ROME - Mission # 41.

ROME.
Friday, August 13, 1943. Mission No. 41.
Our 2nd mission on Rome today. We flew the first one on July 19th. On that one, the Commanding Officer gave the Catholic bombardiers a chance to opt out of the mission, if they couldn’t resolve any conflict of conscience, that they might have. I felt that I was obeying orders, and any responsibility for the consequences, rested with those higher up who issued the order. I have given a lot of thought to this reasoning since. I have concluded that this is the same faulty reasoning that the non-Nazi Germans, the Catholic church and the rest of the world used when it came to Hitler! If we Catholic bombardiers had decided to “stand down”, they would have had to scrub the mission.
I flew with Capt. Kutschera as a “Extra” crew. (We would replace any plane that had to abort the mission.). We started out in “Baby”, but couldn’t get the No. 4 engine started. So, we all piled out with our equipment and scurried down to #903. The formation was intact on leaving here, so tagged along anyway. Mac dropped out with prop trouble, so we flew in the #6 position, in our own squadron.
We went in at 25,000 feet - in two waves - with P-38’s escort. The flak was moderate to heavy, and very accurate as to altitude, as per usual. I saw two German fighters and both came in on us, but no damage. Our No. 2 engine started running rough, and Capt. had to feather the prop.
Capt. Dalton, Chemical Warfare Officer from Wing headquarters, rode with us again. Apparently, he needs to get his four hours of flying time for the month, in order to receive his “Flight Pay’ (50 percent of base pay.).
One more Friday the 13th, that I sweated out!
Mission Time - 05:15, Twelve 500’s bomb load.
MEMO:
The following is a recap of our first Rome raid on July 19, 1943.
Early briefing, and Catholics as well as non-Catholics were stunned when they announced today’s target as the rail-marshalling yards in Rome. Supposedly, this is the hub for war materials moving from Germany into Italy. We are the second Group of B-17’s into the target. This is the first bombing that Rome has experienced in the war.
Weather and visibility good. We were un-escorted by Allied fighters en-route. I saw a few enemy fighters, but none engaged. The flak was moderate but inaccurate. (Must have been Italian gun crews!). Some of the shells were from Siebel ferries, anchored off the coast.
At Briefing, we were warned time, and time again, to drop our bombs in the assigned target area (railroad marshalling yard), and we did just that! Before reaching the Initial Point to start our bomb run, I had a great birds’ eye view of Vatican City, the Forum and the Coliseum, below - to my left, from 21,500 feet. Bomb load 12- 500’s. Mission time 08:00.