Oct 8, 1944
“Back to base damn it. Oh how I hated to come back, I was in hopes that I would be relieved from combat but no dice still have three to go. While at the flack home, I really had a swell time. Val, Benedick and myself ran around all the time almost getting drunk every night. We almost got into a fight with two English men.”
Oct 3, 1944
“Today we flew up here to the flak check in Southport. It sure is a nice place, I am going to like it here.”
And for something light……swimming with the women…
Oct 2, 1944
“Here we are again another mission and tonight I am so damn tired it isn’t funny. Mission today lasted 8 hours and I flew 7 hrs and 50 mins of it. When we got up this morning Millard complained of a back ache. I told him to go on sick call but he wouldn’t. After briefing, he took sick out to the ship and we had to get an ambulance and another co-pilot. We took off on the mission assemble and was on our way out when I let go of the controls and let this new co-pilot take over. He couldn’t fly worth a damn and after making too close sweeps at the element lead, I took over. I flew until we were almost over enemy territory and gave him control again, still he couldn’t hold position and I was getting awful tired, I took over again and flew until we got home. We made a run on the tank factory at Kassel but didn’t drop our bombs. Flak was thick and I was scared as old hell. McCage got a direct hit in the radio compartment and went straight down. On the turn off the target we headed back north. I thought we were going to make a second run but we didn’t. We headed for the secondary but even then didn’t drop our bombs. We finally dropped on Wiesbaden after opening and closing our Bombay door several times. We flew out without seeing any fighters and with no flak damage. As soon as we hit the ground the ground and got interrogated, we went over to see Millard. The Doc said that Millard had a nervous breakdown and would be through. That makes six of us left of the original crew with three more missions to go.”
This shows you a map of this area and what the RAF was focused on. Night Offensive Here is another You Tube focused on the 8th Bomber group of the US Army Air Corp 1944 Target for Today …now the diary entry…
September 27, 1944
‘Today we went back to Ludwigshafen to try once more to get the marshalling yard. Seems as though lots of supplies are going through there. This mission we had very bad luck, the route in was smooth and everything was alright. About three minutes before our last turning before the IP, the lead ship dropped out to let the PFF ship we were with into the lead position. We had a 10/10 under cast so had to bomb GH instead of visual. The new leader took over and went smack over a flak area. The first burst were right in the formations, we held a steady course. The second bursts were again in the formations, so were the third and fourth. The lead ship kept a straight course why I don’t know. The original lead ship (flies 1-2) dropped out of formation with left wing on fire and I saw one man bail out. Just at that time we had two bursts so close it picked us up twenty feet more. I looked at Millard, Millard looked at me and we knew we didn’t come out of that with everything okay. We both looked at the instruments and No 1 oil pressure was dropping I called the bombardier and told him to have the crew check in. I checked my wing, it looked like a cheese grater. I looked at the right wing and we had a hole about two inches in diameter, between No. 3 and 4 engines. That meant # 4 tank was hit. I prayed that no fire would start. Back at the oil pressure it was going up and down, but I thought to myself we will use the engine as long as we possibly can. The radio operator came over the interphone, “Dotson’s hit.”
“Go check on him, Goy”, I said. Millard kept beating on my arm to feather No. 1 but I shook my head ‘No’.
The field bombardier called “I am going in the back” “Roger.”
“Go ahead.” “I’ll drop the bombs.” We hit the IP. The oil pressure on No. 1 was dropping fast, leak in # 4 tank, Dotson hit, how bad? Everything was going through my mind at once. I opened the bombay doors.
Heikila called, oxygen was out on both systems in the back, pressure was dropping fast. “Roger” “Keep your eye on it”.
To pilot from bombardier: “Go ahead”
“Dotson is hit bad, think we better head for home.”
“We can’t we are hemmed in from all sides and bombs will be away in any minute. Roger” Millard is still beating on my arm to feather No.1 but I shook my head ‘No’ again. Bombs away- flak was all around but we could not hear the bursts so that was good. We turned off the target.
To pilot from bombardier- “Lets head for home.”
“We are, if we leave the formation ever, duck soup for fighters; too risky. Roger”
“Our oxygen is all gone”.
“OK. Get all the walk around bottles and start a bucket brigade for our system up here.”
“Good idea.”
“How’s Dotson?”
“Pretty bad.”
“Is he bleeding?”
“No.”
“Is he conscious?”
“Yes.”
“Roger”
No.1 oil pressure was at 10 lbs. ‘May as well feather now or Millard will go crazy. The self-sealing tank must be holding or we would have had a fire by now.’ For the first time in 15 minutes I could think of only 1000 things instead of 1 million. Bombardier reported Dotson was it in the leg, a bad wound, was not bleeding, and he was conscious and talking. Good, we’ll make it okay. We hung close to our formation until we hit our own territory, then started to let down and pick up speed. I called the bombardier and asked if he thought we should land in Belgium for medical attention for Dotson. Yes, he thought it would be best. Roger. I called the navigator and told him to plot a course to the nearest field. I told Millard to call the leader and tell him our plans. He did so, the lead ship advised us to head for home because we would get better medical attention. I called the bombardier again.
“Do you think Dotson will be alright to make it home?”
“I think so, Scharmen. Everything seems to be under control. Roger.”
“We’ll go home.”
We kept up our air speed over 200mph letting down all the time. When we hit the channel at 12,000 ft., the ball called and said Dotson just passed out and that we had better hurry. Roger. I _____ the _____ on and got our speed up to 220mph. No.1 started to windmill and we couldn’t stop it. To hell with it, we will start it up and run it until it burns up. We were hitting 225mph. Dotson was getting worse. Benidick was giving him artificial respiration, reported the bombardier. Roger. Do all you can. We’ll be home in a couple of minutes. Millard called the runway tower 28. We were heading over 29. Put down the wheels. Gallardo shoot some red flares. There’s the field. Give me 10 degree flaps. Call my air speed. Shoot some more red flares. Full flaps. Air speed 120mph. Full high rpm. Tail is set. Airspeed 115. Made the landing, rolled about 900 ft. Ran it off the runway and stopped. Tower called over and asked if we had control. Roger. We have a severely wounded man on board. Where the hell is the ambulance? He’s coming now, he is alongside of your ship. Roger. The bombardier came up on the flight deck, blood all over him. He shook his head, I knew what he meant but I kept on saying How is he?
The ambulance pulled away. We parked the ship. Nobody said a word. We smoked cigarettes, but said nothing. I walked around and looked at the damage. Left wing was full of holes, would need a new oil____and flap. No. 2 fuel tank was leaking. Blade in #2 prop had a hole 8” long, 1” wide almost completely through blade. Right wing had two holes in No.4 fuel tank. Fuselage from very back looked like seven holes big enough to put your head through. Tail section was riddled, main ______ was cut in half missed the elevator control cable by 2 inches. Blood was all over the waist section. Ship was in one hell of a condition.
Went to mess hall after ? inter_____? couldn’t eat, got up walked over to hospital. Dotson died as soon as they got him into the building. What did he die from they didn’t know. What was I going to tell the boys, all I could think of, it was my fault, we should have landed in Belgium. I didn’t have to tell the enlisted men, the captain did it for me. I told Millard and Valiando. I laid on my bed and cried. Millard was talking to Frudal and was laughing. I could have killed him at the moment. I got up and called the Doc. He said Dotson had a piece of flak 5/8” sq. 3” long in his stomach, the piece went into his leg and up, hit his pelvis bone, cut through blood vessels, died of internal hemorrhage. He said we did a damn good job on first aid but he would have died if he had medical attention right after the hit. We did everything right and he was proud of us. Oh what a relief. (Scribbled out: Talked with Benedict and he said Dotson…) Four more to go.’
September 25, 1944
“Target today was a marshalling yard at Ludwigschafen, Germany. It was a GH mission and we dropped our bombs about 30 miles from the target. I wondered why we got so little flak when we were suppose to have 275 guns at the target. We turned off the target and Millard saw an enemy fighter blow up, a P 51 got him. We got home once again without flak damage and no fighters. Some of the groups are getting the hell shot out of them by fighters but luck has been with us, let’s hope it stays. Five more to go.”
September 22, 1944
“Mission today was a GH bombing, target was an arsenal plant at Kassel, Germany. Our route went straight through Belgium over the battle line near ?Normandy, FR then up to central Germany. We saw some flak before the IP but it was inaccurate so no damage resulted. As we were making our turn on the IP, two planes of the lead squadron collided and went spinning down. I knew one of the boys, Whited was his name, brother to the Whited I trained and flew to England with. Nobody knows exactly what happened. When I saw them, Durrett, the other pilot, was over on his back with Whited’s tail section stuck between his No 1 and 2 engines. Whited’s ship was doing snap rolls and going down like a bat out of hell. The ships were out of my view almost immediately so the tail gunner Benidick told us the rest. When Durrett’s ship got below us, Whited’s tail section on Durrett’s ship flew off and immediately after, Durrett’s ship blew into small pieces. It was a horrible sight one which I never want to see again. We dropped our bombs on the primary, there was plenty of flak but none near enough to us to do any damage. We then proceeded home with no more interruptions. Once again, back at home with no damage, no fighters. Six more to go.”
September 17, 1944
“Back on operations, feels good because every time I fly a mission means the sooner I will get this tour over with. On this first mission in B17s we flew our own plane. Laurel N for Nan._365.-. The ship was a lemon and I told the whole field so but no one would believe me. Capt. Richy of operations gave it a test hop and said it was alright except being slightly wing heavy. They put a new aderon on it but it didn’t help. Just before today’s mission I told the captain that if the ship still flew the same, I wouldn’t fly it on a mission again. It did and for six hours Millard and I fought the controls, when we got back I saw the captain again and told him I will refuse to fly the same ship if I should be assigned to it for a mission. Tonight they packed the ship and sent it to a sub depot for a wing change. Now we have a new ship. Today’s target was gun installations in Holland. We weren’t told why we were hitting the target except that they were raising hell with the British. Everything went according to plan but we missed the target b about a ¼ mile. On the way back we saw which looked like a thousand C47 and gliders. We didn’t know what was coming off. When we landed we found out that they were airborne troops who were going to land in the area we bombed. We felt bad for not hitting the target but the group ahead of us got a direct hit so it was not so bad. Eight to go.”
September 19, 1944
“Number two in the B-17, target was supposed to be a chemical plant at Weis Baden Germany. Due to weather we didn’t even go over the target. All the wings turned around and came back on the same course. ?Vs bring on the tail and flew through most of them before we turned around. The group leader started to look for a target of opportunity and found one right over a flak area. We started to make our run but it was cut out by another group aiming for the same target. We turned away giving that group the right of way which took us away from the flak. All the groups were on their way home so rather than stay behind to drop our bombs we kept them and tagged on to the end. As we left the continent we received a weather report from the base. 500 ft ceiling visibility about 1/8th mile –not the best conditions I must say. Over the channel the clouds were broken so we broke up into three ship elements and let down until we were skipping the waves, then headed for home. We flew over the water for quite a while and when we hit land we went smack over a town. People came running out of houses, stores and everything. We must have been 100 ft above the house tops and I guess we scared the hell out of them.
Before we reached the base, we split up and came in alone. When we found the base, everyone was trying to land at once. Most of the boys were sweating out gas, but we had enough for about 45 minutes. We circled he field 3 times, (the circles weren’t very large because of the visibility) and watched to boys try to murder themselves getting down.
When things settled down we made our landing and everything was okay. We were sorry to bring our bombs back, but then most of the groups dropped. We saw flak but none of it was in our formation. So once again no flak damage, no fighters: Seven more to go.”
August 27, 1944
“Today I flew a B-17 for the first time. I was checked out in 1:45. I like the airplane alright but would prefer to fly the rest of my missions in a B24.” The Flying Fortress
August 18, 1944
“Today’s mission could have been much easier but it wasn’t bad on us so haven’t much kick coming. Major Randell flew in the lead ship which was a GH ship and our target was an airdrome NE of Paris. We were briefed on 40 guns at the target and I am more than sure that all guns were operating properly while we were over the target. Our formation was knocked all out of shape just before bombs away, but we were told to spread out quite a bit because of the large target area. Flak was all around and plenty of the ships got riddled but we went right through with only a couple of holes. Bellman on Randell’s crew had a piece come in and tear his jacket but missed him. The lead navigator was hit in the leg and no. two engine was knocked out. Instead of aborting and falling out behind, the major held his position flying 150 mph which made the whole formation hard to fly and being that his navigator was out of action flew over flak areas and took the long way out. I think it was very stupid of him to do that but what have I to say. On enemy coast out, Dotson spotted two ME 109s Messerschmitt . I saw them when he reported them but couldn’t identify them. The EA didn’t make an attack, and when we saw them, two P51s 20 Facts About The P-51 were chasing them to hell. We got back to the field early about noon ate dinner and now I am laying on a blanket taking a sunbath. The major just got back a minute ago. He had to land at Woodbridge because his hydraulic system was out. Nine more to go.”
Thirty-Five to Go 