Robert N. McLean, Jr. Mission on August 6, 1944

August 6, 1944 – Saturday

“Nosey Nazis”

Mission #41 – target – subs and dry docks at Toulon in France.  Takeoff 0800 Landing 1600 (0800) total combat hours (224:40)  Load 5000 lbs (explosive B-RDX) Remarks:

1)     Entire 15th Air Force bomb targets in Southern France and along the Rhone River valley

2)     No fighters met

3)     Flak heavy and accurate – one hit smashed Plexiglas in nose.  Another flak pierced the nose turret glass and hit the nose gunner’s helmet (this was the second time one of our gunners was saved by his helmet) Four or five other holes in wings

4)     Formation dissolved at Corsica to enable us to conserve gas

5)     Casualties none

6)     Statistics – total bomb tonnage (147,600 lbs)(73.8 tons)