398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association


T/Sgt. Armand Fugge's Diary
Engineer/Top Turret Gunner 600th Squadron

Fugge Mission No. 5

24 May 1944
Target: Financial District, Berlin, Germany

May 24, 1944
Got up at 0100. Briefed at 0200 and our target for today was Berlin. Takeoff was 0630 and flew the North Sea route. Crossed the continent at Kiel. Hit heavy flak from the I.P. [Initial Point] on in and it was really accurate.

Right after bombs away we were hit by fighters. FW-190’s and 109’s. They came in at 12 o’clock level in waves. I saw two forts go down after their first pass. Forts were going down in flames everywhere I looked. Chutes and sections of planes were all over the sky. I was scared stiff. Flak came up again after the fighters left. Crippled Forts were everywhere. P-38s and 51s saved our necks today. We were shot up pretty bad. Thank God it wasn’t worse. It’s getting so rough now that I wonder if I’ll ever see the States again. The odd’s seem against me. Hope I never see another raid as bad as that one.

Carried 32 – 100 lb incendiaries and 10 – 100 lb G.P. bombs. Bombed from 26,000 ft. with no undercast. I froze my left foot. Two toes. We lost 32 forts.

MISSION # 5 COMPLETED.

Notes:
  • T/Sgt. Armand Fugge was the Engineer/Top Turret Gunner on Donald Lowe's 600th Squadron crew.
  • The above transcription was provided by Raymond Borys.
  • 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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