Michael Peter Vono April 20, 1944

8th Mission – Mestre Italy – Assigned to Lt. Wright’s crew, which had cracked up on take off several weeks ago. (2 men dead & 2 others bad off) – Takeoff 9:45 – Heavy fog broke up – belly gunner – P-38 escort – target obscured by clouds – couple bursts of flak – no fighters. Went over target but did not drop bombs – feathered No. 4 – Broke formation and salvoed bombs in Adriatic – Half hour later formation showed up & 3 ships flew formation on us – No. 2 acted up & we broke off from 3 ships & headed inland below bombline. – landed OK. Other ships brought bombs back – landed about 4

Mestre is near Venice, so the target was likely a port or similar transportation hub. “Assigned to Lt. Wright’s crew” means that, up to now, Dad was a “floater” filling in on various crews as needed.

Good News! Now he has his own crew! However, this pilot had just crashed on take-off killing 2 of his crew and injuring 2. This is not my indictment against Lt. Wright. If the AAF at the time doesn’t blame him and remove him from flying status, I certainly won’t say a bad word against him today -- decades later and in peacetime.

In fact, speaking as a retired USAF pilot, I’d say a young pilot flying a new tech aircraft in wartime relying on field maintenance is very lucky if he doesn’t have a few crashes and accidents. However, I imagine this weighed at least a little bit on Dad’s mind as they waited for the fog to lift in order to take off. Then, having one engine and then another fail wasn’t likely to ease his concerns. Getting rid of the extra weight of the bombs after losing #4 engine is certainly the right move.

I am guessing they didn’t drop the bombs over the target because they couldn’t see the target well enough. Meanwhile, their formation perhaps tried again to no avail. For whatever reason, 3 of their original formation caught up with them on the way home and they formed up to protect each other with their guns in case of attack. Once the second engine started failing, they couldn’t keep up with the other 3 ships and flew inland to a bit safer route home.

I take it to mean that they were so close to Allied territory, going inland meant safer airspace. The bombline must mean that south of that line there were too many Allied troops to consider dropping excess bombs there, so therefore it was also safer territory. They landed back at San Pancrazio at 4pm. The other aircraft landed with their bombs. This must have been unusual enough for Dad to make a note of it.