Dad's Mission Diary

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:30 am

I'll try to relay this as it is written, This is from a shirt pocket note book.
Tail # 726
Mission #1 Ansbach Feb 22, 1945
Target: Rail yards bomb load: 12-500 GP's
Altitude 8,000 Duration 8 hrs

Comments: No flack, no fighters. Target was visual, we saw the Jerrys running out of town (don't blame them) we felt the bomb blast on our ship, the town was really torn up.
Our first mission as a crew.

Tail# 051
Mission #2 Leipzig Feb 27, 1945
Hit rail yards with 16-300 lb G.P. 2 M-17
24,000 ft 8 hours

Comments: No fighters, heavy flak but it didn't get to close, there was a heavy undercast we didn't see the target.

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:40 am

No 3 Gassel Feb 28, 1945 #557
Hit rail yards with 7-500 GP 1 m-17
24,000 ft 7 hrs 45 minutes

No fighters, heavy flak and to dam close for comfort, we were all pretty scared. Heavy undercast, we couldn't see the target.

N0. 4 Ulm March 1, 1945 # 051
Industrial area with 9-500 4 m-17
20,000 ft 8 hrs 45 min

No fighters, we got flak as we went over the line but no flak at the target. Thank God
Heavy undercast so we didn't see the target.

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:52 am

No. 5 Dresden March 2, 1945 #726
Hit rail yards with 8-500 4 m-17
20,000 ft 9 hours

No fighters. Heavy flak and plenty close was glad to get away from the target. Heavy undercast. P-51's ran into fighters coming up at us and they had one hell of a battle. P.S. The fighters didn't get close. The P-51's got 103 Jerrys

No. 6 Ingolstadt March 4, 1945
Industrial area 8-500 4 M-17
20,000 ft 8 hours 30 minutes

No fighters light flak but so dam close, we got two holes in the ship. We came home went to bed and the Jerrys got us out at midnight strafing the field. We got up at one for # 7.
Heavy undercast

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:09 am

No. 7 Dortmund March 7, 1945 # 922
Oil refineries with 14-500
20,000 ft 7 hrs 30 min

No fighters heavy flak and boy was it close. We got about 10 holes in the ship, we were all pretty dam scared.
Heavy undercast.

No. 8 Dortmund March 10, 1945
Rail yards with 42-100 2 M-17
24,000 7 hours
No fighters heavy flak but not as close as yesterday. Thank God.
Heavy undercast

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:34 am

No. 9 Hamburg March 11, 1945 #557
Oil refineries with 12-500
25,000 ft 6 hours

Heavy flak but not as bad as we expected, it didn't get to close to us. We saw a dog fight coming home. P-51's shot down some jets. I don't know how many.
Heavy undercast at target

No 10 Marburg March 12, 1945 # 974
Rail yards with 34-100 2 M-17
23,000 ft 6 hours

No Fighters-No Flak No Exceitment. I wish they were all like this one was.
Heavy undercast

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:58 am

No 11 Neinhagen March 14, 1945 # 465
Oil refineries 12-500
20,000 ft 6 hours

No fighters, light flak but damned accurate, the target was visual, we saw our bombs hit. Sure looked good.

No 12 Oranienburg March 15, 1945 # 557
Oil & Rail yards 6-1000 D.A. 670 30 hrs *(delayed action for 30hrs)
24,000 ft 7 hrs 30 min

No fighters, the flak was thick as hell, we saw about 7 ships go down, we had about 40 flak holes in the ship. One ship blew up over the target. The weather was clear enough we could practicaly see the jerrys throwing shells into those flak guns.
* My interpretation

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:09 am

OLD LUCKY 13
No 13 Berlin March 18, 1945 # 745
Rail yrds with 6-1000
27,000 ft 8 hours 30 min.

Damned heavy flak, I saw so many ships go down it almost made me sick we had fighters all around us but they didn't hit us. I had some-thing all drawn up (guess what)? Very good weather we saw the bombs hit.

No 14 Zwickau March 19, 1945 # 960
Rail yards with 20-300
18,000 ft 9 hours

No fighters light flak but accurate one piece almost hit Sykes some ships shot up badly
Very good weather, I saw the bombs hit right on the target.
(1st LT Roy Sykes was the Pilot. As Top Turett gunner Dad mentioned being in excess of 20,000 feet and he could see the sweat on the back of Roy's neck from struggling to maintain tight formation)

DenverWarbirdFan · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:14 am

Incredible.

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:20 am

No 15 Plauen March 21, 1945 # 808
Rail yards with 12-500
23,000 8 hors 45 min.

No Fighters very light flak this was a pretty easy mission. Good weather the bombs realy raised hell. One jet made a pass at us and went down on the deck. P-51's got him.

No 16 Mulheim March 22, 1945 # 808
Troop concentration and motor pool with 34-100 2 M-17
25,000 ft 5 hours

No fighters Damned heavy flak we got about 58 holes in the ship plus # 1 engine shot out. I thought we were going down. Weather was very good. One of our buddies bailed out, but he got back. Good weather.

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:43 am

No. 17 Holzwickede March 23, 1945 #825
Rail yards 34-100 2 M-17
23,000 ft 6 hours

No fighters the flak was plenty rough we had 25 holes in the ship # 4 engine shot out some gas lines were hit and leaking in the bomb bay I was scared as hell. We saw the bombs hit (very good)

No 18 Varrelbush March 24, 1945 #808
Airfield with 34-150
20,000 ft 6 hours

No fighters No flak no exceitment we came home very happy very good weather. We were supposed to get two missions today but second one scrubbed.

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:50 am

No 19 Hanover March 28, 1945 #808
Rail yards 12-500
25,000 ft 8 hours

No fighters. Pretty dam heavy flak. We got about 10 flak holes in the ship we were all pretty dam scared heavy undercast

No 20 Hamburg March 30, 1945 # 051
Submarine pen 12-500
25,000 ft 8 hours

Damned heavy flak we had about 10 holes in the ship, jets got after us coming home but P-51's got them we saw one shot down

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:59 am

No 21 Royan April 14, 1945 # 900
Coastal guns with 38-120 A.P.
20,000 ft 8 hours 25 min

No fighters two flak guns fired until our bombs hit. That stopped them. Weather was very good. These are the kind of missions for me.

No 22 Royan April 15, 1945 #900
troop concentration area with 6-500 Goop Bombs
20,000 ft 8 hours 15 min

No fighters or flak good weather I was glad to get rid of them jelly bombs. Wish all of our missions were like these last two.

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:05 pm

No 23 Royan April 16, 1945 #900
tank trap with 6-1000
15,000 ft 8 hours

No flak or fighters darned good weather our bombs really blew hell out of everything.

No 24 Dresden April 17, 1945 #900
Rail yards with 6-1000
22,000 ft 8 hours 30 min

Light flak nothing to worry about. Saw a dog fight with some jerrys coming home. The weather wasn't to good but we saw the bombs hit.

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:12 pm

No 25 Pirna April 19, 1945 #900
Rail bridge 12-500
20,000 ft 9 hours

No flak. Fighters were all around us, they hit the group infront and also behind, we saw them knock down some 17's also saw the P-51's knocking hell out of the jerrys. Weather was dam good. I saw our target, a rail bridge blow all to hell. My turrett wouldn't work. I really felt helpless with all those fighters around.

sgt hawk · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 1:58 pm

I saw this in the book also
No 21 Vandel Denmark April 2, 1945 #900
target Air Field 14-500 G.P.

We flew over but it was undercast so we had to bring our bombs back. No fighters or flak. We didn't get credit for this one.
LAST ENTRY:
April 25, 1945 Well it looks like it is all over for us as the troops are moving so fast they don't know where to bomb. We are sweating out the news.
Germany Kaput

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