9/5/43 Mission:
Weather hampers operations of the fighters and medium and light bombers of the NATAF, i.e., Twelfth Air Force and RAF aircraft, and only a few targets (guns, roads, railroads, and troops) are attacked during missions over the toe of Italy.
9/5/43 V-Mail
Sicily
Snooks:
At it again. Sure is nice to have time to sit down and talk to you once in a while. Burt Cochrane and I had a long talk last night. He is quite a comfort, filling in the gap left by not having any of my old elder friends. It seems we have a Van Leuven problem in a minor degree.
Apparently this one of the few old groups left in the theater. As a result, there is a hell of a lot of speculation, based entirely on gossip, on the two-holer.*
I had a batch of fun some months ago. I flew a night intruder raid on Sicily. We took off in bright moonlight about 2 A.M., but had to fly on instruments most of the way because of ground fog and haze. Pantelleria slid by, and we could see many of the boats which later were used in the invasion. We hit the south shore of Sicily and turned inland. There were only two lights on the entire island, both of them fires we had started. Every five minutes or so we would see the bomb bursts as other intruders dropped their eggs. We found an S-shaped road between high cliffs and let go. It was a direct hit, as we could see the bomb flashes reflect off of both cliff walls.
As we left, we were chased for a few seconds by an unidentified airplane. Pantelleria, Cape Bon, and home for coffee and doughnuts. It was most invigorating and I got a kick out of keeping Jerry awake.
It’s good sport, Honey. I love you too.
Your brat, Cy.
*Term for an outhouse with two seats.