Robert N. McLean, Jr. Mission on August 26, 1944

August 26, 1944 – Saturday

“Amoozin and Confoozin”

Mission #44 – target – Topeni Airdrome in Bucharest in Romania.  Takeoff 0615 Landing 1340 (0725) Total combat hours (250:45) Load  5000 lbs.  Remarks:

1.     On Friday August 25, the Romanians had declared war on the Germans.  The Germans bombed Bucharest, which had been seized by the Russians.  They were trying to destroy the palace.  The Russians were closing in on the Germans from the east.  Our target was in German hands and our purpose was to destroy the runways and installations on the airfield so that the Nazis couldn’t land or takeoff or refuel or get their planes out of there.

2.     We hit our target and met no flak because the gunners were all Romanians.

3.     No fighters – bucksheesh

4.     The situation was “pekoolyar” in that we didn’t know if we were bombing Germans, Romanians, or Russians or that we would be attacked by Nazi, Russian, or Romanian planes.

5.     Casualties none

6.     Statistics – total bomb tonnage (161,600 lbs)(80.8 tons)

7.     This was the first complete mission we had flown in 12 days