War Diary of Cyril Suing

Short War Diary of Cyril Suing Bob Cross' crew, 835th
9-3-44	Arrived England, assigned 486th 835th. Eight day indoctrination.
9-25-44	#1 - Oil refinery at Ludwigshaven. First mission jitters. Little activity
9-26-44	#2 - Tank factories at Bremman. Heavy FLAK - lots of holes
9-27-44	Scheduled for Merseburg. #1 supercharger trouble. Aborted. Group badly shot up. McVey made it to Belgium.
10-2-44	#3 - Milk run to Kassel ordinance depot, made buck SGT!
10-3-44	#4 - Nürmburg tank factories. Little FLAK. Two black, ummarked B17s flew in along side. Sqd. told to point all guns at them. Were told fighter disposed of them, remaining unidentified.
10-4-44	Weather abort.
10-5-44	#5 Munster marshalling yards, good results - Poor Munster. Caught hell from Cross for putting guns in wrong receivers. Never do that again!
10-6-44	Pass to London. Another crew flew "Snow White." Came back full of holes. R/O killed.
10-9-44	Abort due to engine fire.
10-10-44	Lucked out. Scheduled to Hamburg. Weather abort.
10-11-44	Practice mission. Took two Limeys - Conyers friends with us. They got a big kick out of it. Slow timed replacement engine. Got 30 min stick time for total of 10 hrs.
10-12-44	Bad weather - moved to new barracks.
10-13-44	More weather
10-14-44	Pass to London - uneventful
10-16-44	Returned from pass. Heard of Herman's crew crash on take-off. Stone killed returning to save others. Stone and Herman only survivors but died from burns. Our plane #136 - "Snow White" blown up over target bombing Cologne yesterday.
10-17-44	Ground school - wrote to Stones family. He was R/O.
10-18-44	No mission - Bevins & I went to radio school. Rcd letter from Cross' wife Chris - sure wish we'd get some missions.
10-19-44	#6 Mannheim ordinance depot. Easy air medal day!
10-20-44	Stand down. Do house chores. Made Cross a laniard for his pistol from parachute cord.
10-21-44	Slept in. Cross wants me to help clean the pheasants he shot. I'd better get some!
10-22-44	Wash cloths & ate pheasant.
10-23-44	Birthday 21! More weather
10-24-44	No mission - no mail. Just a V.D. film.
10-25-44	#7 - Hamburg oil refinery. Stowaway in one plane. Jumped over North sea, no chute.
10-26-44	Stand bye crew today - lots of mail.
10-17-44	Weather abort
10-28-44	Practice mission. Guest copilot Dick Grace.
10-29-44	Cold & raining. Wrote letters.
10-30-44	#8 - Heligoland sub bases & airfield
11-1-44	Made S/SGT
11-2-44	Back from London. Rough mission to Merseburg. Got my air medal.
11-3-44	Chores - lots of mail!
11-4-44	#9 Saarbrücken steel mills. Flew high element lead. First as lead crew. Light FLAK.
11-5-44	Want to make us PFF crew. If they do, Kelm & I will get kicked off.
11-7-44	Practice mission with new navigator.
11-8-44	Practice mission with formation. Took Long's friend - British soldier
11-10-44	Enexpected pass to London. Found ice arena. Glad when my skates arrive.
11-11-44	Seeing sights of London.
11-12-44	Scheduled as weather ship mission. Scrubbed.
11-13-44	Practice mission as lead plane. Inspector disapproves our oil stove.
11-14-44	Working on new stove. Scrounged lots of parts.
11-15-44	Practice mission deputy lead. Had good nap.
11-16-44	Turret trainer Farrell burned when oil barrell blew. Lit a match to see how full. STUPID!
11-17-44	Loafed.
11-18-44	More weather. Lecture by German interrogation officer.
11-19-44	Loafed.
11-20-44	Practice mission. Digre cam over from Ipswitch. Talked over old times at radio school.
11-21-44	#10 Merseburg. Lots of FLAK but not close. Digre waiting when we returned.
11-22-44	Quiet today. Letter from Marilyn of all people.
11-23-44	Thanksgiving. Great Dinner. Went to mass.
11-24-44	100th Mission party. Great chow. Party got a little rough.
11-26-44	Recuperated.
11-27-44	#11 - Mannheim. Lots of FLAK. Few small holes. Little air sick today, first time. Little evasive action by Cross - Verdigo even but recovered quickly.
11-28-44	Slept in. Played cards.
11-29-44	Practice - Lead Group. Payday.
11-30-44	#12 Lutzendorf. Destroyed it. Most FLAK seen so far. Bevins & Bronson hit + plane badly shot up.
12-1-44	Went to see Bevins + Bronson. Both OK. Made PFF crew today.
12-2-44	Quiet. Wenet to see Bevins.
12-5-44	All day fixing my bike. Two practice missions as R/O while Bevins is out.
12-6-44	Finished bike. Went to Radio School. Bevins doing OK.
12-7-44	Radio School today. Bevins transferred to Gen. Hospital.
12-8-44	School all afternoon.
12-16-44	Forgot to make entries. Been going to school. Bevins may go home.
12-17-44	Pass to London. Met Betty. Nice!
12-20-44	8 letters today.
12-21-44	More letters. All afternoon answering them.
12-28-44	Slacked u on my notes. nice Xmas. George [Bevins] is back with us. Lots of mail. #13 to Coblenz on 26th. CAPT Grace took some FLAK in the butt, but he's OK.
12-29-44	Slept in. Got letter from Betty. Haven't heard from Marilyn. If I do, it will likely be a "Dear John."
12-30-44	#14 Mannheim yards. Got 'em!
12-31-44	Slept in. Lots of mail. Mass tonite. Pay day.
1-1-45	New Years Day. All Quiet.
1-2-45	#15 Metz. Excellent results. No FLAK.
1-3-45	#16 - PFF mission to Marshalling yards.
1-4-45	Quiet.
1-5-45	#17 Schoenecken communica. ctr.
1-7-45	#18 PFF to Hamm yards. No FLAK.
1-8-45	Lots of mail.
1-9-45	#19 Karlsrue
1-14-45	Just returned to base after crash landing near Metz. Two engines out. 3rd failing. Listed as "missing." Taken to Paris to await transport home. Glad to be back.
1-15-45	London on Pass.
1-21-45	Missing notes again. Package from Val + Marilyn.
1-28-45	No flights till today. #20 Hohenbodburg yards. Got a package from Mrs. Cross. She's been great to all of us.
1-29-45	Ground school.
1-31-45 to 2-9-45	FLAK home for the weery. Great time. Great food, Great activities.
2-10-45	#21 - Leipzig - Milk run.
2-11-45	Practice mission with P-51 simulated attacks.
2-12-45	Loafed.
2-13-45	Loafed.
2-14-45	Test firing over channell, someone shotout #1. Sal[v]oed and made emergency field.
2-15-45	Loafed.
2-16-45	Stalled plane blocks last five from take-off.
2-17-45	#22 Frankfurt yards. Cross has 23 [missions].
2-18-45	Laundry. Nice springlike day.
2-19-45	Cross-Bronson-Reed, Kelm + me. Joy ride and buzzed flak homes. I mean how!
2-20-45	Pass to FLAK house as Alumni. Went riding + rested up.
2-24-45	Aborted - engine trouble.
2-25-45	Wrote letters.
2-26-45	#23 Berlin PFF Surprise little FLAK. No fighters.
2-27-45	Payday
2-28-45	Couldn't get #2 started. Took spare. At 1500 ft piece of cowling came off. Broke fuel line. Dumped bombs in channel and aborted.
3-1-45	Nothing.
3-2-45	Nothing.
3-3-45	Group Stand down. Enemy straffed field + town. just missed ammo dump. field on alert.
3-4-45	Sleepless night. Raiders. #24 Englestat. Gunner manned all top turrets for field alert.
3-5-45	Practice mission - buzzed FLAK homes. Cross just one of the kids. Cross may leave for lead position pilot. Hope it falls thru. Tough for us. Good deal for him. More raiders.
3-6-45	Still waiting Cross' deal. Long time no mail.
3-7-45	More raiders. McVey's crew finished today.
3-8-45	Cross still with us. Turned down his offer so he could finish with us.
3-9-45	#25 - Frankfurt rail yards. Took over the lead and Bronson right on target.
3-10-45	#26 - Berlin. Little FLAK. Some rockets.
3-11-45	Pass to London - ice skated. Went to FLAK house and went riding.
3-14-45	#27 - Osnabrück. Pretty heavy FLAK.
3-15-45	#28 - Berlin. Very heavy FLAK. Used 2 ton bombs.
3-16-45	Rained out.
3-17-45	#29 to Ruhland. Sweated out this last one. Thank God. Cross made Captain. This is the last one. Don't know if I was ever credited for flight with LT Pert's crew as ball gunner. His man was sick. We were on stand down that day. October sometime. Didn't note it.

NOTE: LT Cross completed 30 missions, his first being a checkout ride in the right seat with another pilot. Since Cross' crew was a lead crew, they were only required to fly 30 missions. His crew finished when he did with 29 missions.