From: James Lawrence <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: B26 Carrozza
Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 5:53 PM
Dear Frank & Carl



I, with the rest of my crew, arrived at the 495th the later part of October. We had five local flights the latter part of November. My first combat flight was Dec. 2 We were assigned to Y5-X "Bunnys Honney II."

The first time Frank and I were on the same mission was on our #5 and your #57 on Dec. 13. Our flying time for that mission was 4:15 The weather turned bad and we were unable to land at our base and were diverted to another.

I dont recall what group that was . I do rember that it was getting dark and some planes were running low on fuel. In fact some ran out of fuel while taxing in. The B26 held approx 900 gals of fuel . The R2800 engines burn it at approx ly 100 gal/per hr Any mission over 4hrs didnt leave much to play with.

That was the beginning of the bad weather with the "Battle of the Bulge." It took all of several days to get back home.

The weather broke on the morning of December 24. They got as many planes in the air as possible to aid the ground forces. We didnt fly that day but we flew two missions on Christmas for a total of almost 7hrs. . . A long day for us.

The next time we flew the same mission was your mission #60 on Dec 27, Another long day 4:30 Sweating fuel but at least we wewe home.

Your mission #63 was with us on Jan. 14 for 4:10 min.

As far as crew make up I never could figure it out. It was when somebody was sick or injured that they picked somebody to fill in How they picked I didnt know. The only member of our crew that was hurt was with another crew , due to a sick gunner.

The gunners on our crew were Sgts Daniel Ellis & Clark. Clark was the old man 27.

After the war I contuined flying. I ended with Delta Airlines for 32 yrs. I flew many different aircraft from the 21ps. to 300ps Lockeed L1011 My total flying time as just short of 25,000 hrs Great life. I've been retired now for 30yrs.

I just recently lost my wife of 60 years. So my life is changing. I have two children, a boy and a,girl. They live close to me and I see them almost avery day Thats about it.

Jim