T/Sgt. George W. Forsyth's Diary

398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association

T/Sgt. George W. Forsyth's Diary
Engineer/TT Gunner 602nd Squadron

Foryth's Mission No. 18

**10 January 1945**
**Target:** **Airfield, Cologne, Germany**
January 10, 1945 Today we flew number eighteen. We bombed an airfield at Cologne. The flak was moderate but accurate. We got five holes. We bombed from twenty-seven thousand. The temperature was fifty-four below. The navigator’s left heated boot went out and he froze his foot. We took off in a bad snowstorm and we now have about eight inches of snow. 38/100 G. P. 7:20 Hrs Editor's Note: The typed diary from 1945 indicates that Forsyth's 18th mission was on 8 January 1945. The official 398th Mission for 8 Jan 1945 was to Speyer, Germany. Cologne and Speyer are over a hundred miles apart. Speyer is near Ludwigshafen. To try to sort out whether Mr. Forsyth entered the wrong date or location, Lee Anne Bradley, 398th Group Historian was contacted. As follows is her research. Lee Anne found that the Petska Crew did not fly on 8 Jan 1945. But the crew flew on the 10 Jan 1945 mission to Ostheim, a date and place not listed in the diary. The primary target that day was the Ostheim Airfield 4 1/2 miles east of Cologne and the secondary target was Cologne. The number of aircraft bombing the primary target was 14, the secondary target 1, and targets of opportunity 4. The diary mentions bombing from 27,000 ft and it was -54 degrees. One microfilm report for 10 Jan 1945 mentions they bombed from 26,500 ft and it was -52 degrees. In addition, the weather reports for the 10th mention snow showers (B0485a, pg 341). Moreover, the Petska crew was scheduled to fly on 6 Jan 1945 (to Cologne) but aborted. They had to return to base due to their Co-Pilot becoming ill. Forsyth's 17th mission was to Kall on the 5 January 1945. After that, the next 398th missions were the 6th to Cologne, the 8th to Speyer, the 10th to Ostheim, and the 13th Germesheim. Forsyth's 19th mission was to Germesheim. Thus since the Petska crew returned on the 6th, didn't fly on the 8th, it appears that his 18th mission had to be on 10 Jan 1945 nominally to Ostheim near Cologne and what happened was that T/Sgt. chose the name of the larger city (Cologne) but wrote the wrong date January 8 instead of January 10, 1945. Many thanks to Lee Anne Bradley, 398th Group Historian, for a great piece of detective work. See also S/Sgt. Chilton H. Jorgenson's diary for August 15, 1944 for additional information on Osthiem's location. Dave Jordan

Notes:

T/Sgt. George W. Forsyth was the Engineer and Top Turrent Gunner for Al Petska's 602nd Squadron crew.
The above transcription was provided by James Froelich, son of Sgt. James S. Froelich of the same Petska 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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