Captain Alan A. Arlin's Diary

398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association

Captain Alan A. Arlin's Diary

Arlin Mission No. 9

**June 27, 1944**
**Target:** **Storage Dump, Biennais, France**
Mission No. 9 Date – June 27, 1944 Assigned Target – Storage Dump. Biennais, France Target Attacked – As briefed Results – Unobserved; H.G. bombing Aircraft Number – 291 (G.H.) Bomb Load – 10 500 lb. Demo Position in Formation – Wing Lead Time – 5 hrs. 30 min. Altitude over Target – 25,000' Casualties – None Damage – None Losses – None Loading List C.A. – Capt. Petersen, T. J. Pilot – Capt. Arlin, A. A. Co-P – 2nd Lt. Stallings, H. O. Nav. – 2nd Lt. Walkup, C. A. Bomb. – 1st Lt. Baxter, M. V. H.G. – Eng. – T/Sgt. Chmielewski, R. J. Radio – T/Sgt. Buchsbaum, Louis Gun. – S/Sgt. McCort, J. Gun. – S/Sgt. Wilson, W. C. Gun. – S/Sgt. Hoffman, A. W. Mission No. 9 Date – June 27, 1944 We were leading the Wing today, so Capt. Pete [Capt. T. J. Petersen] flew with us as C.A [Commander of Aircraft]. This was some new type of blind bombing so we had a H.Q. [perhaps H.Q. is Headquarters, but not sure] Operator on board. The ship we flew (291) was the ship Griff had in Rapid City and named "Kukui the Eliminator." It still had the picture on it. This mission was strictly a milk run after we were formed. We had one devil of a time getting the formation together. First off, our Gee Box [a navigation device] and Radio Compass were out, making it almost impossible to find and circle the assembly buncher – especially since there was an undercast making it impossible to see the ground. But in spite of this, with the aid of our deputy we did succeed in finding the buncher only to discover the clouds solid at our briefed assembly altitude of 20,000'. By adding four angels and assembling at 24,000', we finally got the job done in time and were on our way. This wasn’t a very deep penetration since the target was near the French coast. The target was covered with clouds so we made the run using the G.H. [perhaps G.H. is General Headquarters, but not sure] equipment. The first run wasn’t quite right, so we made a 360 and dropped our bombs on the second run. There was quite a bit of flak in the general area but none, to speak of, came very close to us. Some of the ships in our formation received some minor damage but very little. The flak gunners were shooting wild and were lucky enough to get a few shots in the formation. There wasn’t a fighter of any kind to be seen. We didn’t have any of our fighters along as escort and we didn’t need them as no Jerries stuck their noses up to bother us.

Notes:

First Lieutenant Alan A. Arlin of the 601st Squadron was the pilot of Rapid City original crew No. 31. On many of his missions, 1st Lieutenant and later Captain Alan A. Arlin was a lead pilot for his squadron or for the group.
The above transcription was provided by David L. Clark.
This transcription is a careful reproduction of the original except for occasional spelling and punctuation changes. In some circumstances, based on relevancy, some material may not have been transcribed.
Clarification of acronyms or special words or guesses of certain words are shown in brackets [ ].

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