Mission # 49.

Mission # 49. Viterbo, Italy. Saturday, September 18, 1943.
I flew a mission today - with Capt. Kutschera in #581 - “Sugar Puss”
We hit the airdrome, near Viterbo, with 100 # bombs and incendiaries, and did a pretty good job. There were supposed to have been 200 planes on the field and in the dispersal areas. These planes were mostly HE 111’s, according to the photo taken a couple of days ago.
The weather and visibility were fairly good in the target area. The flak was moderate to heavy, and quite accurate - even though we didn’t receive any holes. I didn’t see any fighters.
Bomb load - 38 - 100’s= 3800#. Mission time 06:30.
This is my 49th mission today. One more to go! I am really sweating out No. 50 - my last combat mission (at least in this theatre).
A group of B-24’s flew in from England today. They were on the Ploesti (Romania) oil field raid, and suffered large losses. They will operate out of here, temporarily.