has been following the series and are likewise amazed by what those young 20 yr olds went through...mission...after mission, knowing what was awaiting them each time. Joe's attitude was to go on as many missions as he could, as quickly as possible in order to complete his tour, which finished with another crew. My Dad (Pilot) never really spoke much about his experiences, until he sent me a page out of his diary from that year. He flew 32 missions (officially) and this is his diary account of the last one (italics), plus some comments in a family book put together decades later in normal text.
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Up at 0345 this morning for T.O. at 0700. Target - Merseberg - again. Weather screwed up our assembly, but we got off OK over the North Sea. Pick up Eu. fighters just after we crossed the enemy coast. They got two ships out of the wing ahead. Gee but I get a sick feeling when I see a ship going down in flames. Only saw one chute come out. Caught flak at several places on the way in and that started all our troubles. One piece severed an oil line on #1 and it started smoking and throwing oil. It ran away and started to vibrate violently at the IP and we couldn't feather it. We salvoed our bombs and tried to stay in formation, but then it caught on fire. We dove 12,000' before we could put it out. By that time it blew the nose section off and pieces of engine and cowling came flying off. The vibrations were so violent that 3 of the 4 mounts broke off and the wing buckled and the left aileron counter-balance broke off and tore the wing to hell. We caught a lot of flak on the way out and the best we could do was 135. The navigator did a damn good job. We came all the way out alone and just made the English coast. We landed at Rockheath where the prop came off and we lost #2. #1 was barely hanging on by one mount. Stayed at Rockheath overnight.
We were coming in on fumes on that one. The navigator did a damn good job on that one - avoiding enemy flak and anti-aircraft guns. We had one good engine left when we landed (out of 4 engines).
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The next day, Dad's squadron commander back at his home base told him he was through...ended up just a few missions short of 35, but got a DFC for that last one. After getting home, he got a job with a major U.S. Airline and retired as a Boeing 747 Captain...said he was "Blessed". Dad also had a great sense of humor...when asked by someone about how scared he was during those missions...he replied..."Only the lady who did my laundry knew" ;-).