398th Bomb Group
Memorial
Association


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

Fugge Mission No. 15

18 June 1944
Target: Oil Refineries, Hamburg, Germany

June 18, 1944
Briefed at 0230. Our target for today was synthetic oil refineries at Hamburg, Germany. Takeoff was 0500. Carried 18 – 250 lb. G.P. bombs. Hit the target from 25,000 feet. Bombed through 8/10 undercast.

Flak was the heaviest I’ve seen yet, like a black cloud. They were right at our level and so close that we could hear it busting all around us. Part of an “88” went through our right horizontal stabilizer up behind the tail wheel. It left a hole the size of a basketball. Had our oxygen to the ball turret and tail shot out. Hydraulics, part of our electrical system and control cables were gone too. A piece of flak came through the fuselage behind my turret but missed me by a few inches. Thank God it wasn’t any closer.

We were going to crash land but on our way home over the North Sea, I removed the shot out of the hydraulic line and with a .50 cal. and my pliers I managed to straighten curve in the line, re-flare it and got the system working again OK. Landed OK at 1300. Slept for a while then took off for town.

MISSION # 15 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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