Oct. 6 Got up at 6:00 a.m. and got our things ready to go. Left Stone at about 10:30 a.m. and arrived at our permanent base at 4:00 p.m. We came by train. We’re stationed at Lavenham, England with the 487th Bomb Group. The old boys in our barracks just got back from Berlin. Their ship is the “Bashful Bettsy.”
Oct. 7 Had a few lectures and layed around most of the day. The Gerries sent over a few “Buzz Bombs” just to let us know we were near the war zone. (rather in it) They didn’t come very close, but we could see and hear them and believe me they make a hell of a noise.
Oct. 8 Drew some more equipment and turned some in. We were assigned lockers. More “Buzz Bombs” came over. The old crews in our Sqd. went on another mission today somewhere over Germany. They must be blasting the hell out of the place.
Oct. 9 Went to school today. “Buzz Bombs” were coming in pairs tonight and one came too damn close for comfort. I really got a good look at this one as it came right over my barracks about 100 ft. high. What a hell of a noise they make. About 15 came over during the night. We had one “Crash Alert.”
Oct. 10 We had a rest today, no school, no nothing. Played a little “snooker” and “Ping Pong.” No “Buzz Bombs” tonight.
Oct. 11 Had school all day today. Just heard a “Buzz Bomb” go off a few minutes ago. It made a hell of a racket. We’ve had two “Red” alerts tonight already. Plenty windy and rainy outside.
Oct 12 Made Sergeant today. I’ll really be pulling in the “Jack” now. $78 flying pay (50%) $39 = $117 overseas pay (20%) $23.40 = $140.40 per month. We also got our new ship today. Haven’t seen it yet.
Oct. 13 Went to school today, all afternoon. Slept late this morning. Cleaned our guns about 10:00 a.m. We got a look at our new ship. (It’s one of the oldest in the Group.) It wasn’t a bad looking job, but it has seen a lot of action. It has about 400 holes in it from the “Gerry” flack.
Oct. 14 Went to ground school again today. Cleaned my guns. (We have to clean them every day whether we fly or not.) It’s a good idea, we may need them badly someday. Went to the show with Ward. Saw “Born to Sing.” No “Buzz Bombs” today.
Oct. 15 Ground school again today. Last day of it I hope. Named our ship today. “HONORABLE PATCHES” A very suitable name, seeing it has 400 or more patches on it. Went into Bury St. Edmund tonight with Ward. They have a damn nice Red Cross House there. Didn’t see much of the town. Too damn dark. Had a few “Buzz Bombs” come over in town.
Oct. 16 Had a position check today, to see if we knew our positions O.K. It only took about an hour. Had the rest of the day off. They handed out some medals to some of the fellows around here. D.F.C.’s and Oak Leaf Clusters. Went to the show with Ward, Johnson & Bolton. Saw “Three’s a Crowd.”
(picture courtesy of Richard D. Cromwell, pilot, 838th Bomb Squadron)
Oct. 17 Went to school all day today. Went to a show at night and saw “Sweet and Low Down.“ A “Buzz Bomb” came over at about 1:00 a.m. this morning and hit about half a mile from our barracks. Boy! What a hell of a noise it made, it shook the whole barracks. (Close!)
Oct. 18 Went on a sightseeing tour today. We took off about 10:00 a.m. and got down at 2:00 p.m. We flew over quite a bit of England. We flew at 15,000 ft. and really had a swell view of the countryside. It’s a beautiful country. We were scheduled for a night flight, but it was called off because of rain.
Oct. 19 Went to ground school this morning. Had a cross country flight this afternoon. We saw a lot more of England. We flew over Manchester, London, Ipswich and many other large English cities. We got lost and landed on the wrong air-field by mistake. We were up for about six hours. Anyone can make a mistake.
Oct. 20 Thought we were going on a mission today, but it rained and we stayed down. Slept late. Rivas is over here now. Went out at 6:30 p.m. to shoot some night landings. Called us out of a good show. We made two landings and then went off the run-way into the mud. Up to the hub in mud. Tough one.
Oct. 21
Thought sure they would send us on a mission today, but for some reason we didn’t go. Instead we went on another practice mission. Formation flying for three hours. This morning we had another “crash” alert and it didn’t miss us by far. We are alerted for a combat mission in the morning again. I hope we make this one and get started on our 35 missions.
Oct. 22
Mission 1
Munster, Germany “First mission today."
Oct. 23 Got a good look at a “Buzz Bomb.” Got up at 6:00 a.m. this morning. Thought it may be another combat mission, but it was only for a practice for high altitude mission. It was scrubbed because of bad weather. Had a little “Jam Handy” in the afternoon. Rained all day. Call us out again at 7:00 p.m. for night landings. Made three. One ship cracked up pretty bad. No one was killed.
Oct. 24 Got up at 11:00 a.m. in the morning, plenty of sleep. The whole field was grounded today. Played ping-pong and snooker most of the day and took things easy. Had a meeting of all crews at 2:00 p.m. for an hour. Had a few more Buzz Bombs come over. We’re alerted for a mission tomorrow.
Oct. 25 Got us up at 7:30 a.m. to go on what we thought would be our second mission. Went to briefing at 9:30 a.m. Found out it we were going to bomb some sub bases at Heligoland, just off Denmark. We took off at 11:00 a.m. and got to altitude and we were called back. What a robbery! It would have been a good mission too. Landed about 2:00 p.m. Went to a Halloween party at night.
Oct. 26 Mission 2
Hanover, Germany “None of our group was hit”
Oct. 27 Got us up at 3:45 this morning and we started out on another mission, but it was scrubbed again. It was raining and it was miserable weather. We really sweat it out, for it was a really rough one. It was to be Mersburg, Germany and there are plenty of fighters & lots of flack there. We took it easy for the rest of the day and went to the show at night.
Oct. 28
Mission 3
Hamm, Germany “. . . Were hit twice by pretty accurate flak, but no one in our group was damaged badly.”
Oct. 29 No mission today, thank god. We were all pretty tired from yesterdays mission. (The reason – it rained all morning.) Got up at 10:00 a.m., slept from 6:30 p.m. last night. Feel pretty good today. Won a shilling from Ward playing snooker. Came back to the barracks right after supper and wrote a few letters, Played some checkers, read the paper and hit the sack a 10:00 p.m.
Oct. 30 Sweat out a mission again today, but the weather was against us again, so we stayed down. That is we stayed down from a combat mission, but we went on a practice high altitude mission. Lasted for about four hours and Ward got Jack Benny on the radio at 20,000 ft. Went to the show at night, saw “Diamond Jim”. Sacked at 10:30 p.m.
Oct. 31 Sweat it out again today, but we didn’t get called. They called out every crew in our sqd. except us and the other crew in our barracks. They have only one more mission to go and it was a hot mission, so they weren’t called. The mission was scrubbed again, however. Guess why? Had a little jam-handy. Got all my clothes fixed up and shined my shoes, for tomorrow we go on a 48 hour pass to London.