119 Bedford Avenue

Flew from West Palm Beach to Puerto Rico.
6 hours, 15 minutes
9000 ft.

Flew to Atkinson Field
7 hours
8000 feet

Flew to Belem, Brazil
7 hours (2 spent circling as field was closed in)
2000 to 10000 feet

Flew to Fortaleza, Brazil
5 hours
2000-8000 feet

Flew across the Atlantic Ocean to Dakar
12 hours, 20 minutes
5000 feet

Flew to Marrakesh
6 hours
6000-12000 feet

Landed at RAF Valley from Marrakesh, Morroco.
11 hours flight time
A/C that they picked up new in Topeka, KS, #42-95466, was taken from them.

Train from Anglesley to Stone, England

Trained from Stone to Stranaer

No.4 Combat Crew Replacement Center

Took a ferry to Larne, then a train to RAF Cluntoe

Completed a 31 mission tour

1st mission. 52x100 lbs bombs. Target - Railroad yards. Altitude - 23,000 ft. Lost oil on #3 engine, feathered it and went back to England. Dropped the bombs on an airfield in France. Escorted back by P-47's. No fighters and little flak.
6 hours, 30 minutes

10x500 lbs bombs. Target - Airfield. Altitude: 20,000 feet
Fighters attacked the group behind us. We shot at them but they were too far away. Flak was very thick and accurate. We received 8 holes in our plane.
8 hours, 30 minutes

12x500 lbs bombs. Altitude: 15,000 feet. Weather: Heavy white clouds. We took off at 3 am in a light rain. It was dark and pretty rough flying with so many planes in the air. It seemed as if everything that could fly was up today. When we hit the Channel, the sun broke through and down below we could see boats of every kind, all over the Channel. We could see cannons fire from shore and ships firing. I never saw so many planes in the air as I saw today. No fighters, moderate flak.
6 hours

20x250 lbs bombs. Target: airfield at Beauvais. Altitude: 20,000 ft. Three bombs failed to release. We decided to safety them, but two of them fell out, taking the bomb bay doors with them. The other snagged on a cable and was hanging by it's nose, so we went over the North Sea and Tony cut it loose using a fingernail file and knife.
5 hours, 10 minutes

12x500 lbs bombs
Target: Airfield near Versailles
Altitude: 23,000 feet
I got a glimpse or Paris in the distance. Lots of flak. The crew in our barracks went down. I hope they got out okay (Historians note: This must have been the Bates Crew who had lost an engine over the target. They were able to land at a "muddy fighter strip south of Crepon" which was an RAF base about 3 miles from the front. The crew returned to England on a US Navy LST.) In the evening we received our Air Medal at the Aero-Club. They had a dance and the girls pinned them on. We kissed them while they took our pictures.

20x250 lbs bombs
Target: Robot plane installatons near Abbeville, France
Altitude: 21,000 feet
The crew in our hut was classified MIA. We found out we were promoted as of the 15th of June. I made Technical Sergeant as of 10 p.m. The crew from our hut came walking in. They had landed on an Allied held airfield. They were dressed in Navy fatigues that they got from a crew on an LST boat. No one was hurt. We were sure glad to see them!
5 hours, 10 minutes

40x100 lbs bombs
Target: Robot plane installations
Altitude:25,000 feet
Clouds were thick and high over England. Nobody seemed to be able to get into formation. Most did not get into formation until over France. Planes from 5 different groups mixed in with us. Flak was thick but inaccurate.
4 Hours, 50 minutes

20x250 lbs bombs
Target: marshalling yards
Altitude: 23,000
Lots of flak, pretty accurate. Fighters attacked the group behind us. Our #2, #3 and #4 were running rough and throwing oil. After we left the target we had to feather #3 engine as the governor went out of control and it was throwing a lot of oil. We couldn't keep up with the formation and headed home by ourselves. We were happy to see P-38's escorting us. We were "in" six countries today: England, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany.

52x100 lbs bombs
Target: Airplane Factory
Altitude: 25,000 ft
High clouds, but clear over target. We couldn't find our formation so we hooked up with another group that was made up of aircraft from different groups. Everybody did a good job. Today I saw our bombs hit the roof of the factory. When we got back we found out that 19 ships didn't go on the misson as they said they were recalled.

It rained all morning (it has been raining since our last mission on June 29). The sun came out in the afternoon so they sent us on a practice mission.
Time: 3 hours, 40 minutes
We decided to name our plane "Penthouse For Ten" with a picture of an outhouse on top of clouds.

"Still in London, but we are leaving tonight. Me and Tony Malorni went to Hyde Park. We were there about 10 minutes when we heard the drone of a buzz bomb. We looked up and saw it diving. We quickly jumped behind a big tree. The bomb hit over 100 yards away and the blast was terrific. It killed 3 and injured 3 other people. For blocks around, windows were broken. That was a little too close for me!

"Test Hopped our plane. Just the pilot and four of us gunners. I acted as co-pilot"
1 hour, 30 minutes

52x100 lbs. bombs
Target: Aircraft factory
Altitude: 21,000 feet
Flak was moderate but very accurate. Fighters off to the side, but they didn't attack us.
7 hours, 30 minutes

Got a three day pass and went to Norwich. Our group went to Saarbrucken and were hit by a lot of flak. We lost two planes and several other wounded. One of the planes that went down was our plane (#42-95268 "Penthouse For Ten" with the Harry McGregor Crew). Too bad. She was a good ship.

Today we had our 100th mission party. Glenn Miller and Band played

10 Incendiary bomb clusters
Altitude: 25,000 ft
Flak, barrage type, over target and Denmark Peninsula. When we landed we found out we were FINISHED!

We boarded the Rotterdam at Glasgow, Scotland and were homeward bound. Arriving at pier on 43rd street in Manhattan.

Indiantown Gap National Cemetery
Annville, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, USA