Barney W. Burgin, Mission November 21, 1942

Barney Burgin (514) furnished us with this story. "Last week I had a dream that was real - I woke up to a loud roar and thought I was back in our old B-24 - 'Per Diem' - No. 31.

"We were over Tripoli. We were being shot to pieces. The hydraulic system was gone. I tried to help the bomb bay doors open but they kept closing. The bomb run was ending and I watched as the bombs dropped and flipped the four doors away, like a piece of paper. We were descending at a rapid rate to clear the target area. So I thought that the worst was over. But a survey changed that. I found an auxiliary power generator out with six inch pieces of flak in it. Hydraulics gone, most everything else, too. No inter-com, rear turret power gone. The fuel transfer pump shot out. A tire severely cut by schrapnel, holes you could stick your arm through. I had learned to pray by this time and I asked the good Lord to help me to be able to do what was needed to do."

...... "I took the transfer base off the fuel transfer pump, put in the filler neck of the bomb bay tank and transferred the fuel to different wing tanks until I had a balance in all tanks. I don't know how we kept from blowing up with that 100 octane all around.

"Well we finally made it home. They repaired old 'Per Diem' and we finished combat with her. That old B-24 was some kind of airplane."