398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association


Lt. Robert H. Dee, Jr.'s Diary
Co-Pilot, 601st Squadron

Dee's Mission No. 12

29 December 1944
Target: Marshalling Yard, Bingen, Germany

No. 12
Dec. 29, 1944

The target was Frankfurt to MPI (Mean Point Of Impact) was a Marshalling yard. The flak was moderate accurate. We got about 10 holes. One piece hit a Tokyo tank, so they’ll have to change the wing panel. We made a 360 degree turn on the target, and missed it. The bomb load was 18X250 GP’s. No fighters. We saw some little pieces of metal floating around, it’s called “Swarm of Bees”. We logged 7 hrs and 35 min.

Editor's Notes:

  1. Bingen is just west of Frankfurt. Robert most likely chose to identify the target using the large city name. This is pretty common in the diaries.
  2. Robert H. Dee, Jr. has provided an explanation of "Swarm of Bees" for us in our FAQs about Army Air Force Terms in WWII.

Notes:
  • Lt. Robert H. Dee, Jr. was the regular Co-Pilot for the Byron L. Magness 601st Crew. On occasion, he flew with other crews.
  • The above transcription was provided by Marty Dee, brother of Robert H. Dee, Jr.
  • 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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