Oh What a Happy Day!

Oct 19, 1944

“Oh What a Happy day. Thirty-fifth and last mission completed! and I am still alive and healthy. I am one happy man and I am not kidding in the least. I feel ten years younger and for once I can go to bed relaxed. Mission today was the factory area in Mannheim, Germany. We carried leaflets which made the ship light and easier to fly. About eighty miles from the target we started to make contrails which necessitated a climb. We went up to 30,000 feet and still were making contrails. This I didn’t like because the danger of fighters. When you have close to 1000 planes in the air flying the same course and practically the same altitude with every ship leaving contrails, it provides a beautiful hiding place for attacking aircraft. Fighters were reported in the area and I was scared shatless. On the bomb run, the hun opened up with 300 and some guns in a barrage pattern. The fella off our right wing received a direct hit in his No.2 engines. It must of killed or seriously wounded the men on the flight deck because the side of the ship was a mess. The wing caught fire and the ship peeled off in a slow, uncontrollable dive. We drop our bombs and cleared the target with slight damage. Lucky for us, we saw no fighters, although they could have been on top of us and unseen. Our escort did a wonderful job and now after completing my tour, am thankful to the little friends. Even though they never did actually keep an EA off our ship, I am grateful as hell and was always glad to see them around. As I said before I feel ten years younger tonight and I feel like raising hell, but with Val and Millard still flying, I don’t want to make them feel bad. Tomorrow, I’m heading for London, and I will have to get drunk at least once.”

Note from editor: Here are some photos from the September 2017 exhibit at Imperial War Museum in London. IWM London