398th Bomb Group Diaries
398th Diaries (alphabetically)
- Captain Alan A. Arlin, Pilot, 601st
- Sgt. William Auten, Armorer, 601st - Needs volunteer for transcription
- Lt. William H. Baker, Navigator, 600th
- Lt. Robert J. Beckley, Navigator, 601st/602nd
- T/Sgt. Oliver W. Bradford, Engineer, 603rd
- Lt. Edwin Logan Brown, Bombardier, 602nd - Being transcribed
- T/Sgt. Ben Core, Radio Operator/Top Turret Gunner, 601st
- Lt. Lowell O. Culver, Co-Pilot, 601st - Diary being searched for
- Lt. Robert H. Dee, Jr., Co-Pilot, 601st
- Lt. E. Dalton Ebbeson, Bombardier/Navigator, 603rd
- Lt. William J. Ferrante, Navigator, 603rd Squadron
- T/Sgt. George W. Forsyth, Engineer, TT Gunner, 602nd
- T/Sgt. Armand Fugge, Engineer, Top Turret Gunner, 600th
- S/Sgt. Kenneth A. Green, Gunner, 603rd
- S/Sgt. James L. Holloway, Tail Gunner, 601st
- S/Sgt. Chilton Jorgenson, Ball Gunner, 601st
- Lt. Harvey B. Kramer, Navigator, 600th
- T/Sgt. Derald Lyman, Radio Operator, 600th
- S/Sgt. Frank M. Mackey, Ball Turret Gunner, 600th
- Lt. Charles J. Mellis, Jr., Co-Pilot, 603rd Squadron
- T/Sgt. Elliot Novek, Radio Operator, 602nd
- Lt. "Pep" Petrocine, Pilot, 600th - Needs volunteer for transcription
- Lt. Harry R. Shuptrine, Pilot, 600th - Trying to locate son to obtain .doc file of his transcription
- Lt. Paul W. Smith, Navigator, 602nd
- Sgt. Claude W. Tracey, Engineer, 601st
- S/Sgt. John C. Veenschoten, Radio Operator/Gunner, 603rd
- Lt. Robert E. Weidig, Co-Pilot, 603rd
- T/Sgt. Ralph F. Will, Engineer, 600th
- Lt. Mark Woods, Navigator, 600th
- S/Sgt. Ellsworth Wright, Ball Turret Gunner, 603rd
398th Diaries by Crew
Organized by Squadron then by Crew. While most of the time, the men flew with the same crew, occasionally they flew some missions with a different crew and were sometimes transferred to other crew. The following is organized by their home crew. Most diary entries will be for that crew.
600th
- 600th V. A. Hansard Crew
- 60oth Donald B. Lowe, Jr. Crew
- 600th Robert D. Nolan Crew
- 600th Stanley R. Reed Crew
- 600th Richard L. Rohrer Crew
601st
- 601st Alan A. Arlin Crew
- 601st Bob Campbell Crew
- 601st Selmar Gustaves Crew, Merwin L. Genung Crew, and John J. Falkenback Crew
- 601st Byron L. Magness Crew
- 601st Tom E. Marchbanks Jr. Crew
- 601st Lynn R. Rogers Crew (601st up to 31 Aug 1944)
- 601st James Womeldurf Crew
602nd
- 602nd Al Petska Crew
- 602nd Lynn R. Rogers Crew (602nd 31 Aug 1944 and thereafter)
- 602nd Nolan Thompson Crew
603rd
- 603rd Steven P. Cullinan Crew
- 603rd Donald J. DeCleene Crew (22 Nov 1944 thru 1 Jan 1945)
- 603rd Kenneth S. Hastings Crew (thru 21 Nov 1944)
- 603rd Ross Howden Crew
- 603rd Staver J. Hyndman Crew
- 603rd Jack Lee Crew
- Lt. William J. Ferrante, Navigator, 603rd Squadron after September 1, 1944
- 603rd Howard W. Rehme Crew
- 603rd Harold F. Spangler Crew
Notes
- If you have a diary or know of one not on our list, please contact our 398th Group Historian. Our 398th Group Historian will then ask you for a Xerox copy of the diary for our archives and if you or a family member could type it in a word processor. If you or a family member cannot type it to electronic text, we will seek a volunteer to type it from the Xerox copy. If possible a color scan of the original diary text would also be useful for our archives.
- Several diaries listed above need transcriptions in order to be put on our 398th web site. See Volunteers Needed for duties and contact.
- The targets shown for individual days of the diaries are the official 398th targets for that day. However, because of cloud cover, mechanical difficulties, and other situations, individual aircraft or squadrons may have chosen alternate targets of opportunity. Sometimes but not always the diaries mention the names of the alternate targets.
- It is traditional for crew members to reference themselves as part of a pilot's crew. However, for various reasons, such as make-up missions because they were ill or special requests by Operations Officers that they fill in a vacancy, individuals may have flown a number of missions with other crews. Sometimes but not always the diaries will mention if the author flew with another crew.
- Historians should recognize that in the transcription process, some spellings and punctuation have been fixed, including offical spelling of the target names. Occasionally the diary's target city or date is different than the official 398th Mission List and after careful investigation these have been modified in the on-line electronic text, though usually there is an editor's note indicating such. In addition, some material not related to 398th activities, inaccuracies, casual comments, opinions, strong language, and unverified statements were not transcribed, although at times some editing took place to preserve the author's description in a more general way. Of course, no transcription is perfect and there may be occasional transcription errors. For future historians, each diary index includes a history of the location of the original if known and copies made along the way.
- If you see areas of the diaries needing correction, such as mispelled words, incorrect targets, etc., please contact our 398th Webmaster.