March 15, 1945
Mission: Oranienburg, Germany

We bombed at 26,000 feet big “B” again. The temperature was –52 degrees. This raid was to bomb down the morale of the Germans. We encountered very heavy flak, and all of the formation got the heck shot out of them. I never saw flak so heavy and deadly in all my missions. They threw up everything but the kitchen sink!

Pilot Andy Thomas was shot down right off our right wing. His plane spun for a thousand feet, and pulled out long enough for 7 guys to bail out. He then spun again, caught on fire and exploded. His picture is in my aviation cadet book. We had basic training with BT 13’s at Chico, California. Andy is reported killed. He and the radio operator were hit, and did not get out of the plane.

Pinner’s plane, leading the high element, was also hit badly, and was leaking gasoline all over the sky. He left the formation, and headed for Russia and safety. I later found out that he made it, and everyone was all right.

All the planes dropped bombs out of turn that day, and when our bombardier yelled “Bombs Away”, there were only 5 planes with bombs to drop on the actual target. Things were really a mess that day. Three gunners and a bombardier were brought back wounded, and one radio operator killed. We felt every burst of that flak, and I swear that the instructors were shooting at us that day. All of our planes had major battle damage, including our own. We counted 36 holes in the plane, and the waist gunner got the piece of flak that was headed back toward me in the tail gunner’s position. The tail wheel support had stopped it. We were airborne 9 hours, with oxygen for four hours. I rode as Tail Gunner that mission, and thought I would never see the earth again. We bombed visually, and hit the target with what bombs there were left to drop. I lost about 15 pounds on that trip from sweat.


Note: The diary indicates Berlin, but the official mission that day was to Oranienburg, Germany which is 35 km from Berlin.