Mission #1 French Coast, June 12^th , 1944
My first mission for the crew, what a cookie. Target was an air field at Rosieres-en-Santerre, France. Arrived there and found some had beat us to it. It was full of bomb crater. We flew around France looking for another that wasn’t bombed out. This proved hard to do. Most of them were already in bad shape. During this little jaunt we encountered our first flak. We couldn’t find a target so decided to bring our 32 one hundred pounders home. The Lead Navigator really got lost or something for he brought us our right over Dunkirk. Those cookies can sure use those 105’s. That I found out later is the most accurate flak the Germans process. They knocked down two B-17’s in our formation both with direct hits in the wing gas tanks. We lost Lt Ryan’s crew and Lt. McKeeque’s crew. Some of the crew got our, we saw some of the parachutes. We escaped with a feathered engine, a two inch hole in the Number one gas tank, plus numerous flak skin fractures.
100^t Mission Number 138

Mission #3, Wilster, Germany, June 15^th, 1944
First time over Germany via the North Sea, not very exciting. A long haul, 10 hours solid formation. Wonderful fighter support. P-51’s, P-38’s, and P-47’s lined up on all sides of the division. Saw no enemy fighters, light inaccurate flak. Couldn’t bomb primary, target overcast, no PFF ship. Finally dropped our ten 500 pound bombs on small town through hole in overcast – Wilster, Germany.
100^th Mission Number 140

Mission #4 Fallersleben, Germany, June 16^th or 20^th, 1944
Carried two 2,000 pounders across the length of the North Sea to deposit on a factory, building Ju-88 wings. Everything was wonderful until we hit that flak on the bomb run and over the target. Old "Mason & Dixon," the ship to which we were assigned got clipped in number one fan. That wasn’t so bad, three left, but she threw a plug on number three when I tried to stay with the formation diving to the Rally Point. That engine had 400 combat hours on it. Something was bound to snap and it did, we came home from central Germany on two engines and a about quarter engines. Too much alone, couldn’t stay with the formation so dropped down the 390^th, stayed with them until pulling away from wounded plane, we joined the 95^th. Had to keep dropping back like this the while way back. Sweated out engines, enemy fighters, high manifold pressure, high cylinder head temperature and God only knows what else. That would have been the time to visit Sweden. Monk kept shooting Gee fixes and we broke out under the overcast about Ipswich. England sure looked good. The pay off was our crew chief, M/Sgt Joe Picard was glad we lost the engine for it meant a new engine for his ship.
100^th Mission Number 143

Mission #5 Berlin, Germany, June 21^st, 1944
Big "B", well at least we saw the place and of course it’s flak. Dropped our forty-two 100 pound incendiaries on a FW-190 factory. 100^th bombs hit the MPI dead center. We won’t have to hit that target for quite some time again. The factory was located on the outskirts of Berlin near Basdorf. Picked up some flak holes but barrage type anti-aircraft fire is nothing like tracking bursts. One sees a lot, but most of what you can see will never hurt you. Another long 10 hour mission though, making it rough physically. Wonderful fighter support.
100^th Mission Number 144

Mission #6 Rouen, France, June 29^th, 1944
Primary target was pilotless plane installations in the woods below Fruges, France. A no flak briefed. Targeted for twenty 250 pound bombs. Target was completely overcast. So the Major led us all over France looking for a hole with a target in it. We flew around 45 minutes with the bomb bay doors open. We picked up a lot of flak and lost two ships and one crew. The one parachuting over France and the other crash landing at an airfield on the English coast. Three chutes from that one landed in the Channel, all three were picked up by Air Sea Rescue. Finally dropped bombs on industrial target at Rouen, France. Heavy flak.
100^th Mission Number 147

Mission #7 South of France, June 25^th, 1944
Secret mission, details filled in later. First mission I feel have done something for the war effort. Lost one ship to flak on the way to the target, probably everyone got our as we saw several chutes. Heavy flak on the return, no B-17’s knocked down in our group. saw one the wing ahead with #3 engine trailing black smoke. Long ten hour mission with wonderful fighter support.
Entered in USA after combat tour over: Dropped 10 chutes and canisters containing guns, ammunition, food, and clothing to the Maquis close to Limogous, France. Crossed French coast at 18,000 feet flew until past Paris. Let down dropped chutes from 50 feet in field marked by flares. As we went over a small village saw women and children waving. Our fighters shot down quite a few Jerries this day.
100^th Mission Number 148

Mission #8 Fleury, France, July 6^th, 1944
Bombed primary target consisting of pilotless plane installation. They had a beauty dreamed up, a strategic mission to Bremen, Germany, but during briefing the changed the target to NoBall Everyone concerned was a little happier. Climbed to altitude over England and hit the French coast at 24,000 feet. Picked up two areas of flak, the first we skirted but the other one was a wall across the bomb run. Heavy bursts but not very accurate. No ships damaged and we didn’t pick up any skin holes. Waist gunners only heard one burst, also saw about six rockets. They were close for rockets, only about a 100 yards to our right and level. Dropped twenty 250 pound general purpose bombs. Pretty good hit, haven’t seen the pictures yet. Think results were good though, dropped bombs and headed out to sea again. Mission on five hours long, wish they would all be that way.
100^th Mission Number 154

Mission #9 Bohlen, Germany, July 7^th, 1944
bombed primary briefed target which consisted of a synthetic oil refinery. This target had been completely destroyed over a year ago and had not yet been put back into operation. Intelligence believed was that it would be back in operation by the running by the 21^st of July. Rather than take a chance on it’s not being destroyed soon enough because of perhaps bad weather, we hit it today. Bombed by groups, several Wings hit the target. Results considered good, saw S-2 pictures. Dropped our bombs on dense smoke caused by group ahead of us. Target probably completely destroyed. Intervelometer salvo for ten 500 pound general purpose bombs. Flak over the target was intense, heavy and moderately accurate, coming mostly from Leipzig’s southern defenses. Fighter support was wonderful. Several stray FW-190’s hit wings in front of and back of us but caused little damage. B-24 groups received very high opposition some reporting being hit by more than 100 enemy fighters at one time. Box Score for the day – 114 enemy interceptors shot down- 34 bombers mostly B-24’s and eight fighters were our loss- Saw several B-17’s with engines out from flak. One with two out on the same side. Big pile up at division assembly one group ran right through us. Two b-17’s from another group collided over Zuider Zee, one exploded after the other crashed in flames several chutes sported. Flew #6 in lead squadron today, nice position. Very rough mission but two groups from the 100^th returned. Long mission, bombed from 27,000 feet. Our deepest penetration yet.
100^th Mission Number 155

Mission #10 Hemmingstedt (Keil), Germany, July 18^th, 1944
Bombed PFF just south of Heidi , Germany , dropped ten 500 pound general purpose in wing formation, 100 feet Intervelometer setting. Little flak at Heligoland which we skirted. Bombed at 17,000 feet through solid overcast. No enemy fighters. Formation was very good, flew #5 in lead squadron over enemy territory. about 15 to 20 minutes. Climbed on course out over North Sea. Let down under 1000 feet ceiling. Gravy train after missing several rough ones to Munich while rough ones to Munich while in the hospital. Six-hour and forty-five minute mission strategic with tactical briefing. Bombed in 18 ship groups.
100^th Mission Number 163

Mission #11 Schweinfurt, Germany, July 19^th, 1944
Bombed primary briefed target consisting of ball bearing plant in Schweinfurt. Flew as #2 position in high squadron in lead group. Colonel Bennet led the 13^th A Wing. Dropped six 1000 pound general purpose bombs from 25,000 feet. Bombed visually, bombs hit middle of dense smoke caused by wings before us. Rather good hits and results are expected at least evident. About the flak, it was darn accurate today, moderately heavy by right on us. Quite a few holes in ship. 100^th Group lost no ships, but some casualties were caused and everyone picked up battle damage. It broke one of our deicer boot lines. Put big holes in #2 gas tank, both wings one big hole in left wing leading edge, holes in fuselage from nose to tail. Jack’s position was hit right at bombs away. Both Collier and Patterson were in their metal helmets. Pat was hit in the face by flying wood splinters – a piece of his ammunition box. Some flak on the way in at Happy Valley, which we went around. Some light stuff tracked us over north Danube. A total smoke screen over the continent. Shipman and Monk saw P-38’s strafe and destroy two trains on the ground. This target was hit in April but rebuilt some since then. Our fighter support was excellent. Seven hour mission.
100^th Mission Number 164

Mission #12 Merseberg, Germany , July 20^th, 1944
bombed primary target with twenty 250 pound general purpose bombs. Target was oil refinery just east of Leipzig and results were good. Flak was rough but we only got a few holes. In fact we were in the stuff quite a while and they were right on us. No enemy fighters and our support was excellent. Bombed from 25,000 feet into smoke screen. Long 9 hour mission.
100^th Mission Number 165

Mission #13, July 21^st , 1944 Ludwigshaven, Germany
Bombed last resort target. Primary was Me-109 factory at Regensburg we dropped ten 500 pound clusters of M1 incendiaries on nitro glycerin plant at Last Resort target. Weather was too bad for our altitude. At least the 45^th Combat Wing bombed Regensburg with excellent results visually. Flak was not bad at our target. Our group got split up bad when Major Emberton flew us into a front. Finally got back in formation and had to bomb from 28,000 feet rather than the briefed altitude of 23,000. got into soup trying to get around a flak area. Ran into one when group got spit up and did my own evasion. Quite a bit of flak over the target. Not many close burst and no holes in the ship. No enemy fighters. Our support was very good, especially the P-38 group. Saw a B-17 blow up by flak on the way in.
100^th Mission Number 166

Mission #14 Enemy Lines at St Lo, France, July 24^th, 1944
Didn’t bomb – undercast to close to target and our lines. Brought bombs back, thirty-eight 100 lb general purpose. Lead group was carrying fragmentation bombs. Saw one B-17 go down by flak. Fighters hit wing behind us, but left us alone. No holes in our ship. We were to be heavy artillery for the Ground Troops but no go - bad weather. Short five hour mission.
100^th Mission Number 167

Mission #15 Enemy Lines at St Lo, France, July 25^th, 1944
The very heavy artillery was out again this morning. Today the visibility was better but we had to go in at 12,000 feet. We laid down a very good bomb pattern and the results were excellent. I hope the infantry coordinated attack is going as well. Flak over the target coming from German 88mm field pieces pointed skyward set a plane in our lead group afire. Nine chutes were seen. Dropped thirty-eight 100 pound G.P. bombs. Lead group dropped fragmentation personnel bombs. Short five hour mission.
100^th Mission Number 168

Mission #16 Merseberg, July 28^th, 1944
Same target as July 20^th. Oil refinery southwest of Leipzig in Merseberg. Dropped ten 500 pound general purpose on wing formation PFF, results were not viewed – 10/10^th undercast. Flak wasn’t as bad as the time before. No hits or even close bursts. However some joker put a 50mm slug n our #2 nacelle from test firing his guns. Weather wasn’t so good but better than briefed. Coming back over the channel two new crews ran together, don’t know if anyone got out. Supposed to have been a big air battle but saw no enemy aircraft. Our support consisting of all P-51’s was very good.
100^th Mission Number 169

Mission #17 Troyes, France, August 3^rd, 1944
Dropped twenty 250 lb general purpose on secondary target consisting of railroad bridges and marshalling yards. Primary target, a fuel dump was observed by cumulus clouds. Made two runs on it but were unable to pick it up. Weather was briefed as wide open, instead we had high middle and low clouds. Our P-51 escort was excellent. Picked up a little flak as we crossed the present battle line north of Caen and a little on route our through Holland. Results were good especially high Group. Wing formation very good. Bombed from 17,000 then climbed to 20,000 feet. Seven hour mission
100^th Mission Number 173

Mission #18 Hamburg, Germany, August 4^th, 1944
Bombed primary PFF. Consisting of oil refinery in the outskirts of the city. Results not observed. Twenty 250 lb general purpose – 19 in the target area, one hung on racks and was dropped at sea. No flak until the target then they did not shoot at us, but shot at the high group in the Wing behind us got it bad too. Turned out to be an easy mission for us. Bombed from 24,000 feet. Fighter protection good, no enemy aircraft. (not transcribed) had smoke screens as well as at Hamburg. Eight and one half hour mission.
100^th Mission Number 174

Mission #19 Magdeburg, Germany, August 5^th, 1944
Bombed primary visual with ten 500 pound general purpose. Results were excellent. Target was tank factory in center of city. Visibility was the best I ever saw over Germany, no haze. Wings flew two groups one minute apart. Entirely to close, prop wash was terrific. To many slips trying to get through flak corridors at the same time. Prop-wash kept the formations loose. Not good especially with all the bandits in the area. Good fighter support. Lots of enemy fighters all around today. Saw my first enemy aircraft up close today. A Me-109 went right through our group going straight down. He wasn’t shooting and no one got a shot at him. It happened to quick. I didn’t see it but was told that a P-51 was right on his tail. Saw about 20 enemy aircraft go through Wing in front of us. Saw seven-teen new German jet propelled fighters about two thousand feet above. We were at 25,000 feet. They failed to hit us but tried to hit the Wing behind us but their attack was broken up by P-38’s. Lots of ships had to abort, one got hit by enemy fighters & their tail gunner knocked down a Fw-190. Flak was very heavy at the Initial Point and target, but they did not track us, thank God. The 100^th got shot up bad and we lost a ship at the target. Not to mention men wounded and one killed. Magdeburg was still seen burning when we left the enemy coast due to the good visibility. Don’t think we will have to go back there very soon. Big fires today all over Northern and Central Germany throughout the Hanover area. Eight hour mission with an instrument take-off.
100^th Mission Number 178

Mission #20 Beautor, August 20^th, 1944
Brought bombs back to base after battling weather for six hours. Primary was railroad bridge and yards. So was secondary in Berlin. Nothing accomplished, carried six 1000 lb general purpose. Completely overcast. Got accurate and tracking flak at one point. Lt. Colonel Kidd lead Wing. Flew #2 position in low squadron in composite group with 390^th.
100^th Mission Number 177 (target was North France)

Mission #21 St. Sylvain, France, August 8^th, 1944
The heavy artillery was out again today on both sides. We dropped 8000 pounds on the town occupied by Headquarters of the German Ground Forces in Normandy area.12,500 lb two external 1000 lb bombs general purpose. Went in on left wing of Lt. Colonel Jeffrey and Lt. Neal Scott, was in most accurate ever for twenty minutes. 100^th lost three ships from "B" group. Lots of casualties. Hit MPI dead center, Scott’s bombardier was wounded in leg just after I.P. and knocked out off his seat but got back up make a perfect run, which included some evasive action. He was recommended for the D.S.C. and will probably receive it. We escaped with just a few holes and Shipman has a few scratches on his face and hands when his glass was hit and broken in the tail. 8^th also dropped fragmentation and 100 pounders in same area southeast of Caen. In hopes of British break out toward Paris. Hope it works as well as St. Lo did – same deal. We did our part but I am still shaking. Instrument take-off this morning. Ground fog, visibility about 100 yards. Most bombs we ever carried and first experience with external bombs.
100^th Mission Number 178

Mission #22 Longnes, France, August 13^th, 1944
The Germans are in mass retreat through a nineteen mile corridor south of Falasise, the American and British are trying to close the gap but a lot of Germans are getting away. We were out in strength to bomb and cut in as many places as possible all roads south of the Seine River. All the Eighth bombers and fighters plus all of the 9^th Light bombers and fighters were out today. We spit up and bombed by elements. We flew on the wing of Captain Williams and dropped thirty-eight 100 pound general purpose on a convoy of trucks and our assigned road near this town. No flak close to us and built up areas were to be bombed.
100^th Mission Number 180 (Battle Area # 3)

Mission #23 Ludwigshaven, Germany, August 14^th, 1944
Bombed primary briefed target visually with twenty 250 lb general purpose bombs. Results were very good. Target was I.G. Fabens chemical works and synthetic oil plant. This had been bombed before but today the 3^rd Division attempted to completely knock it out. We tried something new in the line of formation. Flying thirteen ship groups in tight wing formation for the first time into Germany, on deep penetrations. The idea being to eliminate stragglers and get more accuracy in bombing. It worked pretty well. No enemy aircraft sighted but our fighter support did not seem as good on the way to the target. Eight and half hour mission. Flew left wing of Lt Col Price and Lt Scott leading the low Group of the 13^th B combat wing.
100^th Mission Number 181

Mission #24 Passe’ sur Armancon, France, August 18^th, 1944
Bombed primary with 12,500 lb general purpose. Same primary as Aug 23. this time it was visual, results on the fuel dump were good – don’t think we will have to go back there again. 13^th Combat Wing flew on wing, 95^th leading, 390^th low and 100^th high. Flew #6 off Delaney. No flak over target but ran into a little over battle lines. Several men on other crews wounded, Delaney’s tail gunner about a 100 feet from us. We had a few skin holes. Sweated out gas. 95^th took three runs to drop their bombs and wasted an hour. We have been over that five times all together. We followed Fireball Able around twice. Good fighter support – eight and a half hours on 2400 gallons of gas.
100^th Mission Number 182

Mission #25 Cruzan, France, September 3^rd, 1944
Target was German garrison and pillboxes – where Jerries are cut off on the Brest Peninsula, and refusing to surrender. Weather was bad – went in under a warm front. Took two runs on target, as low clouds obscured it on first run. First run at 9500 feet, second run at 8500. No flak they were saving what shells they had left for ground troops- our 16 wings were followed by 30 B-26 Wings – dropped 12,500 lb of semi-armor piercing bombs in target area. Took off and reassembled in the dark. One ship form the 350^th Squadron was shot down with number 32 engine burning by 50 calibers from one our formation.
100^th Mission Number 190

Mission #26 Stuttgart, Germany, September 5^th, 1944
Dropped ten 500 pound thermite bundles on MPI. Target was wide open, but we passed through a cold front near Paris both ways. Only over German territory three hours on a ten hour mission – received quite a lot of battle damage, electrical cut to flight deck radios. Some pieces of flak knocked out a main oxygen bottle in my line. #1 propeller governor severed – hole in our new plexiglass nose. Shipman’s PW kit hit and completely ruined. Holes in wings and fuselage, big dent in #2 prop and large hole in stabilizer. Ample flax at 22,000 feet, briefed altitude was 24,000. Had a hard time keeping up with the formation till we got out of the target area. Target was a machine shop making truck engines. Idea being to curtail German retreat – was looking good these days. Brussels fell to us yesterday – today Antwerp.
100^th Mission Number 191

Mission #27 Mainz, Germany, September 8^th, 1944
Target lay in the southern part of the Frankfurt flak defenses. Target was supply depot of about fifteen large warehouse. Carried ten 500 pound general purpose bombs. Dropped five over the target – rack failure, salvoed one in Rhine River area. Other four stopped, then new engineer called enemy fighters and fired as few rounds. Jack grabbed the chin turret guns, neglecting, as he should, the bombs. When the excitement quieted we were over the bomb release line and could not drop. Ground armor almost drained my oxygen system by accidentally opening upper turret emergency valve. Didn’t abort – one large walk around bottle filled from waist. Vern and I on same system, his. Upper turret used our system. Weather was very bad in route – instrument climb to 10,000 feet. Colonel Jeffery led us in Wing formation through the clouds. But we had dense persistent contrails. Target semi open, however wing formation trained them out. Very good P-51 escort, saw big dog fights among contrails. Flak not bad over the target, few holes in nose. Flew #3 off Col Jeff, leading 3^rd Air Division – seven hour mission – lots of cu nimbus clouds on return.
100^th Mission Number 192

Mission #28 Dusseldorf, Germany, September 9^th, 1944
Until today we have luckily avoided Happy Valley – but today we were to attack this target PFF in wing formation. We went over the target, right through the Ruhr Flak defenses but did not release our ten 500 lb bombs. Weather was very bad from ground to 25,000 feet – went over the target with a 90 knot wind pushing us at 27,000 feet. Picked up several holes, one in the wing from a 4 inch piece, the largest I have ever seen. One piece hit and broke a thermos bottle on a box of chaff Collier was sitting on. Not too much near us but we were in it a long time. Saw one B-17 blow up and take two other ships with it, 390^th aircraft. Both on fire, one spinning – got too close to the Valley on return and picked up some more flak. Climbed from take-off almost to target. Claimed bombs were not dropped because of close Prisoner of War camp. I though it was a rather poor excuse as the target was open. Flew #3 off Colonel Price.
100^th Mission Number 193

Mission #29 Nurnberg, Germany September 10^th, 1944
Dropped ten 500 pound G.P. bombs on primary target, tank factory which had not been hit since March. Results were not observed – bombed in wing formation PFF. Flak was heavy but not on us at target at 24,000 feet. Picked up some un-briefed flak from railroad guns on way out. Expected enemy fighters today but didn’t get them. However saw our fighters strafe several extra long jet runways. They set big fire causing cumulous and cu-nimbus clouds – saw lots of places where big explosions were caused by other wings. Saw flak guns firing in the target area. Saw two B-17s go down on fire over target – from the 390^th group’s wing – Major Rosenthal riding with Terminello feathered #3 and 4 engines (Fireball Baker) landed in friendly French territory. Our leaders of "C" group, low, high squadron gave us a bad time all eight hours – Not much weather along route. We were briefed for this target once before but that mission was scrubbed.
100^th Mission Number 194

Mission #30 Ruhland, Germany, September 11^th, 1944
Dropped ten 500 pound GP bombs on primary, PFF. Not much flak over target. At last it happened, we were hit by four waves of enemy fighters, about 120 in all. They wiped out our low Group completely, except for several ships limping toward Paris. They made single ship attacks at us and the lead squadron. We knocked down three confirmed and damaged three others. Humphrey, Collier, Jack and Monk did all the shooting. All four got one Me-109. Collier and Hump got one extra Me 109 apiece. Jack and Monk damaged three others, two of these went down but we think Hempy’s tail gunner die the damage to those Fw-190’s. I say Monks tracers go into three of them – the two the tail gunner got and one of ours. They hit us about 10 minutes before the I.P. We led the low squadron in high group when Cummings aborted. Long nine hour mission, our deepest penetration into Germany yet. Same target that the 100^th hit in their Russian trip. Synthetic oil plants was our target. Our fighters support was good, but there were just too many of them – Hit us when divisions split up for other similar targets. We really earned the DFC we got by completing this one.
100^th Mission Number 195

Mission #31 Ludwigshaven, Germany, September 25^th, 1944
Bombed ;primary with twelve 500 pound general purpose bombs. Target was marshalling railway yards. To prevent supplies moving along the Rhine River. Flak was intense but they didn’t track us – only a few small holes in the ship. Weather was very bad along the route from take off to landing. No enemy aircraft sighted – fair to good fighter support. Bombed from 26,000 feet through solid undercast. Flew #2 off Col Price. Jack finished up today.
100^th Mission Number 200

Mission #32 Bremen, Germany, September 26^th, 1944
Dropped six 1000 pound GPs on primary or probably short of target. Fw-190 assembly plant. Went in North Sea and swung south over Friesians Islands – went over target at ground speed of 340 mph. Flak was bad but they tracked lead group and left us pretty much alone. Five ships in 95^th group had feathered engines. Seven hour afternoon mission – weather pretty good. Came out (unidentified) flak corridor.
100^th Mission Number 200

Mission #33 Mainz, Germany, September 27^th, 1944
Dropped twelve 500 lb bombs on primary. PFF solid ten tenth undercast. Target was RR marshalling yard - Doubtful results. Got into prop wash on the bomb run of six minutes. Weather good all the way except for ten tenth low cloud cover. No enemy fighters – flak wasn’t as bad this time as last time we went there. Vern finished 35 today.
100^th Mission Number 202

Mission #34 Bohlen, Germany, October 7^th, 1944
Target was synthetic oil refinery – 11 miles from center of Leipzig. Trained ten 500’s into primary in visual wing formation. Target was covered by dense smoke screen. Results not observed. Flak was heavy and intense – moderately accurate. No enemy fighters seen. Fighter support was close in and very good. 100^th led division – flew #3 in low group off Clark and PFF Fory – flak and four rockets seen on route but not close to us – six hour on oxygen and eight and one half hour mission. Some prop wash- weather good – low and high clouds. No contrails.
100^th Mission Number 209

Mission #35 Bremen, Germany, October 12^th, 1944
Target same as September 26^th F.W. plant. Dropped ten 500 lb G.P. bombs on primary with better results than last time. But still doubt if we knocked it our. Weather was good until we hit England where a cold front was located. Flew #2 off Lt John Ernst and Major Emberson. Flak over target meager and inaccurate. Seven hour 20 minute mission. Flak on the way out between Brammerhaven and Couxhaven where they have closed the corridor. No enemy aircraft attacked - saw jet fighters – our fighter support excellent and on time. THAT’S ALL

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