T/Sgt. Armand Fugge's Diary

398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association

T/Sgt. Armand Fugge's Diary
Engineer/Top Turret Gunner 600th Squadron

Fugge Mission No. 16

**20 June 1944**
**Target:** **Oil Refineries, Hamburg, Germany**
June 20, 1944 I was awakened at 0200. My crew wasn’t scheduled to fly but Nelson’s engineer was grounded so I took his place. Our target was the oil refineries at Hamburg, Germany. Take off was 0415. The oxygen line to the top turret broke and 450 lb. of pressure from the line was hard to stop. I got the line flattened with the bomb bay crank but the top turret was out for good. Flew the North Sea route. Gee, but the flak was heavy and I was scared. On the bomb run, a piece of flak hit the intervolometer and released all the bombs. Carried 12 – 500 lb. G.P’s. Our run was at 25,000 ft. Our voltage regulator were hit and knocked out. Hydraulic and oxygen were shot out too. Right toykos and feeder were hit by flak and started to leak like hell. No. 4 started to smoke so we feathered too. Then # 3 went out and that had to be feathered too. Dropped out of formation down to 15,000 ft. and flew to the sea alone. Flak batteries were shooting at us all the way to the sea. Got # 4 started but No. 3 was out for good. Fighters were along the coast so we really sweat, being there alone with plenty of worries as it was. P-51’s picked us up at the coast and escorted us back to England. Got the hydraulic system fixed and had pressure for our brakes but it all gave out at the end of the runway. These two Hamburg missions were almost identical. Rough as hell. No one hurt, Thank God. MISSION # 16 COMPLETED.

Notes:

T/Sgt. Armand Fugge was the Engineer/Top Turret Gunner on Donald Lowe's 600th Squadron crew.
The above transcription was provided by Raymond Borys.
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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