• Flight log of LT Dickerson
• Mar 4, 1944 - Tucson, AZ to Harrington, KS. 1050 miles, 6:15 hrs.
• Mar 9, 1944 - Arrived Morrison Field, FL. 1300 miles, 7:00 hrs.
• Mar 13, 1944 - Arrived Beane Field, ST Lucia Is. 1550 miles, 10:00 hrs (Short on gas).
• Mar 13, 1944 - Arrived Trinadad. 199 miles, 1:20 hours.
• Mar 15, 1944 - Arrived Belem, South America. 1322 miles, 7:45 hrs.
• Mar 16, 1944 - Arrived Fortileza, South America. 851 miles, 5:15 hrs.
• Mar 19, 1944 - Arrived Dakar, Senegal. 1947 miles, 12:00 hrs. Had 2300 gallons of gas, 655 left.
• Mar 20, 1944 - Arrived Marrakech, Morocco. 1497 miles, 9:45 hrs.
• Mar 25, 1944 - Arrived Valley, England. 1400 miles, 10:45 hrs.
• Mar 26, 1944 - Arrived Sudbury, Eng. 240 miles, 2:15 hrs.
• Total of 11357 miles in 72 hrs and 30 min of flight.

On August 30, 1944 our target was an Fw 190 plant at Bremen, Germany; our 27th mission. We left Great Yarmouth, England and traveled over the North Sea to the Elbe River. We approached the target from the East. Just after the IP we lost our left outboard engine and fell behind the formation.

LT Dickerson recalls: When we lost our engine, I knew we could not keep up with the formation. So, I decided to salvo the bombs so we could gain more air speed. I was really concerned, and I spent many nights thinking they may have fallen on a residential area and taken the lives of many civilians.

I knew which way the formation would turn and hoped to catch sight of them to let them know we were in trouble. But, we had fallen too far behind. I asked LT Ruff, our Navigator, for a heading to the North Sea so we could get out of Germany, and then called for a fighter pilot to follow us home.

The photo above shows our escort, a P51 named "Brother Bill."

- James W. Moss

The P51 shown above is a "B" model. The canopy is a field modification referred to as the "Malcolm Hood." An improvement over the standard "Greenhouse Hood." "Brother Bill" belongs to the 504th FS/339th FG and was flown by LT Frank T. Waters, Jr. The nose is painted white and red, and the waist is painted with Quick Identification Markings (QIM) markings.

Mar.4,1944- Tucson, Ariz. To Harrington Kansas.  1050 miles and flight time 6:45 hrs.

When we arrived there the field was iced in so I made my first landing on ice but all went well. We landed there to get all the armourment and bomb sight installed ready for combat.

Mar.9,1944- Harrington to Morrison Florida.1300miles and flight time of 7:00.

We were given our secret orders as to where we were to go and told not to open them till we were 1 hr out on our flight. We were going to England which we had guessed already. We were given thirty days to get to Sudbury England where we would stationed.

Mar.13,1944- Morrison to Trinadad.

This flight was interrupted as we were bucking a strong head wind and the engineer said we were cutting it pretty close to get to Trinadad. We had been told of several places and given the radio call letters so we called St Lucie, Island And got permission to land and refuel. The runway set on the shore parallel to the ocean and and was a short one with mountains on the landing end and the ocean on the other end. So you had to drop it in and on take off you had to hold down the breaks give it full throttle and let the breaks loose and hope you stay out of the water. All went O.K. This part of the flight was 1550 miles and flight time of 10 hrs. We went on down to Trinadad which was 200 miles and flight time of 1:20.

Mar. 16,1944- Trinadad to Belem S. Am.1322 miles and flight time of 5:00 hrs.

Stayed a couple days and went out to see what jungle looked like. When we flew over the Amazon river we all hoped we would not have any trouble as that looked a terrible place to have to land. We run into some bad thunder storms but made it O.K.

Mar.17,1944- Belem to Fortileza S. Amer. 851 miles and flight time of 5:15.

Mar.19,1944- Fortileza to Dakar Africa. 1947 miles and flight time of 9:45hrs.

This was a night flight. We were briefed that we were to fly at 5000 feet and maintain this altitude and the weather was fine except that in the middle of the ocean there was a very weak front but it would be nothing to worry about. when we got to it was pretty bad . When we flew through it I said I hoped we never hit a bad front. WE made it to Dakar it was pretty light and our navigator hit it right on the ball. As I was getting in the landing pattern I thought the runway looked funny color and As we got real close I realize it wasn't concrete or asphalt but metal landing pads laid on the sand and what a noisy landing that was. Engineer checked and we still had 655 gal. of gas left of 2800 gal.

Mar.20,1944- 1498 miles and9:45 hrs. flying time.

Nothing but sand the whole trip. Spent a few days here looking what Africa was all about. Most of the business was 10 year kids trying to interest you in their cute sister.

Mar.25,1944. Marrakech to Valley Scotland.

This was another night flight and the weather was good all the way. We were warned about two things. One was as we came to Portugal we told to be sure we were out in the ocean aways as they would try to shot down anybody that was to close to their shores. The other was when we flying around Brest France do not use your radio compass for navigation as the Germans were sending out the same signal that the English were sending out. We were not using the compass to navigate so we tuned it in and when we hit Brest that needle turned ninety degree's to our right. Air Corps said they had lost several ships and they had landed there in France and been interned. We got to Scotland and weather was bad and were stack in as #6 and faintly got to land.

Mar.26,1944 Valley Scotland to Sudbury England. 240 miles and flight time of 2:15.

Total of 11,357miles and 72 hrs. flying time

- Walter Dickerson

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