398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association


S/Sgt. John Veenschoten's Diary
Radio Operator/Gunner, 603rd Squadron

Veenschoten Mission No. 3

8 August 1944
Target Cauvicourt, France

Target – Cauvicourt, France
Date – August 8, 1944
Bomb Load - 100 lb. fragmentation

My crew finally arrived with a new pilot. Our original pilot had an emergency operation and the crew had to retrain before coming to England. The next two weeks were spent in flying around England and getting reactivated, so this was our first mission together again.

We bombed German troops ahead of the advancing British and Canadians. Our altitude was 12,000 feet and we encountered intense flak. I had told our crew what a breeze bombing runs were, having been on two milk runs on my first two missions. I can still see the radio operator looking at his watch as he carefully timed the release of chaff through the hole in the radio room. Within minutes of the IP [Initial Point] he was wildly throwing it out and giving me very dirty looks. We were all getting our baptism of fire. We were flying parallel to the lines and for thirty minutes they pounded us with everything they had. Our ship received twelve holes. Three planes in our twelve plane group went down, two blowing up before [missing word or words]. The flak was reported to be the worst ever seen. My gun mount stopped a large piece three inches from my head. Another went through the waist.

Notes:
  • S/Sgt. John Veenschoten was a Radio Operator/Gunner on Howard W. Rehme's 603rd Squadron crew.
  • The above transcription was provided by Wally Blackwell.
  • This transcription is a careful reproduction of the original except for occasional spelling and punctuation changes. In some circumstances, based on relevancy, some material may not have been transcribed.
  • Clarification of acronyms or special words or guesses of certain words are shown in brackets [ ].

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