Mission 32

April 8, 1943    This was supposed to have been our day off and everyone was lying around taking it easy when right at lunch time an alert was called for briefing. The planes weren't even loaded but were in an hour. So we were briefed and off the ground at 14:30 to bomb a convoy that the 97th missed entirely this morning. When we found it, it was just off the coast of Bizerte and there we were at 10,000 feet which was our bombing altitude. We were attacked by fighters on our bombing run and the flak was intense and very accurate, but our bombardier, Chenney, picked out one and let it have a full load. When we looked back it was a solid mass of flame and sinking. One other ship of the four was hit. Three men were injured but not serious and everyone got back. The blast from the explosion of the ship that Chenney hit was so great that it buckled our right wing and sprung the flap control so we had to land without flaps which isn't very comfortable in a B-17.

    We were hit by one burst of flak but very little damage was done. Those are the kind you remember.