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DIARY FO$ THS NTH OF NC}YS iB

OF THS

1 88TH BO SQU I ON (M) AAF

34 0TH B01® AA T C i00P (ld) AAF '

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Sheet No. 1 Rar Diary, l 8th Bomb. Sqdn. San Pancrazio A/ , Italy

Month of November, 1943• Prepared by Capt. Everett B. Thomas, 4$$th Bomb Sq

DAY SDENTSL 1(ission to shipping at Ancona, Italy . Good 3ob from first reports. No

A A . Je finall aesi ed to S-2 toda .2 1[ission today to Aquilla, Italy. Nv 1 A. Routine. Check on photographs

with 48?th shox that Krigbaum did make hits and near misses at Ancona ashe claimed yesterday. _3 Routine.

4 Stand-bp from 0730 hours. No mission up to noon and stand-down thereafter.5 6issi.on

to Ploca, Yugoslavia. Got over target, but ten-tenths cloud cover

, up to 15,000 feet. Long cold ride. Some members of various crews paesedout throu the lack of oxy en. No A/A or E a/c.Rain spelled H-A-I-N all day and evening. No skatea nor skiia necessary.

.A gooep, slippery, slimey meas.7 Mi s s i on t v Ancona , I t al y at 1 01 5 . St an d- down f rom 11+00 hour e . Shi p 8Bbogged down . ith minor damage. Lt. Street set an all-time record forspeed in opening hatch and evacuating shio. His vapor trails were vis-ible for half an hour. This post in fine weather gives us the bestaccomodations xe've had yet in that practically everybody is housed inbuildings, but the weather has been turning cool night and mo rning. Whenit rains, as it so often does, spirits lummett, consequently everybodyis devoting atteation to constructing stoves from caas and any sort ofnetal container up to the size of oil barrels.

iome xeird contraotionsresult, but so long as thep put out heat nobody pays attention to the ibes of his friends. Stove pipea are also lacking and the inganuity

" displayed in constructing the combination stove and stove n_ipes ia typie

call American.8 Fair and cool . Two ships and crewa plus standb y to 48 for mission which

was later called off on account of xeather. Lecce, about 20 miles fromhere, is the mecca each day for ar ybody o can find transportation. Theshops aren't much and the stocks are less, but one hotel offers chicken,

• an occasional omelet and good soup and one or two other attractions. _9 atand-do rn all day. Rain in the morning. Some Officers started forhapl e a f o r t r i al of one o f t he men f o r ac c i dent al shoot i ng at Cat ani a .

- lfere to fly, but grounded on account of weather. Started out by eepsan d had a rather rough ride in the rain . Routine.

10 Stand-do m all day. Ove cast and raining. Those who went to Naples fortrial returned late this afternoon. Verdict not guilty. ]s r'erybody happy.Naples was bombed while they were there. Small raid and little damage.Lt . Adams a Capt . t oda3 .

11 St and- by f o r one ahi p . St and- down f or t he r e s t of t he ac?uadr on . GotGroup Ymas cards today. Twenty-five years ago ras celebrating in Dickin-son Texas.

12 Mission to Tatoi Athens , Greece. Did not drop bombs although some boxeaof the other squsdrons did bomb altern ata targets. Heavy cloud cover.No mail since 7 Nov . Have designed a Xmas card for the staff to give tosguadron members.

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Shee t No . 2 War Di ary , 488t h Bomb . Sgdn . San Panc r a zi o A/ D, I t al y

Month of November, 1943• Prepared by Capt. Bverett B. Thomas, 438th Bomb Sq

DAY EQENTS13 Stand-down all day. Mail . Fire in '$9th baxracks tonight. Considerable

damage to clothing of several offic®rs. Ba in all day. ] tdission to Sofia,Bul gar i a c al l ed of f on ac count of weat her .14 Mission to Sofia.. Biggest shoA we've seen. Saw three fighters shot downand nwnerous dog-fights. Hit target--marshalling yards, station, repairsho s etc. 21st Grou over at the same time.

1$ Same target Tatoi as on the 13th. T as changed at last minute to Ral-amaki A/D, Athens. Olson, Stauffer, Sanviti, Lester and Downham got theirorders for home. M.

ission had a heavy hea.dxind all the way back and we

sxeated out the ships at operations. "frro ust landed on the rurn ray asthe engines used the last of the gas an d Pour ships of other squadronsdid not get back. One believed in trouble, but the others thought to be

' i n f r i endl t err i t o .1 Target today Eleusis A , lthens. Clear and not too cool. Michaloxski

got a four inch hole in his ship. 321st Group failed to make the targetalthou, h they xere seen North of our formations.17 dission to Kalamaki. Good pattern. l,87th shot down three Ye 109's and1,8 6t h cl ai

.med anot her . one 1,.86t h shi p di d not r e t ur n . One s hi p had r i ght

aileron shot up and hydraulic system out. Iian off the runway withoutdamage. Hrakes locked on an other in the middle of the runway.18 Stand-down all day. Lts. 9treet and Z urphy as an advance detail to FoggiaNo 3 xhich is to be our next home since xe are getting so nice and settledh®r e . Seems t o be t he s ame SNAFV condi t i on x e usual l y run i nt o i n t hatxe are b ing run off our field ust as xe get it nicely repaired and rk-able, but there's nothing ready for us at the next ulace. Is at presantbeing used by fighters. A flock of B-21+'s came in last night and thismQrning are bogged doxn all over the place. Fifty B-1?'s came in thisafternoon so that we have ships crowding every little spot that isn't anklede ep i n raud . I f J e rry onl y knew t he chanc e he ' s mi s ai ng . Some "f i r stclass mail" post marked May 28, 1943 came in tonight, ht. Sorenson had

accident in eep. Lt. Harry Senecal of the 89th with him lost lea aad arm.19 Stand-do n a .

l day. 8ain .

,20 Capt. Thomas and Lt. Haynes left for Bari en route to Foggia. at Bari ve

sa rlocal people go to the beach and goble up as delicacies the mr st un-wholeaome looking small shell fish and three inch long sections of raxe el s . g gourmet ' s del i ght s e eeied t o be s omet hi ng t hat l ooked l i ke s eaur ch} ns - - bl a ck bal l s f rom t .ro t o f our i nche s irn di a met er vri t h s har p bl ackspines protruding in all dirsctions. These the vendor cut around the top,scooped out a slio y black mess with his finger or knife leaving, so faras the uniniated could seen, only a bit of liquid and an occasional nin-ute piece of yello* or pinkish flesh. The customer grabba3 these seem-i ngl y e t y s hel l s , bro ce of f a pi ec e o f t he gray- bl ack br ead, rhi ch i ssta.ndard here, sopped the i

.nside of the shell with it and inhaled with

gusto. Another delicacy xe ran into in Bari was some kind of a-bird about

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Sheet No . _ tar Di ary , l+SSt h Bomb . Sqdn. Fo i a No , I t al y

Mont h of Nov ember , 191 3 . Prepar ed by Cap . E rer e t t B . Thoma s 468t h Bamb Sq

DAY SVII 'TSthe size of a robi.n or starling xhich was to be seen displayed in thewi ndoWS of t he p gro cery s t or e s" a do zen or s o p i l ed on a pl at e . Lat e rthese were unexpectedly put before us on the table, cooked, but completelyintact including head, eyes, feet an d entrails lacking only the feathers.Bain a11 night had made a lake of the area .n

d vehicles wsre skiddinghelplessly in all directions enerally ending up in the ditch.

21 Continued rain r.ade plenty difficulties in getting the Group packed andto on route to Foggia. Vehicles scattered all along the way. Confusion as23 added to confusion since there seemed to be a que tion about the occup-• at i on of t he f i el d . Due t o mud t he f i ght er group coul d not g et of f and

al r eady s omebody f rom Tuni s wa s rrant i ng t o mo r Rhy t he 31+Ot h wa s n ' t of f

•the field to make room for heavies. Some personnel made Bari and spenta coupl e of ra i ny day s t her e , s ome c arnped al ong t he road and a f e r s t r ug-gled into Foggia No 3. Leaving the highway for the entra.nce

to this nexf i el d was l i ke s t eppi ng of t he end of a dock x i t h mud hal f vray up t heradi at or s of j eeps and wat er une l o r ed s eas t o rhi ch one hoped t her e rasa bot t om. What a me s s . The Squadr on ar ea ras some sl i ght improv e,menthaving a bit of grass and being on aslight rise and even that ras a x•1.-come stopping place hopeless as it lo ked. Some lucky ones found spotsi n f orcne r f arm bui l di ng s rhere t he r ef us e and f i l t h i ns i de vras nearl y asbad as the natural donditions outside.

21 Those who are here are ither digging out or digging in to make r ew homesan d t he unl ucky one s who di d not br i ng t he i r make s hi f t s t ov es a r e s c rou _in.g around for materiaZs to make neR ones.25 Thanksgiving. Good breakfast. Cereal AND hot cakes. How come? No noonmeal, but turkey xith all the fixings for supper. Our planes are scatter-ed all over--none here yet and our creRS and trucks lik e r3.se all over Italy.Field is a grass runway and no hard stan ds. hooks likeit will be somet i me bef o r e we c an oper at e s af el y i f at al l f rom her e unl e s s t he ground

.is very abosrbent and dries quickly. find ia blo ing a gale and aky isblack toni t. Could it be nuare raia?

2 Some planes in. ission to Fossacesia, Ita1y. Once they got off the mud

• of the dispersal area, had no trouble on the runway. biilk run. Jerryrecce over this afteraoon . Could see his vanor trails. • couple of Spit-f i re s went af t er hi m ( a c oupl e of day s l at e r x e had a r epor t f rom TBF t hatthe Spitfires caught and destroyed the recce). Lt. Nelson and some others,monkeyi ng vri t h a Ge rman i nc endi ar y bomb , s e t i t o f f . I t burned f i erc el yfor a xhile an d that seemed to be a11 there was to it when it suddenlyexploded with a tremendous boom. Lt. Anderson and others xere standing rithin a radius of 20 to 25 feet of the burning bomb and scattered in alldirections. Stones and pieces of inetal scattered similarly, one piecehitting Lt. 6nderaon in the leg and others making slight hits as far apayas 100 yards. Lt. •ndersun was taken to the hospital.

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'' Shert l o . Tar 8 l.ar r, 1.88t h Hoab. Sudr . Fo i s Ao 3 , I t al

Iiont h of Ilovenber, 191 3 , pr aparsd b Capt . 8ti rsret t B. Tho ras , 1 88t h Boab Sq

- Z7 Y s ai on t o Si bani k, Yngval av3.a m s i c abi ps . A18o t h rse t t he

_ , t o ara bot t i n Yv osl a i a . fo u i t eau nt . Lt . h +ekl . r f i 0i sbed hi e 5f3t h.3 Yi s s f on t o Port G Ll ba ti a . Ho e oa t . 29 ei on t o Ci nl iranova, I t a1T. N© ezci t ea eat . xed cros a gi r a r red

c©f i ee and don nt a af t ar t e i s s i oa . Sgt s . Goranaon snd Hee. r. rl fng baeict ron t he hoapi t al . Had fi,o t htis b t hei r r y . Ha e at art ed a t rnek as r ri aet . ri ae a ds t o t o f or hot eho rer s .3© Yiasioa to Bel,grads, eapital oi Yugealavia, csll oti aad a staad-do

poat ed 3nat bet or e br i ef i ng t e . Col d wi nd t oni ght . s et dt h l ara t ..., bor . (3ns year agv t oni ht w e . re packi r g t or mor e p ent i r ol bi a ,S.C. to Kaltorboro in the aame God loraskee etate.

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