Feb. 22, 1943
Washington's birthday and nine months since Irma and I were married. God, it seems so long since I last saw Irma. I hope the next five months past fast.
Last night the Japs came over and bombed us. Only one went off and a tree fell on the tail of a B24 & rocks through a wing. Several duds or time bombs, the area is roped off. The raid was at 12:30 and it was a bright full moon night. I could hear the bombs falling through the air & then hit. Some sensation I can tell you.
March 26 4:15 hrs. Co-pilot (P. Sutton 72nd bomb squadron)
Arrived at Cactus about 11:00 am and had a good lunch & dinner. Went to bed about 8:00 pm--air raid warning at 3:10 am. I went over by a search light and pretty soon two planes came over in formation. We did a lot of shooting but didn't hit, the Japs didn't drop their bombs either. They made two more runs and dropped bombs both times. The last run they dropped a 500 lbs. right on our mess hall. It hit the top of the planes and exploded downwards. Completely ruined the mess hall, a cocoanut tree top fell on officers mess & on the dispensary. It killed one of our men who wasn't in a fox hole. Hit a co-pilot in the chest in 307th Group about 300 yds away. We could hear those bombs falling. There is nothing like it. Sounds like each one is coming at you. 26th was going over to engineering in afternoon when we saw a lot of smoke rising. A Lockheed Hudson groundlooped on take off and caught fire. IT burned about five minutes and three 300 lb bombs exploded in a terrific explosion. Fire stopped and the plane was blown completely to bits. Put one of our 17s out of commission. One of crew didn't get out. Some welcome!!
No comments:
Post a Comment