Tue, November 3, 1942
Left at 4:00 for North Island, San Deigo
Wed, November 3, 1943
One of the boys turned up sick this morning and I had to take his place. We TO at 8:00 & went to Bremen, Germany. We saw at least a hundred fighters & our ship was busy in & out of the bomb run shooting its share of ammo. I relieved the waist gunner for a while & had my share. The target was obscured & so photo was out. I got several nice scenes of fighters & then we were hit by flack & boy was we hit. We fell back out of formation & here came the Jerry again. The pilot called the fighters to protect us & about 10 came to our rescue. We could not get our landing gear down & was getting low on gas so at orders from the pilot the turret, tail, ball, & waist & myself bailed out over a field in England & then the pilot & the rest crash landed at another field. Lucky no one was hurt but I really had a thrill believe me. My first jump. I said the Angelica Salutation before I pulled my cord & boy when it caught me up was I glad. I continued saying them all the way down. Bailed out at 18,000. What an experience. I’ll never forget one bit ever.