Thomas Grover Hayes 01/06/1922-12/31/1998

 My Great-Grandfather was a radio operator on board a B-17 Flying Fortress. He flew on 35 bombing missions over Europe, mainly Germany. Here is a copy of his flight logs from every mission:

1. Bremen, Germany. August 31, 1944. Altitude 25,000ft. Lot's of flack tracking and barrage. Got 4 hits on ship, none serious. Flack from coast to target and back to coast, also flack over north sea, either flack ship or Phresion Island. 7 hours.

2. Frankfort area. Sept 1. Alt. 24,500 ft. Tank Factory. Ran into cold front on way to target. Recall 52 minutes from target. No flack, fighters. Landed with 5000 lbs of bombs. B-17 nearly hit us in soup before recall. 8 hours.

3. Brest Fort 4 105mm howitzers. Altitude 8000 ft September 3, 1944. Supposed to be milk run. Lead Navigator took us over Guernsey Is. They knocked the hell out of us, Got two-one burned and engine fell off. Seen one man bail out- chute never opened as far as I could see. Command Pilot (Col. Lylte) was in the ship that was hit. On way over seen ship catch fire- 7 chutes came out. Plane blew up when it hit. Destroyer on way to pick them up. Made two runs on target. Mechanical failure, had to bring bombs back. 8 hours.

4. Gusburg, 28,000ft Sept. 8th, 52 degress below zero, cold as hell. Got suit plugged into 24 volts instead of heated suit. No losses, flack light at target. No holes in ship.

5. Dueseldorph, 26,000ft 42 degrees blow zero, Anti aircraft gun factory. 8 hour Sept 9. Heavy flack from IP to target. 2 holes in ship. No bombs dropped, no reason. Group dropped bombs, to heavy.

6. Nurnberg, 26,000ft, Sept 10, 36 below, 9 hours. Tank factory wiped out. Heavy flack to and from target. Seen B-17 blow up over target, no one got out. Two more knocked down over target 2 chutes from one plane. 7 hours on oxygen. (Saying- I've got more time on oxygen than you have in the Army)

7. Frankfurt area, 26,000ft, Sept. 11, 1944, 10 hours. 8 hours on oxygen. Heavy flack over target. Largest air battle in war. Hit by fighters. Lost number 2 engine over target, had to salvo bombs to keep up. Dangerous 5 miles behind with fighters.  Wiped out small town with bombs. Heavy flack in clouds we came into. Lost formation, number 2 engine ran away twice. Had to land at fighter base. Found out 20 109's closing in on us, we ran into clouds. Flew parts in ATC than took off for Paltova, Russia. Forced down at Pyrartin Russia.

8. Drasqyou, Hungary, 26,000ft Sept 15,1944 10 hours. Heavy flack over target. Took off for Italy, stayed there four days,got to France once, but had to turn back. Fired upon. Flew to England. Only got credit for one mission, although we were fired upon.

9. Ludswigshaven. 28,000ft 38 below zero, 7 hours, Sept 21, 1944 Hit oil refineries. Heavy flack tracking very accurate, no fighters. Got several very large holes in tail and waist. Seen the smoke from the target up to 25,000ft when we left.

10. Ludswigshaven oil refinery. 40 below zero, 8 hours, 25,000ft Sept 21, VERY heavy flack-it didn't track, it hit! 30 so he had large hole in tail, Bombardier hit in left eye. Lost number 3 engine over target. Col. Shopplin hit, not expected to live. Engines out eight, 5 feathered. Cried after briefing. Don't want to go back there.

11. Ludswigshaven, 7 hours 28,000ft, 40 below. Heavy flack again, accurate as far as we were concerned. Lost 7 ships. Expected fighters, saw none, Charles in SHORTY (over 100 missions) shot down, crossed over and in front of us with gas gussing out of wing. Good Bye Smokey Liz. (Only one with olive drab paint, yet)

12. Brackesburk, 23,000ft 22 below, Sept. 30, 1944,  7 hours. No flack, no fighters. Dream mission, saw two planes go down in flames. Supposed to be heavy flack and fighters, saw neither. Seen RAF Landcaster get hit and catch fire.

13. Nurnberg tank factory 24,000ft 22 below zero, 6 hours Oct. 2. Started for Wurzburg, but didn't bomb. Ran thru bomb run. No flack at the field, went on to Nurnberg, Very heavy, accurate flack, knocked plexiglass out of radio room. On way back, our own guns nearly shot all of us down. Flew with Lt. Tyler. Hit target. Saw Achen on way back, , buildings burning.

14. Mainz- Marshalling yard 26,500ft, 38 below, 6 hours, light flack, good fighter support-good mission.

15. Bremen(little B) Folkwolf parts plant. Oct 12, Miller of 728th blew up on forming. Had rockets at target, flack fairly inaccurate. Seen dog fight at target. Hit target, lost engine over target.

16. Cologne- Marshalling yard. Oct. 15, 54 degrees below zero, 6 1/2 hours. Fairly heavy flack, inaccurate. No holes. Flew with Lt. Tyler.

17. Helgoland, 20,000ft Oct 25, 1944 Secret Mission. We dropped bombs on island and radio controlled B-17 full of TNT were crashed on subpens. Made heavy hits on target. (We got unit citation)

18. Kassel, locomotive factory, 27,500ft, 40 below, 9 hours, flack inaccurate, had flack at Koblenz in and out. Also flack at our lines. Came out over Belgium at very low altitude, seen the country.

19. Meresberg! 47 below zero, 27,000ft, 8 hours. Very heavy flack! In it for 9 minutes, continuous. Heaviest I have ever seen. Seen ship go down in flames close by. Engine came off, still running. Saw no chutes. (Lost 5 from 452nd)

20. Sarrbucken. Marshalling yard. 27,000ft, 8 hours, November 9, 1944. Fairly accurate flack. My friend Donald Gott and Lt. Meyers shot down. Lt. Don Gott and Lt. Metzger received the Medal of Honor, trying to save my pal Bob Dunlap, the radio operator. Bob was from Great Falls, Mt. We went thru radio and gunnery school together. Bob was hit in the arm by flack. Sgt. Krimminger bailed out, but chute caught on tail. Don tried to get the plane down because Bob was bleeding too bad to make it home. They were shot down on final approach to a small field as they tried to land. Bob and I flew every mission we could with anyone. Our motto was "Home by Christmas" I only flew with my crew after that. I was 5 missions ahead.

21. Wiesbaden, Nov. 10, 1944, 30,000ft, 8 hours. Light flack tracking. Dropped by PFF. Ours hung up in bombay. Dempsey had to go in and secure bombs as they were armed.

22. Koblenz. Marshalling yards. Nov. 11, 1944. 6 hours. Light flack and rockets(first time) inaccurate, though. Very scary, no losses. Bombed by PFF. Heavy fighter support, P-51s.

23. Achen, troop support. Nov 16, 52 below zero, 6 hours. No flack or fighters. Flares to show our lines. On return our field closed in, so we landed at Digby, Canadian base. Stayed there 2 days *last line at bottom of page didn't copy, so here's the top of the next one* gave us all a sore throat.

24. Ozenbrook, Dummer Lake area. Nov. 21, 1944, 60 degrees below zero. 30,000ft, 6 hours. Started for Mersberg, hit a cold front. The con trails were so persistent, we did a 180 degree turn and bombed on the way out. Light flack at target, two ships nearly ran head on into each other. One ship hit the prop wash and fell like a stick until it broke up. No one got out. Two more collided on way home. Bad day.

25. Mersberg (Luscandorf)  Nov. 30, 27,000ft, 8 hours. HEAVY flack and tracking. 5 ships went down. Target hit very hard. Picked up quite a few hold. God Damn, it was rough. (Took Pictures).

26. Geissen (Rhur Valley) December 4th. 25,000ft. 40 below zero. 8 1/2 hours. Lead Navigator got lost and took us thru all the flack in the Rhur Valley. Thick and Hell and accurate.

27. Berlin (Big B) Dec. 5th. Light flack, inaccurate. We lost one plane, maybe two. Saw fighters, but P-51s drove them away. 150 approximately. Manned waist gun for first time. Had my chance, but safety was on.

28. Geissen Dec. 11, 1944, 45 degrees below zero, 7 1/2 hours. Light flack at target. Were supposed to go back over Paris, France to show Allied power. Weather prevented it.

29. Durmstadt 26,000ft, 40 below zero, 7 1/5 hours. December 12, 1944. No flack at target. Some at lines on the way back. Seen bombs fall from bombay had walk around bottle on. Ship blew up over target, visual run. Kirsh finished up.


30. Mainz Marshalling yard. Dec. 18, 1944 30,000ft, 40 below zero. Doc Wright flew with us. Got behind and helped by fighters. Hit Marshalling yard.

31. Hanow, Marshalling yard. January 5, 1945. 62 below zero. 27,000ft 9 1/2 hours. Fairly heavy flack in. Flack fairly heavy at target. In fact, heavy barrage at target, but didn't hit us. Everything all screwed up, but we hit target. We tried to bring up the GAF by running all over Germany.

32. Cologne, 27,000ft. 56 below zero. 7 hours, January 7, 1945. Light persistent flack at target. We flew a brand new ship. Had trouble with oxygen. Radio operator of 728th passed out from anoxia.

33. Colonge, rail bridge. 27,000ft. 63 below zero, January 10, 1945. 5 hours. Accurate flack, damn close. Arnad blew up in 100th bomb group. Bomb dump persistent con trails. Moore fired ball turret, scared me to death.

34. Hamburg subpens. Jan. 11, 1945 26,000ft, 52 below zero. 6 1/2 hours. Very heavy flack, tracking and barrage, worse then Mersberg. Had a direct hit in radio room. KNOCKED SIDE OFF ROOM. Went right by my face. Missed me by 6 inches, lucky it didn't explode. Story's bombardier killed instantly. Prayed like Hell as we had flack for an hour steady.

35. THE BIG ONE- Hamburg, 58 degrees below zero. 25,000ft January 28, 1945. We couldn't hold position on bomb run. Made individual bomb run. Really sweated it out. Fairly heavy flack tracking us as we were alone. Finished my missions 5 ahead of Jim Wilson. Had to hide on base in order to get to come home with my crew. Came back on the Queen Mary.