While Herman was out of commission with the ruptured eardrum, his crew flew seven missions. At the end of each flight day those not flying would wait in anticipation for the B-17's to return, counting each one as they appeared in the sky....
The assigned target was I G Farben Industrie plant at Ludwigshafen deep into Germany. This was an important chemical factory, critical to supplying Germany's war effort. An interesting aside is the fact that IG Farben also had a plant near Auschwitz which used slave laborers...
The long-range fighter escorts that Herman refers to in his diary were the P 38's, P 47's, and P 51's. These were welcome competition for the German fighter planes....
The target on this mission was the port city of Ludwigshafen, deep into Germany. The city was at the junction of two rivers and was an important Allied target because of its oil refinery and chemical factories....
According to Miriam-Webster's on-line dictionary, the word "flak" is from "Fliegerabwehrkanonen" ...
On Sunday, December 5th, 1943, Herman was awakened for his 2nd missions at 2:30 am. The target for the day was the factories at the airport near La Rochelle, deep in France, southwest of Paris....
Herman's' first bombing mission was on December 1, 1943. He flew with another B-17 crew whose bombardier had been grounded. Since he had arrived at Thurleigh barely ten days before, and his flying equipment hadn't been issued yet, he had to "beg, borrow and steal"...