Lt. Mark J. Woods, Jr.'s Diary

398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association

Lt. Mark J. Woods, Jr.'s Diary
Navigator, 600th Squadron

Woods Mission No. 15

**15 June 1944**
**Target** **Bordeaux, France**
Date: June 15, 1944 Mission #15 Location of target: Bordeaux, France Type of target: Fock Wolf assembly plant at an airfield four miles west of Bordeaux Load: 2700 gals of gas with 6-500 lb GP bombs Altitude: 25,000 feet Flight Time: 7:35 hours Escort: P-38s, P-51s, & P-47s all the way, very good protection over target Force of raid: 4 combat wings, we were third in. The 398th Bomb Group put up one wing of 36 planes plus one squadron of composite group Position: No.2 of high squadron of lead group Opposition: Flak, just one big block of it over the target, very heavy. We saw small amounts of flak along route. Battle damage: None Results: Completely destroyed the target, visual bombing with excellent visibility. Day's losses: 3 bombers Remarks: We made many observations on route. Sighted Germans repairing a bridge over a river, munitions dump, three railroad trains in marshaling yard, large liner in the river. Flew left of St. Wazain, looked like there was not much left. Flew over beachhead on way in. Reinforcements are still pouring in. Could see gun flashes and three towns burning. Bandits were in the vicinity of the target. Germans were running all over the beach. We saw the Pyrenee mountains and Spanish soil off to the left of the target. The loading crew did not have time to load all our bombs, so we took off with just six.

Notes:

Lt. Mark J. Woods, Jr. was a Navigator on Stanley R. Reed's 600th Squadron crew.
The above transcription was provided by Carolyn Woods and 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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