398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association


S/Sgt. Kenneth A. Green's Diary
Gunner, 603rd Squadron

21 November 1944
Merseburg, Germany

November 21, 1944
Mission: Merseburg, Germany

I did not fly on this mission, but my officers, pilot Hastings, navigator Burch, and bombardier Wilbur went on this mission with another crew. Hastings was Squadron lead in the right seat position. Their plane was shot down, along with 7 others in our Group by an FW-190 fighter attack. Hastings was reported killed. Burch and Wilbur are missing in action. Lehner’s crew, who was in our hut, went down. They are all listed missing in action. Some of them have been reported as prisoner of war. Also “Del”, my buddy in the aviation cadets was shot down in his P-51 that day. According to reports, he was killed in action. I received a letter returned to me that I had written him. I was planning to meet Del in Cambridge, England that weekend. It would have been our first get together since 1943 when we were in preflight school in Santa Anna, California. So the meeting never happened. I found out later that Lt. Burch was all right. I did not know where he was, only that he was a POW.

Notes:
  • For the first part of his tour S/Sgt. Kenneth A. Green was a Gunner on Kenneth S. Hastings' 603rd Squadron crew.
  • The above transcription was provided by Joe K. Mansell.
  • 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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