our bombs on the docks at
Split on the coast of Yugoslavia.  We hit them pretty good.  We had no flak
and no fighter opposition.  Everything o.k.  July 1st 1944

#26  We went to Timisoara, Romania and dropped our bombs on a big marshalling
yard there.  We hit it pretty well and started a lot of fires as we were
carrying incendiaries.  We met no opposition except for a few bursts of flak.
 Got home o.k.  July 3rd 1944

#27  Porto Margua (?) Italy.  July 6.  It was a milk run.  No fighters but
quite a bit of accurate flak.  They came close with it but we only got a few
holes.  No damage.  We got home o.k.
 

Installment #4
 

#28&29  Vienna Austria.  July 8.  One of our toughest to date.  I was flying
#4 for the first time and Bearden(?) was on my right wing.  He got a direct
hit and went down.  The flak was pretty thick and accurate.  We had a
navigator from a new crew riding with us.  It was his first mission and
plenty tough for a start.  We got several holes but no serious damage.  Got
home o.k.  We knocked out our target, an oil refinery.

#30  Porto Margua (?) Italy.  Another oil refinery.  Didn't hit it so well.
The flak was scattered but accurate.  No fighters, it was a pretty easy
mission.  We flew no. 4 again but no wing men.  July 13th 1944

#31  We started to Porto Margua but it was overcast so we hit our alternate
at Mantusa Italy.  We only saw a few bursts of flak and it was all behind us.
 No hits.  I think we hit the target, a marshalling yard.  We had <can't make
out word> and started a lot of fires.  #2 engine was acting up so we
feathered it.  Lucille gets her first new engine.  We got her home o.k.  July
14th 1944

#32&33  We went to Vienna again.  The flak was pretty bad but we didn't get
many holes.  We lost two superchargers just before we got there and had to
drop our bombs to keep up with the formation.  We got home o.k.  7-16-44
July 16th 1944

#34  We started to Munich Germany but Lucy had two turbos go out before we
got to our altitude and we couldn't keep up with the formation so we turned
around and came home.  We got our mission for it.  7-19-44   July 19th 1944

#35&36  We went to Friedrichshafen, Germany.  It is just across a lake from
Switzerland.  Some fighters hit us just over the coast of Italy and got
Baker.  I think most of them got out.  We had no more fighters and the flak
wasn't so bad over the target.  We got home o.k.  I had Trible(?) for
copilot.  He is a new pilot and can't fly formation from the right seat so I
did most of the work.  7-20-44   July 20th 1944

#37  We went to Ploeisti, Romania.  I was deputy squadron leader and as
Devane dropped out I led the squadron for the rest of the mission.  I didn't
do very good of it.  I had a new copilot this time.  He was o.k.  7-22-44
bad flak   July 22nd 1944

#38  Ploeisti again. Col. Arnold led the wing and as his air speed indicator
wasn't accurate he went to (sic) fast and we blew out two superchargers
trying to keep up with him.  We dropped our bombs before we got to the target
to try to keep in formation.  We couldn't keep up even with that though and
trailed them quite a while finally catching up.  The flak was pretty bad.
7-28-44   July 28th 1944

#39  Budapest today.  It was pretty rough.  The flak was very intense.  A
plane blew up just in front of us.  We didn't get many holes though and got
home o.k.  7-30-44   July 30th 1944

#40&41  Ober Radnach (?)  It is a plane factory just outside of
Friedrichshafen, Germany.  It wasn't so tough.  No fighters and the flak not
so bad.  We got home o.k.  8-3-44   Aug 3rd 1944

#42  A plane factory out of Friedrichshafen was our target but we didn't get
there.  #3 engine couldn't make the trip.  We turned around just across the
coast of northern Italy.  Got one mission out of it.  We landed with three
engines and four bombs.  Made it o.k.  8-16-44   Aug 16th 1944

#43  This was the most screwed up deal I have seen.  They gave us seven
targets at  Ploeisti and fighter planes were to go in and radio us which one
was not smoke covered.  We hit the largest one.  Flak was pretty bad as
usual.  8-18-44   Aug 18th 1944

#44  Nis, Yugoslavia was our target.  It was about the easiest mission I have
flown, except for poor leading and going over some unexpected flak on the way
up.  We flew on the wing of the lead ship.  Maj. Mitt(?) and Col. Achinson(?)
were leading.  It was very poor.  Got home o.k.  8-21-44   Aug 21st 1944

#45&46  An Airdrome at Markensdorf (?) Austria was our target.  We didn't do
a very good job on it.  The first wave didn't even drop their bombs.  Maj.
Rivers was supposed to lead but had to drop out and that messed the thing up.
 Very little flak and no fighters.  8-23-44   Aug 23rd 1944

#47&48  Col. Arnold led us to Blichammer (?) Germany.  It was a long trip but
we made it o.k. except the flak got Col. Arnold's ship.  They all bailed out
though.  We hated to lose him.  He was a good C.O.  The flak was pretty bad.
We got the largest piece we have seen in no. 1 engine.  It didn't hurt the
engine much though they will have to replace a cylinder.  Lucy has well over
a hundred patches on her now.  She has four new engines and they have changed
tires twice.  8-27-44   Aug 27th 1944

#49  We went to a little town in Hungary and bombed a marshalling yard.  The
trip was uneventful, very little flak and no fighter opposition.  We thought
it was a double and that would have finished us, but they only counted it as
a single.  (no date)

#50  F I N I T O
All through.  We went to Hungary and bombed a m/y (ed. Note - marshalling
yard)  Hit it pretty good.  Got home o.k.  We are all through except for tail
gunner Johns.  He needs eight more.  Sept. 6, 1944