398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association


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

Dee's Mission No. 18

18 January 1945
Target: Cologne, Germany

No. 18 (Over The Hump)
Jan. 18, 1945.

The target was Cologne. The MPI was a marshalling yard. The contrails and clouds were so bad the mission was recalled. It took until 1/16/45 to decide whether we go credit for the mission or not. We were 5 minutes past the IP before going back.

Editor's Note:

  1. There is no official 398th Mission on January 18, 1945 to Cologne listed. The only mission listed between 13 January and 20 January (the previous and following diary entries) is to Paderborn, Germany which is not close to Cologne.
  2. The only know missions to Cologne in this timeframe were 18 Dec, 3 Jan, and 6 Jan and 28 Jan 1945.
  3. The sentence about 1/16/45 is interesting since it is before the diary entry date and also because that is the date a letter was issued indicating the 18 Dec mission to Cologne would be counted. The wording on the above diary entry and the 18 Dec entry are very similar. Investigation will continue as to whether this entry is an update of the 18 Dec 1944 entry or was an aborted mission to Cologne that might appear in other 398th records.

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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