Robert J. Weichhand Mission December 29, 1944

December 29, 1944 to January 3, 1945.

Friday - Today we were sent on our 2nd mission into German controlled Austria. It seems that 3 consecutive missions have failed to knock out an important bridge in the Brenner pass - so now we have to go and try to knock it out - which makes the fourth straight day it has been hit. We took off with a 12 man crew (Photographer and AXIS recording man) at Nine O’clock. The trip up was uneventful. We met our escort of 15-P-51s about 5 minutes before target time. We had 6-1000 pounders in the bay. We got over the target at about 12:20 and the flak was pretty rough. We went over the target and didn’t drop our bombs - I didn’t know what the hell was wrong - but I soon found out that we were making a 3600 around it. When we came over the 2nd time they really gave us hell. I could feel the concussion from the bursts and I heard a couple pieces sail through the sides of the ship, so I started throwing "chaff" out fast as I could - I figured if it really did any good did do all the good I could. We made the second run in the "traditional way” - by that I mean we didn’t get our bombs away. We decided to take them back to the base - but after about 2 hours, #1 motor started acting up and we had to feather the engine which resulted in our dumping our bombs in the Adriatic about 100 miles from Foggia. We landed at Foggia with between 50 and 75 gals of gas in each tank at 3:30 p.m. We had about 9 holes in the ship. The biggest one by the navigator. No one was hit though we were all sweating plenty. We spent the New Years in Foggia - went to bed about 9:00 o’clock. We ran allover Foggia in our flying clothes. We had a good time even though none of us had any money. We lived at the Red Cross and went to all the shows that we could dig up. We saw two stage shows and several movies.

Bad weather prevented the squadron from coming up to pick us up. But after a while (5 days) they finally made it – so now we are all back at the tent discussing it and laughing at the flak. The bridge was hit at last. So I guess we won’t go back up there for a while. Next mission Steffy (the co-pilot) goes along.