We visited Rain Bow Corner where All-American soldiers passed at least once. We did see several people we knew back in the states. One was Charles Thorp that I was delighted to see, as I had not heard from him since we left Gulfport. Thorp was from Arkansas and had aunts in OK City that he visited from time to time so we kept in touch through all the years ‘til his wife advised he died in March last year.
Mission #6 March 17, 1945. Target Jena, Germany. Weather 10/10 again. Camera worked was primary target but weather was so bad we went on to secondary target but I didn't record what the secondary was, but it was near Frankfort and plenty of Flak from them. We were not hit by any shrapnel from it.
Mission #7 The Biggie BERLIN GERMANY Target Marshalling Yards in center of city. Weather was very visual Flak Heavy-Heavy. All the way across. We flew in from SW corner and out the N.E. Corner of city. This was biggest raid made on Berlin 1300 Heavy Bombers and 750 Fighters. I had a camera that was synchronized with sight on guns, was suppose to take pictures of bombs from time they were dropped to target. But Flak was so thick I thought maybe spinning round and round might deflect it if it hit the ball maybe it whacked as there were some marks on turret that looked like shrapnel had hit it. They couldn’t tell much from my pictures they made them dizzy to watch. We did hit the target square on.
Mission #8 Plauen Ger. March 19, 1945 Target industrial complex. Flak was light and mostly behind us. On the return to England we ran head on into another Group of 17's. Clouds were pretty heavy so we were mixed up with 17's going ever which way. We made a right turn and I swear the plane we turned to miss was so close I could almost touch him with my guns. If he hadn't also made a right turn we no doubt would have collided. We were shaken up more by that incident than we were on most of the combat missions. No one could ever imagine however we managed to get there without colliding. We never found out what Group was headed into the bomber stream at the same altitude. I guess the group leader would have been chastised if they could have found out who he was.
Mission #9 Feldhaussen Ger. March 22, 1945 Marshalling yards No flak no fighters (milk run).
Mission #11 Twenteesche Airfield March 24, 1945 Heavy flak, we got a few flak holes but lost no crew.
Mission #12 Berlin Ger. March 27, 1945. Target was industrial sector. Flak was heavy but our Group didn't get much damage several planes went down from other groups.
Mission #13 We called it 12A March 31st 45 Target Halle Ger. Near Lipzig. There was suppose to be some sort of oil target I don't know what kind. Must have been refining.
Mission #14 Hoya Ger. April 4 1945 Target Airfield. Heavy flak Fighters in area none came at us. This mission was the 1 and only flown below 25000 ft or so. We went over target at 12000 to see if bombing hits were more accurate. We never heard if they were or were not. Enemy fighters were in area hit the group behind us. The flak burst at 12000 feet seemed to be about a dozen times more powerful than they did at 25000 or above. Every burst felt like a direct hit. 2 or 3 times the pilot called over the interphone and ask where we were hit. The co pilot off our wing was killed by flak.
Mission #15 Grafenweht, Ger. Apr 5 1945 Hit ordinance No flak no fighters another milk run. Going on 3-day pass to London in a.m.
I don't remember much about our second trip to London (I didn't write anything down at time) but do recall the Buzz bombs and Fog.
You could hear the engines of the Buzz bombs as they passed over head. When the engine stopped you knew an explosion was about to happen only trouble you didn't know where. Art Thorp (Tail g.) and I were out on street somewhere in Picadilly when one hit close enough to break windows across street from us. The fog was so thick you could see very little. Shook us up some. When there wasn't too much fog it was interesting to watch the delivery horses (Everything Beer- food etc was delivered by horse and drag wagons). They would become very still and tense when the engines stopped on the buzz bombs. I guess they knew it was going to hit somewhere soon.
Mission #16 Oranienburg, G. April 10, 1945 Ordnance depot largest in Germany. We got over the target without any flak, but one 17 behind us got a direct hit and went down (we saw no chutes). We had the first enemy plane to actually come in on our group. It was a ME262 the first jet the Germans put into action. I saw him but was too far to hit, our upper local gunner fired at him anyway.
Mission #17 Friedham Germany April 11, 1945 Bombed visual flak was heavy.
Our #1 engine dropped to 14 inches pulling no more than it's own weight so we lost speed and dropped behind our group, we stayed close to bomber stream so we might tack on to another group to target but #3 engine ran away had to feather it. Lost altitude pretty fast. We dropped bombs to help maintain altitude (they hit in a wheat field we could see the farmer with team and wagon in field but he was far enough away, I don't it hurt anything except his wheat and ears We were loaded with 2-2 thousand pounders). We kept altitude for awhile but the dumb engineer let the #4 engine run out of fuel. We were left with one good engine and were going down about 1500 feet per min. Prepared to bail out or crash land we were lose to Swiss border and had decided to try to make it there if we got out of this predicament alive, but the engineer got the transfer pumps going and the #4 restarted when fuel reached its tanks. We leveled off at about 4000 feet and went on back to base.
The waist gunner Dick Berger had always told me (don't worry Ha) if we ever have to bail out, I'll get you out of that ball before I jump.
I had already rolled the ball up so the door was inside the plane, when the pilot said be prepared to bail out he had the door open, I released the safety strap, he grabbed my chute hangers and jerked me out of that ball in a flash. My mike and ear phone cords of course were pulled out so I could not hear anything said over intercom. So I snapped on my chute (couldn't wear one in Ball) and headed for the waist door just started to pull the release so the door would fly off. Dick grabbed my arm shaking his head and screaming no, after I was off the inter com was when the pilot got the plane leveled off and decided we might make it back after all.
Mission #18 Neumunster Germany, April 13, 45 Target marshalling yard weather clear
We saw one burst of flak and one plane go down. We were never sure if the flak hit him or something else caused it. (They were not in our group)
Mission #19 Point De Gabe France April 14 1945 Target - Big Gun emplacement Weather clear. We didn't see any flak but did see 2 B24's collide and go down. Target was near Bordeaux France.
Mission #20 Dresden Germany. April 17, 1945 Target Rail Center Weather Visual
Flak medium not very accurate. Our group led the 8th over target.
Fighters hit group behind us pretty good. We saw at least 2 planes go down no chutes. After the war and I was working at Halliburtons in Duncan I met a German girl that had married a GI but had divorce. We talked about the war and Hitler many times. She was about 15 yrs old during war and was in a youth Movement. She said at that age she thought Hitler was god. She had seen him many times; it was later that she realized what an evil person he was. Anyway she said the only thing the U.S. - 8th Air Force did that was unnecessary in her view was to bomb Dresden. She claimed the only thing there was the Dresden china works and Doll factory.
Mission #21 Elsterwerks Germany April 19 1945 (Our crew stood down on April 18) Target a Railroad Bridge Weather clear Flak medium. Not very accurate (we heard they had women manning the flak battery) H. A. captain Marshall was lead pilot for our group on this mission. We never knew what his problem was on the mission unless he was bucking for major, but he led us over the target 3 times before finally dropping the bombs but still missed the bridge. We didn't care much for him.
Mission #22 Munich Germany April 21st 45 Target Marshalling yd. Weather 10/10 (target not visible) Flak was very heavy but inaccurate.
Mission #23 Pilsen Chech. Target airfield weather visual good Shoda numitions works. Flak heavy and accurate several planes were lost that day. We always heard that the British had warned the people by radio that they should stay away from work because the 8th AF was coming so the Germans moved all the area flak guns to Pilsen.
We dropped our bombs on the first pass over target (In error) our togeler thought he saw the lead bombardier release his load which of course was the signal for all the group to drop theirs, but he hadn't released his. Any way since we had no bombs and flak was thick the pilot pulled out of position and left the group who made 3 or 4 more passes over the target and still didn't drop their load. Captain Marshall was lead pilot again and one of his gunners (waist) was hit in the rear with a piece of flak. This was the last mission made by the 8th Air Force to drop bombs, the rest of the missions were humanitarian, dropping food to the starving people of Holland and other low countries after that picked up loads of POW's from around Germany and flew them to France and England to hospital.
They also flew ground crews who had been in England for years around Europe at low altitude to see the results of their work in sending the Bombers to Germany. I flew on one or two trips just to look. The above of course came about after May 8th 1945.
On May 13, 1945 we get orders to depart England via Valley Wales, Ireland and Labrador on to Bradley Field Conn. for future assign. After tdy of a leave for rest and recuperation. We transported 12 ground crew members from the 381st. Some had been there for almost 4 years. I remember 1 of bunch didn't pick up his parachute before we left England for Valley Wales. I have never seen a more nervous and anxious person. I guess he thought we would surely go down and he had no chute. Soon as we landed at Valley he went straight to supply for a chute. We stayed in Ireland about 20 hours (nearly all day light hours) and left for Labrador for the next over night stay. There were supposed to go on to Bradley Field next day. We received a report to return to Bangor Maine as everything was socked in at Bradley. So we were delayed another day in getting to home sweet home.
The next day I believe was May 28th. When we left Bangor for Bradley Fld after a few days we departed for Camp Chaffey Ark. Where we would get orders for 30 days plus travel time for RandR then on to Sioux Falls S. Dak. for further assign.
On our way from Bradley Fld to Camp Chaffe we were routed through NYC and Grad Central Station (so I was told) was the 1st and only time I was ever in NY the place was quite impressive.
After RandR leave I reported to Sioux Falls AAF I thought for assignment to a B29 outfit and on to Asis, but Dick Berger our waist gunner met me at the Bus Station at the field with a grin so wide I could only guess he had good news. the first thing he said "Okie we don't have to go on to B29's unless we want to, all with at least 20 missions or 200 hours combat don't have to go unless you volunteer." I didn't have any inclination to do that. We were still in Sioux Falls when Japan surrendered. So we knew was just a matter of time ‘til we would be discharged.
I was sent to March Field Calif. along the 1st of Sept 45 and and was given a list of jobs that were open for a Staff Sgt. I chose technical supply because I knew absolutely nothing about it and that qualification usually worked very well in the army. It worked ok for I had a Buck Sgt. named Chris that was a real nice guy that knew it all. I worked there about a week before I knew he was black and only found out one day as another Sgt. asked me to go to lunch (mess hall) I said sure but I wanted to ask Chris too, all three of us started out when we got near the mess hall Chris turned off. I asked where he was going. He said to the C squadron mess hall. I felt like a real butt but it didn't bother Chris he just laughed and said it had happened before.
Ila came out as soon as she could, was there about 10 days. When one a.m. I was called to see the Captain he asked if I would like a thirty-day leave plus some transit time of course I agreed. I don't remember the date but he gave me 5 days travel time and 3 day pass so my 30 days leave wouldn't start until about the day I got home. So Ila and I went to San Beridino to catch the train for Okla.
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