I was a member of the 88th Recon Squadron, first in Hamilton and then Salt Lake. I went to Spokane with the 12th Recon Squadron. And on Aug 20, 1941 went on detached service to the Ferrying Command and spent the rest of the war with various divisions of the Ferrying Command. Finally ending up at Manila when the war ended.

However, I still have fond memories of the 7th Group. Enclosed is a check for $20 in memory of my best buddy, S/Sgt Dewayne E. Black ASN 6933256.

Enclosed is a two page report, the information was copied from the 5th Bomber Command Daily Journal for February 8, 1942 which details the mission flown that day.

It has been 60 years since the war ended and perhaps we should not have any more get together meetings. I went to Spokane many years back and also to one in Salt Lake City. Only found two or three people I knew.

Sincerely, Grant E. Sorenson

BELOW IS THE 5TH BOMBER COMMAND DAILY JOURNAL ENTRY FOR FEBRUARY 8, 1942

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February 8, 1942, at 07:35 am, nine B-17s of the 7th Bombardment Group departed Singosari to bomb the airdrome at Kendari II, now in possession of the Japanese. The pilots and planes were:

DuFrane - 412456
Prichard - 41-2492
Preston - 41-2455
Habberstad - 41-2488
Bleasdale - 41-2464
Swanson - 41-2458
Strother - 41-2471
Lindsay - 41-2483
Norcutt - 41-2453

The flight to Kendari II and return was about 1600 statute miles for the round trip, easily within the range of the B-17E. The mission should have been flown without bomb bay tanks. However, someone elected to fly the mission with fuel in the bomb bay tanks. Each plane carried 100-Kilogram bombs. (1540 pounds total bomb weight).

Flying at 14,000 feet altitude the flight was intercepted by 9 to 12 Zeros. The location was 6 degrees 45 South and 116 degrees East and the time was 09:05am. The enemy made coordinated attacks from the front, front quarter and underneath. On the second pass, Captain DuFrane's plane was hit and a great mass of flames burst from the bomb bay. the airplane continued to burn after the bomb bay tank was dropped. Six men were seen to bail out as the ship descended. The enemy fired at the men in parachutes. The plane exploded in mid air. Captain Strother took over as leader of the formation when Captain DuFrane's plane went down. On the next head on attack, Lt. Prichard's airplane was hit, caught on fire and exploded on the way down. One man bailed out of Lt. Prichard's airplane.

The remaining 6 planes in the formation (one had left the formation at 8:45 due to mechanical difficulties) finally reached cloud cover where heavy rains and turbulence made formation flying impossible. The airplanes returned to base individually. In lt. Habberstad's plane Pfc. Homer D. Bilyeu was killed by enemy fire. Lt. Lindsay's plane had its tail section shot up so badly that it took two men to control the plane. Soon it went into a spin and descended to 7000 feet before it was brought under control. The navigator, co-pilot and tail gunner bailed out during the spin and were lost in the Java Sea. Lt. Lindsay finally got the plane under control and returned to Malang with one wounded man, Pfc. J. R. Mackley.

Captain Strother's plane was hit after he took the lead of the formation. An explosion of an oxygen bottle blew out the hydraulic system and the bomb release mechanism. Because an air raid was in progress at Malang he elected to land at Jogjakarta. Lt. Swanson landed at Pasuruan because of bad weather and low fuel supply. Captain Presto's airplane was hit and a fire started in the bomb bay, but he jettisoned both the bombs and bomb bay tank. The bomb bay tank was burning on the way down. Four of the five airplanes that landed at Malang were damaged by gunfire, two of them seriously. Five enemy planes were shot down, two of them with 30 caliber nose guns. The other three were shot down by the combined efforts of the top turrets, side guns and tail guns.

The men killed in Captain J. L. DuFrane's plane were:

Captain J.L. DuFrane
Lt. R.V.W. Negley Jr.
Lt. S.S. Patillo
Lt. W. W. Burney
S/Sgt J.W. Coleman
Pfc. Howard L. Ellis
Sgt. L.H. Keightley
Pfc. H.R. Barry

The men killed in Lt. William J. Prichard's plane were:

Lt. William J. Prichard
Lt. W. T. Morgan
Lt. Isadore Alfred
Lt. F.O. Luscomb
S/Sgt Dewayne E. Black
Pfc. Lloyd J. Schroder
Pvt Henry A. Charnesky
Pfc. John R. Leverly
Pvt Henry J. Klein

S/Sgt Dewayne E. Black was my best friend and I knew Lt. William J. Prichard and had flown with him.

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