398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association


Lt. Robert J. Beckley's Diary
Navigator, 600th/601st Squadron

Beckley's Mission No. 20

28 September 1944
Target: Marshalling Yards, Magdeburg, Germany

No. 20. Magdenburg [Magdeburg], September 28, 1944:

8 hours 15 minutes flying time.

Bomb load 10 five-hundred pound GP bombs.

At the IP we ran into a little flak when the lead ship turned on to the bomb run just a little late; not much flak, but it would have been heavy had we run on a couple more minutes. As it was, it kept off our left wing as we made the turn to the right. Our engineer “Cookie” had to crank down the bomb bays when Reb found a mechanical failure in throwing the bomb bay switch. We dropped on the marshalling yards with light but accurate flak popping around us. When we got out of it “Cookie” attempted to kick out the two hundred pounders. One of them fell out all right, but the other caught on the bomb bay door. In cranking down the door to roll it out, the crank caught his leg and pinned it against the side. Reb turned off the powered door in time so all “Cookie” got out of it was a wrenched knee.

Just about that time we spotted one of our ships on fire off to our left. We pulled away to give them room for they were likely to blow up at any time. The crew of the ship swung out of the formation and the crew began to bail out. The first two that pulled their cords right away saw their chutes blossom. After about three more minutes seven others jumped at intervals of about thirty seconds. These seven all delayed their jumps to an altitude that was warmer, where there also is sufficient oxygen to prevent passing out. Reb saw two of these chutes, but I didn’t see any before they plunged into the clouds at about 18,000 ft. They jumped from 24,000 ft. The pilot then was the only man left in the ship. He tried to maneuver the ship to fan out the flame eating away his right wing, but the fire just kept spreading. He then decided to leave the ship, a very wise decision because the ship blew up a few minutes later. The whole thing was a beautiful, terrible sight. Most of them will probably be prisoners of war of the Nazis, but possibly a few of them were able to evade capture and are hiking the 80 or so miles toward our lines tonight.

Quite a few of our crews over here have walked back from Germany with the aid of our escape kits.

Notes:
  • Lt. Robert J. Beckley was the Navigator for the Linn R. Rogers crew.
  • The above transcription was provided by Ann Collins, daughter of Phillip Collins, Ball Turret Gunner on the 601st Saul Marias Crew.
  • This transcription is a reproduction of the original. Spelling and punctuation changes have been made to improve readability. In some circumstances, material may not have been transcribed or was rewritten.
  • Clarification of acronyms or special words or guesses of certain words are shown in brackets [ ].

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