Combat Diary of Clyde Gregory Whitt
577th Squadron / 392nd BG
2nd Air Division / 8th Air Force
(All words are from his diary except for those notes which are in italics)
September 9, 1943 : From a letter to one of his brothers while he was at Flexible Gunnery School at Fort Myers, Florida "I'll tell you what I'm going to be but don't you dare write and tell Mother for she don't know yet and I want to tell her when I go home. Besides she will worry herself if she finds it out. I'm now in Gunner School and when I finish I'll be a gunner on a B24 or B26."
Monday - April 24, 1944 :
Flew with an old crew as right waist gunner. Had no fighter attacks and was I glad. Little flak although we got hit in right wing with 88mm. 18 degrees below although it seemed colder. My heated shoes and gloves went out but made it OK. Made a good hit on the target. Altitude 18,000 ft. On oxygen 7 hours. 8 hours 35 minutes flying time. Airdrome in Germany (Leipheim) was target.
Thursday - April 27, 1944 :
Flew with own crew as right wing gunner. No fighter attacks. Lot of flak and it was real accurate. Altitude 20,000. 20 degrees below. Target was Chalon-Sur-Marne, France - railway yards. 5 hours 5 minutes flying time. No trouble with heated clothing. Did not drop bombs due to trouble with bomb bay doors.
Saturday - April 29, 1944 :
Flew with Lt. Reed's crew as nose gunner. I checked my turret in the air and it would not work in elevation. Soon afterward I fixed it. The target was Berlin. We were about 15 minutes from the initial point when about 5 fighters attacked us from 12 o'clock. I put my sight on one and followed him through until he went under our right wing. We, then knowing we were hit, made a sharp turn to the left and got out of formation. We were at about 24,000 when hit and, after turning, started down towards the clouds. Lt. Reed then checked the crew to see if anyone had been hit. Everyone was OK. Lt. Reed brought the ship to England on A-5. As soon as we got inland a few miles we bailed out. The ship was hit in #2 and #4 engines, bombay, cockpit, and radio compartment. Shot out hydraulic lines and gas lines. We were hit by ME-109s. Bail out at 1:20pm. We all landed near Beckenville (Official reports give the town as Beccles, Suffolk)(Reports stated that the plane itself crashed near Walcott in Norfolk) except the co-pilot. Lt. Reed was unable to get out and went down with the ship.(Was my first parachute jump. When I made my jump I made a delayed one. I remember everything going down and did not have the feeling of fear as expected. Made a good landing.) I landed in an open field unhurt. Was picked up by local farmer and carried to nearest airbase. 5 hours 40 minutes flying time.Ship = Alfred II. (Biggest air battle in history of war). The Lord was with us. (Sergeant Robert Wilcox, tail gunner and asst. engineer on my crew flew as a nose gunner on this Berlin raid with another crew. He is now missing in action as of this date.)
Tuesday - May 9, 1944 :
Flew with own crew as right waist gunner. No fighters and little flak. No damage. Altitude: 18,000 ft. On oxygen for 3 hrs and 30 minutes. Ship #040. Good hit on target - Airfield at St. Trond, Belgium (target near this town). Flying time: 5 hrs and 30 min.
Wednesday - May 10, 1944 :
Aborted or recalled due to weather.
Friday - May 19, 1944:
Flew as right waist gunner with own crew. Lot of flak but we were lucky and didn't get any or very little. Lot of fighters - ME-109s. They didn't make a pass at us although they hit the element in front and behind us. I saw 3 B24s go down. Two chutes opened from the first ship and three from the second. Didn't see any chutes from the third. Many other B24s were seen going down. Target: Brunswick. Altitude: 25,000 ft. On oxygen for 5 hours. Flying time was 7 hours 15 minutes. Temperature: -31 degrees. Ship #287.
May 21, 1944 :From a letter to Frank, one of his 4 brothers "I'm getting on OK. I got 5 missions in now with 25 to go. I really had a deal not long ago. I was sent to a rest home for a week and all I did was go swimming, horseback riding, eat, sleep, etc. When I got back from the rest home there was a two day pass waiting for me so I spent that in London sightseeing. That was the first time I had had so much time off since I was home in October. You said in your letter that you wish you could be with me. Boy, you just don't know what you are wishing for."
Tuesday - May 23, 1944 :
Flew as right waist with own crew. Lot of flak but was real low. No fighters. Target was an airfield at St. Avord, France. Made a good hit on target. Flying time: 7 hrs 30 min. On oxygen 5 hrs 30 min. Altitude: 18,000. Temperature: -20. Carried 12 GP 300 lb bombs. Ship #287. Smoke came up from target to about 2,000 feet.
Wednesday - May 24, 1944 :
Flew as right waist with own crew. Lot of flak. Continuous fire and very accurate. No fighters. Escort not so good. Target: an airfield at Melun, France. Made a good hit on target. Altitude: 21,000. Temperature: -20. Flying time: 6 hrs 15 min. Flak hole in nose turret. No injuries. Bomb load: 24 GP 300 lb. Briefing at 1:15. Takeoff at 5:30. Ship #287. Got a view of Paris.
Thursday - May 25, 1944 :
Flew with own crew as right waist gunner. No flak over target but some on way back - very accurate. No fighters attacked. Good support = P-38, 47, 51. Target: railway yards at Belfort, France. Flying time: 7 hrs 30 min. Altitude: 20,000. On oxygen 6 hrs. Temperature: -20. Bomb load: 12 500 lb. GP. Good hit on target. No injuries. No damage. Briefing at 1:30. Take off at 5:30. Ship #287
Sunday - May 28, 1944 :
Right waist gunner with own crew. Briefing at 6:15. Takeoff at 10:45. Plenty of flak and accurate. No fighters. Good support. Flying time: 7 hrs 15 min. On oxygen: 5 hrs 30 min. Temperature -20. Bomb load: 52 100 lb GP. Target: oil refinery at Zeitz, Germany. Made a good hit on target. Lot of smoke. Small hole in right wing from flak. Ship #040.
Monday - May 29, 1944 :
Was right waist gunner on own crew. Briefing at 4:30. Takeoff at 8 o'clock. Lot of flak on way to target and a lot over target. Hit about 30 JU-88s and ME-109s just before and after the IP. Lucky they didn't hit our ship. Chris (left waist gunner) and Stanley (tail gunner) put in a claim for a fighter each. The fight was plenty hot. We made a good hit on target. The target was an oil refinery at Stettin, Germany. Flying time: 8 hrs 15 min. On Oxygen 5 hrs 30 min. Temperature -20. Ship #287. Bomb load 10 500lb GP. Squadron lost 4 ships. A B24 was on top of us on the bombing run and we thought his bombs were going to hit us. They miss us by a hair. Target: Politz, Germany near Stettin.
Tuesday - May 30, 1944 :
Aborted due to problems with superchargers on engines 1 and 3.
Wednesday - May 31, 1944 :
Was right waist gunner on own crew. Briefing at 4:30 AM. Takeoff at 7:45. We were about 15 or 20 min in enemy territory when the formation turns back due to weather. We saw 8 bursts of flak on way back at 7 o'clock. Ship #432. Oxygen 3 hrs. Temperature -20. Flying time: 4 hrs 15 min. Clouds were as high as 20,000 and it was a very pretty sight to see. Target was to be Brussels, Belgium.
Sunday - June 4, 1944 :
Right waist gunner on own crew. Briefing at 1:30 PM. Takeoff at 3:45. We hit flak at the coast and over target. It was very accurate. We only got 3 holes in ship. No injuries. Coming back we did low flying and it was very foggy and getting dark. Landing at 10:00 PM. Bomb load: 8 500 lb GP. Altitude: 18,000. On oxygen 6 hrs. Temperature:-19. Target: airfield at St.Avord, France. We hit this target on May 23, 1944. No fighters. Good support. We had no ball turret and flew a 9 man crew. Barken now with 578 squadron. Ship #287.
Tuesday - June 6, 1944 :
D-MISSION. Flew with own crew as right waist gunner. Briefing at 1 PM. Takeoff at 6:30. Target was crossroads near St. Lo, 14 miles inland in the invasion area. There was a heavy overcast and we didn't drop our bombs. Saw no flak and no fighters. This was the second mission on the invasion and the 100th mission for the 392nd Bomb Group. Flying time: 5 hrs 40 min. Bombs: 12 500 lb GP. Ship #287.
Thursday - June 8, 1944 :
Flew as right waist gunner with own crew. Briefing at 1:45 AM. Take off : 5:30 AM. It was raining like H--- and a heavy overcast. We climbed to 25,000 ft. to form and it was cold as everything, -30. It was an overcast up to 25,000 ft. We bombed from 17,000 carrying 52 100 lb. GP. Target was an airfield near LeMans, France which was about 100 miles in front of our troops. No flak and no fighters were seen. Flying time: 6 hrs 20 min. Ship #287. This mission did not count on my finishing up combat.
Saturday - June 10, 1944 :
Flew as right waist gunner on own crew. Briefing was at 1 AM and takeoff was suppose to be 4:30 AM. The target was changed at takeoff time and we didn't leave the ground until 10:20 AM. Altitude: 20,000 with temp at -21. Saw very little flak with no fighters. Bomb with P.F.F. Carried 24 250 lb. GP. Target was an airfield about 100 miles in front of our invasion troops.
Monday - June 12, 1944 :
Flew as right waist gunner with own crew. Briefing at 1:15 AM. Takeoff at 5:45. Target was an airfield at Dreux, France. Flak was very accurate over target and plenty of it. Altitude: 20,000. Temp. -23. Flying time: 6 hrs. We carried a bomb load of 312 20 lb fragmentation. Got a laugh from Fox (Radioman) saying "Gosh, I never saw so many bombs in my life."
Sunday - June 18, 1944 :
Flew as right waist gunner on own crew. Briefing at 1 AM. Takeoff at 5:30 AM. Flew across North Sea and very cold. We hit fighters just before we got to the coast - 109s. They were fixing to make a pass at us when some P-38 came out of nowhere, lucky for us. This was a PFF job and it seems like we went everywhere trying to find the target. We bombed the second target with 12 500 lb GP. Altitude: 20,000. Temp: -25. Lot of flak but far out except over target. Flying time: 6 hrs. Target: Bremerhaven, Germany.
Monday - June 19, 1944 :
Flew as right waist gunner with own crew. Briefing was at 4 AM although we didn't takeoff until 3:05 PM. Lot of flak over target. This was a No Ball (our first) Bomb load 52 100 lb GP. Altitude: 21,000. Temp: -21. PFF job. Target was at Mont-Louis-Fernes, France. Trying to knock out the pilotless planes. Flying time: 4 hrs 5 min.
The two medals on the bottom of this page are the Purple Heart and the Air Medal, both of which were awarded to Clyde posthumously.
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landon_whitt@unc.edu
