Mission 47

May 28, 1943    Our target today was Leghorn Italy -- docks and shipping.     The 97th and 99th went in ahead of us and the 2nd so by the time we got there one hour later there was so much smoke that we could hardly see the target. We could see the results of their bombing over a hundred miles away because the smoke had already reached 20,000 feet. They hit the oil refinery, one of the only two in Italy, and boy did they plaster it. We could see flames coming up through the huge column of smoke.    There wasn't any opposition except for a few bursts of inaccurate flak and one lone fighter that didn't come in. So other than being long and tiresome, it was easy.

    Thomas and I led our squadron.