1. Oct. 22, 1944 Sunday.  HAMM-Marshalling Yard.  Nothing of significance happened on our first mission.  Did see one burst of Pink flak.  Butts-Pilot.  Time-5 hrs. 50 min.

 

2. Oct. 25, 1944 Wednesday. Gelsenkirchen, Germany.  Time-5 hrs. 30 min.

 

3. Nov. 10, 1944 Friday.  HANAU-Airfield.  Gas coming out of vents because of booster running too long.  Al was transferring fuel.  Bombs hung up on "bombs away" - salvoed them five minutes after target.  Lot of flak.  Got a big flak hole in our left elevator.  Lost two planes from our Group.  One down over target, one crashed landed at base.  First mission with Jones as Pilot.  Jones-Pilot.  Time-7 hrs. 40 min.

 

4. Nov. 21, 1944 Monday.  HAMBURG-Oil Refinery.  During assembly observed two planes of the 389th collide and go down very close to Tibenham.  They were behind our group.  Enemy fighters in sight, but none attacked our group.  Lot of flak.  Big flak hole in rudder.  More flak at the coast on the way out.  Group lost one plane over target from flak hit.  Jones-Pilot.  Time-7 hrs. 00 min.

 

5. Nov. 26, 1944 Sunday.  HANOVER (Misburg) Oil Refinery.  Lot of flak in target area.  One plane went down from flak hit-only two chutes seen.  Lot of enemy fighters hit our low left sqdn. and knocked down five of our planes.  Three exploded in mid-air and the other two went down through clouds.  Group behind us lost one entire sqdn. to fighter attacks.  We flew left wing off the group lead plane.  Jones-Pilot.  Time-6 hrs. 00 min.

 

6. Dec. 4, 1944 Sunday.  BEBRA-Marshalling Yard.  Milk Run.  All planes returned.  Top-turret dome frosted up and I couldn't see a thing.  Melted frost with electric-heated glove.  We had P-38 escort today.  Jones-Pilot.  Time-8 hrs. 00 min.

 

7. Dec. 10, 1944 Sunday.  BINGEN-Marshalling Yard.  Mission as such was a Milk run, but formations all screwed-up.  Thirty seconds before bombs away, I looked up and our lead plane was 50 feet above us and his 150 pounders looked like 1000 pounders to me.  I yelled over the inter phone, and Jones slid us off to the left just at bombs away.  Later the lead plane turned into us.  Summers said his wing missed ours by only six inches.  This was the 445th. Group 200th Combat mission since activation.  Jones-Pilot.  Time-5 hrs. 40 min.

 

8. Dec. 12, 1944 Tuesday.  HANAU-Marshalling Yard.  Some flak-lost two planes from group to flak hits-one on our right and one on our left.  Seen only two chutes.  At Bombs away I heard what sounded like we got hit.  I dropped out of turret, right on top of George, and got ready to jump.  George stopped me, pointing to bomb bay doors, which were off of track.  Doors creeped shut or partly shut and bombs, when dropped, tore doors off track.  I aged ten years on this mission.  Jones-Pilot.  Time-7 hrs. 00 min.

 

9. Dec. 28, 1944 Thursday.  HOMBURG-Marshalling Yard.  Light flak, but very close.  All of the crew felt concussion from flak bursts, but no damage to plane or crew.  Jones-Pilot.  6 hrs. 45 min.

 

10. Dec. 30, 1944 Saturday.  EUISKIRCHEN-Marshalling Yard.  Milk run.  First mission we co-operated as a crew since Jones became our pilot.  Some bad moments when two planes kept sliding toward us. causing some near misses with our plane.  Jones-Pilot.  6 hrs. 50 min.

 

11. Jan 1, 1945 Monday.  NEUWIED-Bridge.  Very long bomb run due to strong headwind.  Light flak.  Berardinelli (nose gunner) of Lindamoods crew got hit just below left eye with flak-just a flesh wound.  Instrument take-off this morning and plane behind us cracked up at end of runway.  Bomb load exploded killing bombardier, and injuring others in crew.  Eight 1000 pounders went off, rocking base.  Piece of bomb came through roof of our barracks and went through sleeve of my overcoat.  I was given the piece of bomb.  Jones-Pilot.  6 hrs. 50 min.

 

12. Jan. 2, 1945 Tuesday.  GULS-Railroad Bridge.  Mild run.  Hit some light flak.  Instrument take-off again this morning.  Jones-Pilot.  6 hrs. 20 min.

 

13. Jan. 5, 1945 Friday.  SOBERNHEIM-Marshalling Yard.  Had a milk run going till after the target.  Near the present battle line we ran into some flak.  We caught a burst just below the navigators room, giving us some holes.  Another burst went off close to the waist, and Hannegan hollered over inter phone telling us that George got hit just below the right ear.  Al went back and took care of him, giving him morphine.  Jones-Pilot.  7 hrs. 10 min.

 

14. Jan. 7, 1945 Sunday. ZWEIBRUCKEN-Marshalling Yard.  Hit bad weather near target.  Icing conditions and weather closing in.  Could only see planes in our own group, with others in formation obscured by haze.  On the way back, while over France, had to feather #1 engine due to losing oil pressure.  Dropped out of formation and came in alone.  Hit more icing conditions at lower altitude.  Jones-Pilot.  6 hrs. 50 min.

 

15. Jan. 31, 1945 Wednesday.  HALENDORF-Industrial Area.  Unusual mission.  Fighter escort unable to take off due to weather.  Bombers received a radio recall due to no escort and Luftwaffe being up in force in target area.  Most bases socked in, so we were diverted to northern England.  Landed at Carniby and ran off end of runway, but R.A.F. personnel got us back on in a hurry.  Spent night at Hutton-Crunswick where I met and talked to three Polish aviators.  Flew back to Tibenham the next day.  Jones-Pilot.  6 hrs. 00 min.

 

16. Feb. 6, 1945 Tuesday.  MAGDEBURG-Marshalling Yard.  After forming over Buncher-6, and still in England, a plane in the group ahead of us fell out and started to spin.  Summers seen him hit the ground and explode -- no one got out.  After crossing the Dutch coast, flak got a plane in the group behind us and he went down.  No other incidents this mission.  After debriefing, I checked in with the Flight Surgeon, about my nerves being shot, and getting very little sleep.  He grounded me for ten days and put me on medication.  Jones-Pilot. 7 hrs. 30 min.

 

17. Feb. 9, 1945 Friday.  Bielefeld, Germany.  6 hrs. 30 min.

 

18. Feb. 14, 1945 Wednesday.  Magdeburg, Germany.  7 hrs. 30 min.

 

19. Feb. 19, 1945 Monday.  Jungenthal, Germany.  7 hrs. 20 min.

 

20. Feb. 21, 1945 Wednesday.  NURNBERG-Industrial Area.  First mission after being grounded for ten days.  Good feeling to fly again.  Also our first mission with Burrington as our Pilot.  Roberts flew Co-pilot.  Lot of flak going in near the present front lines.  P-51 escort looked like a bomber stream.  Lot of contrails.  Burrington-Pilot.  8 hrs. 20 min.

 

21. Feb. 22, 1945 Thursday.  HALBERSTADT-Transportation.  This mission part of operation "Clarion", where heavy bombers bombed at altitudes of 10,000 ft. and under.  Our target was a railroad yard.  A lot of small towns in the transportation system were hit.  We bombed from 4500 feet.  Some crews reported seeing gun crews loading and firing 88's.  Some flak bursts were close but no planes from our group were lost.  445th put up maximum effort for this mission and we had 45 planes out.  Burrington-Pilot.  7 hrs. 30 min.

 

22. Feb. 23, 1945 Friday.  Paderborne, Germany.  8 hrs. 50 min.

 

23. Feb. 24, 1945 Saturday.  Lehrte, Germany.  6 hrs. 40 min.

 

24. Feb. 27, 1945 Tuesday.  HALLE-Marshalling Yard.  Very heavy flak concentration off to our left.  No one hit by flak.  The 445th led the Eight Air Force into Germany on this mission.  Lost one plane from our low sqdn. at "bombs away".  Summers thought he was hit by bombs from another plane.  Seen what looked like two chutes.  Swapped positions with George -- he flew top-turret and I flew left waist.  Burrington-Pilot.  8 hrs. 30 min.

 

25. Feb. 28, 1945 Wednesday.  Arnsburg, Germany.  7 hrs. 20 min.

 

26. Mar. 11, 1945 Sunday.  KIEL-Submarine Yards.  Some moderate flak.  Flew "B" Baker on this mission because our regular plane "G" George was shot down over Magdeburg on Mar. 3.  R.A.F. Mosquitos flew a chaff mission ahead of us.  Burrington-Pilot.  6 hrs. 50 min.

 

27. Mar. 12, 1945 Monday.  SWINEMUNDE-Seaport.  Moderate flak.  10/10ths cloud cover.  Bomb load was five 1000 pounders.  Musta hit something big because after bombs away and making turn, heavy black smoke came up through clouds to our altitude.  We hit some prop wash that shook us all up.  Very long mission.  Listened in on V.H.F. and heard a crippled B-24 calling out his position before ditching in the North Sea.  Burrington-Pilot.  9 hrs. 00 min.

 

28. Mar. 15, 1945 Thursday.  ZOSSEN-Army Hdqr's.  Hit some flak going in, near Frankfurt.  One plane in our group caught a close burst of flak near the tail and the tail gunner got hit pretty bad.  They turned around and went back to base.  Carried five 1000 pounders, bombed visually and all sqdn's hit the M.P.I.  No flak at target.  When we landed we found that a piece of flak hit only six inches from Co-Pilot Travers, in the cockpit.  Burrington-Pilot.  8 hrs. 30 min.

 

29. Mar. 19, 1945 Monday.  NEUBURG-(Ingolstadt Airfield).  No flak - no fighters and no clouds at the target.  On the way in we were at 10,000 feet and near Remagen we seen a lot of artillery bursts and a heavy smoke screen.  Burrington-Pilot  8 hrs. 30 min.

 

30. Apr. 4, 1945 Wednesday.  PERLEBERG-Airfield.  Just before we hit the I.P. we were hit by some ME-262 jets.  I flew waist and fired a couple of good bursts at them, but the jets were too damn fast and I overshot.  Hannegan picked them up on the right side but his gun jammed.  Two planes in our sqdn. were hit, one on our right and one on our left.  Both crews were from our barracks, VanDelinder's and Taylor's crews.  As of now, we are the only crew in our barracks.  Neither plane blew up, they both crash-landed somewhere on the continent.  A little later Shorty called out more jets coming in on our tail.  He got off a couple of bursts and they broke off before they fired at us.  Five minutes later we were hit by jets again but none of our planes went down.  Had flak all during the fighter attacks.  Our fighter escort showed up later and Sommers almost fired at two P-51's.  Did not drop bombs on target, we jettisoned them in the Channel.  Burrington-Pilot.  8 hrs. 00 min.

 

31. Apr. 7, 1945 Saturday.  DUNEBERG-Ammunition Plant.  At the wing I.P. near Dummer Lake, we were hit by ME-262 jets.  We had excellent fighter cover and saw two P-51's shoot down a jet.  Three jets started an attack from six o'clock and Shorty gave them a long burst and they broke off.  Had a single ME-109 come in at nine o'clock level and I fired at him as did everyone else in the sqdn.  He broke off smoking like hell and two P-51's picked him up and made a pass at him and he went down smoking, and flaming.  Lot of dogfights in the area but too far out to tell who was who.  Lot of flak also.  One plane from the group went down from the first jet attack.  Burrington-Pilot.  7 hrs 30 min.

 

32. Apr. 9, 1945 Monday.  MEMMINGEN-Airfield.  No flak at all.  Bombed target visually.  Some fighters in the area but none attacked our group.  Bob Scarlett flew his last mission with us, as our tail gunner.  Shorty stood down this trip.  Good fighter escort.  Seen Lake Constance from a distance.  Burrington-Pilot.  8 hrs. 15 min.

 

33. Apr. 10, 1945 Tuesday.  RECHLIN-Airfield.  Didn't drop our bombs this trip.  Lead bombardier screwed up.  Whole formation screwed up.  On the bomb run the lead sqdn. was directly below us and had we dropped our bombs, we would have wiped them out.  Regrouped and headed for third priority target, but it had been hit already and overcast with smoke.  Brought bombs back to base.  Hit some flak on the way out and one plane from the group behind us went down from flak.  Burrington-Pilot  8 hrs. 45 min.

 

34. Apr. 14, 1945 Saturday.  BORDEAUX (Royan)-Coast Defense.  Bomb load was three 2000 pounders.  Bombed visually.  Very little flak in the area.  The 389th Bomb Group lost five planes when the Third Division B-17's dropped frag bombs through the 389th formation.  The 17's were on their second bomb run.  Two B-24's went down at the target, two crashed on landing in France and one made it back to the 389th base.  We bombed from 15,000 feet.  No fighter escort this mission.  Burrington-Pilot.  8 hrs. 15 min.

 

35. Apr. 15, 1945 Sunday.  BORDEAUX (Royan) Coast Defense.  Same area as yesterday's mission.  Bomb load on this mission was four large canister bombs of Napalm.  It was the first time our group dropped Napalm.  Bombed from under 15,000 feet.  These canister bombs had no tail fins and had detonators on each end.  Instead of falling like conventional bombs, these bombs fluttered to the ground, in an irregular pattern.  Seen a lot of France and much of the Invasion coast.  No fighter escort today.  Burrington-Pilot.  8 hrs. 20 min.