S/Sgt. Felix E. Byrne's Diary

Waist Gunner, 600th Squadron

KIA - 30 November 1944

MISSIONS DONE IN ETO

STAFF / SGT
FELIX E. BYRNE
398th Bomb Group
600th Bomb SQD

Staff Sergeant
Felix E. Byrne
[Serial] # 32983524
#England: 1944

MISSION NO. 1: HAMBURG – GERMANY
TARGET - OIL REFINERY
Sunday - June 18, 1944

Heaviest flak of War. No one hurt. One flak hole in Radio Room. No enemy fighters. Escorts 38 – 51’s [P-38's - P-51’s].Big fires one target.

Hours of Mission. 7 ½ hours.

MISSION NO. 2: HAMBURG – GERMANY
TARGET – OIL REFINERIES - Return trip
Tuesday, [June] 20, 1944

Heavy flak – No holes. No one hurt. Lucky. Enemy fighters. Escorts – 38 – 47’s [P-38's - P-47’s]. Target well lit up. Heavy black smoke. Fires where [sic: read were] still raging from Sunday’s mission.

Hours of Mission. 7 ½ hours

MISSION NO. 3: BERLIN – GERMANY
TARGET – BERLIN
Date: June 21, 1944

Heavy flak – accurate. Seemed to be tracking up. Group ahead was jumped by Ju-88’s. Ships sure started to blow up. No one hurt on ship. No flak holes. Plenty of enemy fighters… came in head on 15 to 30 enemy fighters shot down. Lots of dogfights.

[Editor’s note: “Ju-88s” is an abbreviation for “Junkers Ju 88”, a German twin-engine fighter plane]

Hours of Mission. 9 hours. Good Escort.

MISSION NO. 4: ROUEN – FRANCE
TARGET: POWER PLANT
Date: June 22, 1944

Light flak but accurate. Seemed to track. No one hurt. No flak holes. 12 ship formation. No enemy fighters. Escorts – 38’s – 47’s [P-38’s and P-47’s]. Lead ship left black smoke at 5 o’clock. He pulled out all right. Made 3 dry runs. Flew over invasion coast. Saw men and equipment landed. Also some cruisers shelling the coast of France.

Hours of Mission. 5 hours 15 minutes.

MISSION NO. 5: BIENNAIS – FRANCE
TARGET: AIRFIELDS
Date: July 4, 1944

HIT. IT. GOOD. Flak was heavy. No losses. No flak holes. Got home safe.

TIME: 5:40 hours.

MISSION NO. 6: CANCHI – DESQNES [Cauchie D’Eques] - FRANCE
TARGET: AIRFIELD on the coast – near Belgium border
Date: July 5, 1944

Flak was accurate not too much of it – got a few flak holes. Hit some buildings south of the field.

TIME: 5 ½ hours.

MISSION NO. 7: LIEPZIG [Leipzig] - GERMANY
TARGET: AIRCRAFT WORKS
Date: July 6, 1944 [sic: read July 7, 1944] - the Leipzig mission was flown on July 7th, Felix entered the wrong date in his diary.

F.W. – 190 [Focke-Wulf FW-190] Plant. Heavy flak. Got safely home. One flak hole in left wing. No one hurt. Plenty of enemy fighters. Saw battle between 2 109’s & 3 – 51’s. One Jerry went down. Other ran home. 51’s stayed with us from then on. Lost: 218.

[Editor’s note; The Leipzig mission was flown on July 7, 1944. Sonny’s comment; “Lost: 218”, is in reference to B-17 42-107218 N8-T “Agony Wagon II” flown by the Folger Crew, which went down on July 7, 1944]

TIME: 9:00 hours.

MISSION NO. 8: PEENEMUNDE – GERMANY
TARGET – AIRFIELDS
Date: July 18, 1844

Target well hit. We had a lot of flak – got a few holes. I saw a group of B-17’s behind us hit the field – boy what a sight. The bombs would leave red flashes when hit. It looked like hundreds of bombs hitting at the same time.

TIME: 9:00 hours.

MISSION NO. 9: LECHFIELD [Lechfeld] – MUNICH AREA – GERMANY
TARGET: [nothing is written]
Date: July 19, 1944

Heavy flak.

TIME: 8:10 hours

MISSION NO. 10: DESSAU – GERMANY
TARGET: [nothing is written]
Date: July 20, 1944

Had pictures taken that day.
[Editor’s note; this would be the Slavin’s Crew photo ]

TIME: 9:00 hours

MISSION NO. 11: ST LO – FRANCE
TARGET: – We were to bomb the German lines because the infantry where [sic: read were] going to make a big push & try to capture St Lo.
Date: July 24, 1944

No flak. No fighters. American artillery took out flak guns.

MISSION NO. 12: ST LO – FRANCE
Date: July 25, 1944

MISSION NO. 13: MUNICH AREA
TARGET – MARRSHILION [sic: read Marshalling] YARDS . Railroad Yards
Date: July 31, 1944

Heavy flak – navigator nearly got hit. Some enemy fighters – good escort.

Time: 8:10 hours

MISSION NO. 14: SOUTH-EAST HANOVER AREA [Dollbergen (Doliberg)]
TARGET: OIL – Dump
Date: Aug, 5, 1944

Easy Germany at Hanover. No flak. Some fighters out there. But as usual our escort was good – got home safe – got the target good, big fires – black smoke.

Time: [no time entered]

MISSION NO. 15: ROUEN [Le Manoir] – FRANCE
TARGET – RAIL ROAD BRIDGE over Seine River southeast of Rouen
Date: Aug. 13, 1944

Heavy flak. Bronx Bomber went down. Made 2 dry runs. No fighters. Not so much escort. Good [sic: read Got] some flak holes in the nose wings and tail – really rough. 2 ships went down.

[Editor’s note; The ‘Bronx Bomber’ was B-17 42-102516 H piloted by Hal Weekley, 601st SQ]

Time: [no time entered]

MISSION NO. 16: LUDWIGSHFAN [Ludwigshafen] WESTERN GERMANY
TARGET – CHEMICAL WORKS
Date: Sept 3, 1944

((P.F.F)) Pretty good flak. No losses. We flew over occupied France. Flew over Paris. Metz. Saw a lot of towns flattened out. Some dog fights out there – enemy fighters – couldn’t get at us.

Time: [no time entered]

MISSION NO. 17: LUDWIGSHFAN [Ludwigshafen] (GERMANY)
TARGET: CHEMICAL WORKS
Date: Sept 5, 1944

P.F.F. – pretty rough – a lot of flak. No losses. We flew across northern France – north of Paris. Flak was close – got some holes in the right wing – just missed the Tokyo tanks. Kenny dropped the bombs that day – he did all right. Didn’t see no fighters – our escort was good. Weather was bad.

[Editor’s note; ‘Kenny’ was Sgt. Kenneth H. Foraker, Togglier and Gunner]

Time: [no time entered]

MISSION NO. 18: Brux – CZECHOSLOVAKIA
TARGET: OIL REFINERIES
Date: Sep 12, 1944

Near Prague. We went by the North Sea. Passed Hamburg & Berlin then turned southwest – on to the target. Was a long haul. We got plenty of flak over the target. We lost no ships over the target. Some fellas got hurt. Hit by fighters north east of Berlin. A few hundred fighters. Group ahead of us got hit. Fighters and bombers went down. They where [sic: read were] 109’s [FW-109’s], they passed us. We thought we were going to be hit but they kept on going. Then they all bunched up at 6 o’clock about 5 mi away. There was about a hundred of them. They got together and jumped the group behind us – we weren’t touched – lucky again.

Time: 9.50 - 10 hrs

MISSION NO. 19: EINDHOVEN – HOLLAND
TARGET: TACTICAL BOMBING ON A CANAL
Date: Sept. 17, 1944

We where [sic; read were] supposed to hit gun positions on one side of the canal. Target was hit well. 5 puffs of flak. No enemy fighters – we had P-51’s escort. Pretty cloudy. We hit some gliders going over in to Holland for an invasion.

Time: 6 hrs

MISSION NO. 20: KASSEL – GERMANY
TARGET: TANK REPAIR DEPOT
Date: Sept. 22, 1944

(P.F.F) Flew there by Brussels. We where [sic; read were] hit by flak going into Germany. It was pretty rough. Our escort was well around us. No enemy fighters hit us. But they hit B-24’s under us, 1 – ‘24 went down – blew up. It was pretty cold up there. Flak over the target. No ships lost.

Time: 8 hours

Combat time up to now.
149 hrs, 35 min

MISSION NO. 21: OSNABRUCK (GERMANY)
TARGET: STEEL PLANT
Date: Sept. 26, 1944

We where [sic; read were] hit by flak over the target. We made one dry run then made a 39 degree turn and hit the target. We had a good escort – all P-51’s. 600 sqd – lead ship – had flares blow up. All the crew bailed out. One G.I. got killed by bailing out piggy back. P & C.P. [Pilot & Co-Pilot] landed ship - back on the field – pretty burnt up. There was no enemy fighters. Saw some B-24’s.

Time: 6 hrs – 45 min

MISSION NO. 22: MADGEBURG (GERMANY)
TARGET – SYNTH OIL REFINERY
Date: Sept. 28, 1944

It was a long run. There was flak at the I.P. & the target. We got hit in the nose – there was a hole in the right side of the nose & the left side of the plexie glass [sic: read Plexiglas] was knocked out. There was a few other holes in the ship. We had a good escort of P-38 – 51 – 47’s. No fighters hit us. Lucky. The flak was big – 105mm. 2 ships lost. 1 was on fire – the other landed in France.

Time: [no time entered]

MISSION NO. 23: KASSEL - GERMANY
Date: Oct . 2, 1944

[No description entry]

MISSION NO. 24: COLOGNE - GERMANY
[Date: Oct. 5, 1944]

[Editor’s note: No date or description entry – however the Slavin crew was in the Low Squadron and they, along with the Lead Squadron, did not attack the target. Only the High Squadron attacked. This is probably why Felix did not make an entry.]

MISSION NO. 25: BRUX (CHECHO-SLOVAKIA [sic: read Czechoslovakia] )
[TARGET:] OIL PLANT
Date: Oct 7, 1944

(But we hit airfield at Nordhausen Germany. 5 min – from Holland)

Combat hrs. 188 : 50

MISSION NO. 26: MUNSTER - GERMANY
TARGET: RAIL – INDUSTRIAL – OIL
Date: Oct 26, 1944

Light flak. About 50 puffs over the target – We turned of [sic; read off] to the right - & they kept on tracking us – of [sic; read off] to the right.

188:50
+ 5:45
----------
193:95
+ 8
+ 1
----------
= 202 [total combat hours]

NEWS ARTICLE INCLUDED IN THE DIARY: “Luftwaffe Up, Loses 130 Planes”
See ACTUAL diary for article

MISSION NO. 27: MERSEBURG
TARGET: OIL REFINERY
Date: Nov. 2, 1944

Very heavy flak – we went through it for about 15 to 25 minutes – we where [sic; read were] flying – D.L. [Deputy Lead] – P.F.F. the stuff was accurate & heavy. Our ship had many direct hits – no one was hurt. 15 flak holes in the tail. One big piece in the right armor plate. One hole in back of no 2 & 4 engines. A couple of holes in the waist. One piece went thru the heating system just missed Kenny. Bombay [bomb bay] doors riddled. Just after the target we where [sic; read were] hit by fighters FW-190’s = they hit the low sqd [squadron] of our grp. They took one ‘17 with them. There where [sic; read were] 2 enemy fighters. They made a pass thru – coming in high. There where [sic; read were] big dog fights all over the sky. We came home safe. We landed with bomb bay doors down & one bomb in the Bomb bay. It was Slavin’s last mission.

Time: 8 hrs
(P.F.F.)
Combat hrs up to now:
202 hrs
35 min

[MISSION NO. 28:] MERSEBURG
TARGET: OIL REFINERY
Date: Nov. 25, 44

Very very heavy flak. About 12 min of it. We weren’t hit by fighters. But saw many battles. We got a hole in the tail no one hurt – I flew with 2/LT Tolosko [sic: read Tolochko]. 19 yrs of age. He sure knew how to fly. We hit bad weather over England (Hansard’s) ship blew up killing (PL) Hansard & C.P. The navi [navigator] was killed after hit the ground. He bailed out to [sic; read too] low. The waist gunner broke his leg. The rest came out all right. Our crew nearly bailed out. We couldn’t find the runway. We came in 4 times. The 4th time we landed & boy where [sic; read were] we glad.

Additional Information:

November 25, 1944 was the final entry. Felix was flying as Waist Gunner on the Weum Crew when their B-17 serial# 43-38463 X went down while on a mission to Merseburg, November 30th 1944. In addition to Felix, 5 other crew members on that ship lost their lives, including Lt. Weum. The other 3 crew members became POW’s.

An excerpt from MACR #11145 (Missing Air Crew Report) regarding the loss of Felix's ship on November 30, 1944 is as follows (translated from the German KU report included):

“The Boeing has been shot down by Flak J e n a and crashed burning with her bombs North of the High-Way Jena-Buergel. The Place of Crash is about 500 Mtr East of the High-way Grossloebichau-Jenaloebnitz. (Junction: Jena-Buergel and Grossloebichau-Jenaloebnitz) about 500 Mtr north of the Highway Jena-Buergel and close to woods. The duds (6) have been rendered safe by exploding Detail Luftmana Oberndorf. 2 Burned Crew members were found west of Place of Crash and 2 were burned in wreck. 2 More were found partly burned about 150 mtr west of high-way Grossloebichau – Jenaloebnitz. The 6 dead were buried in Cemetery Grossloebichau after Identification. Crash: Completely, 89%. The gunner Fletcher lost one leg by Flak-shrapnel, some of the dead had penetrating Shrapnel wounds and have been thrown clear of plane by explosion of bombs. The Escape-Kits of the Dead were opened and only two Escape-maps were found. No money could be found.”


Felix "Sonny" with his mother Margaret Byrne The following statement is from Eileen Mullee, Felix's second cousin: "Felix was known as 'Sonny' to his family. I believe his nickname to his comrades was 'Burnsie'. Sonny was about 21 when he was killed. He was the only child of Margaret and William Byrne. My mother was his younger cousin and to this day, his death affects her deeply. She had never actually read the diary before. I also did a little additional research to fill in some blanks for her and my siblings thanks in part to the nephew of the co-pilot on that last flight. Thank you for taking this information. It means a lot to my family and me to keep Sonny’s life and sacrifice alive."

Notes

S/Sgt. Felix E. Byrne was a Waist Gunner for the Lt. Aaron Slavin, Lt. Joe Tolochko and Lt. Roger Weum, 600th SQ crews.
The above diary transcription and the actual diary was provided by Eileen Mullee, second cousin to Felix Byrne. Eileen's mother was his cousin.
This transcription is a reproduction of the original. Spelling and punctuation changes have been made to improve readability. In some circumstances, material may not have been transcribed or was rewritten.
Clarification of acronyms or special words or guesses of certain words are shown in brackets [ ].