Target – Eger, Czech
Date – February 23, 1945

The original target was in Czechoslovakia, but because 10/10 cloud cover, we didn’t bomb it. We came all the way across Germany at 14,000 feet. Caught a little flak around central Germany, but it didn’t hit anyone. After passing over the primary target we flew southwest looking for a target of opportunity. We broke out of the clouds and found a small town with a marshalling yard packed full of locomotives and rolling stock. The squadron bombed together and all the bombs patterned in the center of the yard. P-51s then went down to strafe. One squadron of our group picked Schweinfurt as a target. I could see them going over the town. A heavy barrage of flak was sent up to meet them and I saw three planes go down in flames. I had my first good look at Germany on the way out. We were at low altitude and we could see German fighters parked on airfield below. It is very beautiful country from Schweinfurt to Saarbrucken. In the distance were the alps and below castles on the Rhine. The mission lasted 10 hours and 5 minutes. Weather was bad over England and we had trouble landing. This was the only mission I was on that it proved unnecessary to wear oxygen masks. I flew this mission as tail gunner with Lt. Aniello’s crew.