Bombardier's Diary
by
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Flying a bomber into enemy territory to deliver a punishing load of explosives was often described by the men as five to ten hours of boredom interrupted by one to two minutes of terror. The flight to Eleusis was uneventful. Deane was flying tightly in his spot, watching ahead as the sky filled with black puffs.
Charlie was hunched over his Norden bombsight, wishing it were not in his way now as he had to look ahead to see when the lead plane would toggle its stack of fragmentation bombs. Now the sounds of the explosions from ack-ack could be heard over the growl of the engines and one very loud blast rocked the plane as yet another sound was heard when a piece of shrapnel ripped through the body of the ship near the ball turret and the resulting shriek of wind brought exclamations from the crew.
Suddenly Charlie was frozen in motion as he saw a B-24 take a direct hit from ack-ack fire. Half of the tail section flew away and the great plane began dropping off to the right and started a slow barrel roll. He glanced rapidly ahead and was relieved to see the lead ship bomb clusters go. 'Bombs away!'
It was the unexpected voice of tail-gunner Hilding that broke the tension. 'Five o' clock! High! Turning!' Four ME109's turned and attacked eagerly, their twenty millimeter cannon winking through each propeller hub. Suddenly the sky around them was filled with fighter aircraft as P38's joined in the action. Every window on the Available Jones offered a scene of aerial combat. The crew kept calling off warnings of each attack wave.
Suddenly, the deadlier FW 190's joined the foray, all four cannon on each plane blinking. The Available Jones gave a slight twitch as two holes appeared through the forward section of the aircraft. By now twenty ME109's and ten FW190's were engaged in aerial combat with P38's from the 82nd Fighter Group.
'Yaaah! Got the son-of-a-bitch! Did you see it? Did anyone see it?' yelled the excited Joe DeAngelo.
'I confirm!', shouted Weaver. 'Where the fuck's the '38's?'
The little friends were busy enough, Charlie knew, as he saw a ME109 receive a fatal burst from the four Browning 13 mm machine guns in the nose of the slightly slower P38. Charlie watched as the stricken fighter, oozing a trail of black smoke, rose and turned left - directly into a B24!
Charlie yelled at the impact and watched helplessly as the B24 fell to earth with no parachutes seen
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About the Book
Charlie Wolfe's combat diary lay hidden in an attic trunk until 1991. He had been with the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group in North Africa and Italy -- one of the most highly decorated bomber units of World War II. Charlie never spoke of his service tour. Missions to Regensburg, Wiener-Neustadt, Casinno, Steyr, Anzio Beachhead, Ploesti -- all of the big ones -- as well as dozens of battles less remembered where men were still blown out of the sky to flaming death or to be captured as prisoners of war. Charlie was bombardier on a B24 Liberator, the bomber with the greatest range and heaviest bomb load at that time, and our most produced bomber. The brief notations in his diary whetted an appetite for more information, which was found at annual reunions of the 376th where scores of men who flew with Charlie were interviewed.
What emerged is the gripping saga of one bomber crew who fought boredom, terror, enemy aircraft, flak, mud and death of comrades whose ships were torn apart over the skies of North Africa, Yugoslavia, Greece, Italy, France, Hungary, Austria and Germany. The shared memories of surviving members of the 376th filled in the brief words of Charlie's diary and present a powerful story of a bomber crew's day by day struggles to complete their mission and stay alive. To face such odds once would be terrifying, yet they faced them fifty times. Bombardier's Diary is a look back to a slice of time in the greatest war of this century.
About the Author
Ever since he saw a B24 Liberator fly over his home in Pennsylvania when he was twelve, Herb McCollom was hooked. Some men are that way about a car, a boat or a certain piece of real estate, but those things never excited him as much as the sight of that Liberator. During World War II, he would see some occasionally, but it was mostly in the newsreels. So when he found Charlie Wolfe's diary in 1991 and discovered that Charlie had been a bombardier on a Liberator in one of the most highly decorated bomber groups of WW II, he started to hunt down everything he could find about that ship and the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group.
Most of his information came straight from the surviving members of that group who have an annual reunion. Other information was gleaned from official Air Force documents and more than fifty books about aerial combat and bomber squadrons. He sharpened his writing while president of a national organization with articles to magazines and trade journals, co-authoring a book about starting a business and by being a speechwriter. His efforts have paid off with a look at all of the aspects of life in a combat zone for a bomber crew. An exhaustive cross-check of information has resulted in a highly accurate portrait of the daily lives of a bomber crew in the 513th Squadron of the 376th Heavy Bombardment Group from October 25, 1943 through June 19th, 1944.