Left base with Colton to conduct bombing runs. Over the enemy railyard had engine trouble. Returned to railyard and dropped multiple bombs and caused 2 boxcars to be destroyed. Returned to another base to get more bombs and flew to railyard near drom 17. Hit the north railyard and destroyed it. Returned for more bombs and then hit the south railyard and destoyed it. Returned to home base and called it a night.

Took off with Roberts (#12) , Royce was having engine problems and was late taking off. We circled and picked up Royce as soon as he was in the air.It was only a few mins before Royce had to RTB with more engine troubles. Roberts and I engaged # 7 and took him down over the mud.We then RTB to rearm having used most of our ammo on # 7.We were back in the air in 5 minutes and capped B2. We saw no EA on that patrol and we RTB to refuel. I was force to retire for the night due to engine problems( work).

Flight was uneventful until the end. I lost my wingman Dawson(3) and ventured into hun territory. Close to the end of the night I saw a plane land at drome 20 or 18. I took a dive at it and popped a few rounds around the plane then got out of there as the AA started to shoot me. I returned to base as the hun had landed, and I didn't want to spend the rest of the week with the duct tape patching my plane from AA strafing.

A plane came flying low over the field that housed the US27th Spads. AA guns opened up and sirens blared as the Austrian scout, seemingly bent on suicide, buzzed the field. The two pilots on duty began to scramble out to their Spads to teach this Austrian dog some manners. They dived to the ground though, when they saw an object drop to the ground in front of them from the passing plane. They waited nervously then uncovered their heads and took a peak at the yet unexploded grenade. Slowly they got up and began to laugh at the fool Austrian who had braved the AA only to toss a dud grenade. The pair approached cautiously until they noticed it was not a grenade but a rock the size of a fist. Tied to the rock was a piece of paper.

One of the pilots picked it up and loosened the paper from the rock. Carefully he unfolded the paper to reveal the writing. It was written in English and with his buddy looking over his shoulder he began to read it.

"Pilots of the 27th.

On this day the 27th of July at 11:00 we witnessed two Spads flying near our drome. One had just attempted to strafe one of our landing Albatross scouts and then made much haste for the lines as our AA gunners filled him with lead. Fortunately for him he escaped and was soon well on his way towards the lines. The other Spad was high up and appeared to observe all of this. Then he dove down and headed in the direction of his comrade.

We saw him fire a flare off, perhaps trying to get the attention of his partner. He proceeded on towards the lines, but not a minute had passed after firing the flare when one of our Flak guns at the base appeared to hit his plane. From that distance we couldn't tell how badly he was damaged, but he immediately went into a deadly tumbling spin. At the time of the hit we judged his altitude at about 1000 meters perhaps slightly more. He almost seemed to recover near the end, but we could hear his engine sputtering and he appeared not to have the power to pull out.

As soon as the plane hit, our ambulance departed and several us of jumped on a truck to have a look. We immediatly knew who it was. Although the plane was a wreck the paint job made it very easy to identify the plane. It was your Amerikan Ace, Major Flint. Our medics could do nothing for him, they said he was killed instantly on impact. A burial service was held and we laid him to rest at the location of his crash.

Regards, Fliegerkompagnie 61j"

For a moment the two pilots stood dumbfounded. The Austrian scout was now fading rapidly from view to the east and any thought of pursuit had vanished. Flint was overdue, but so many times in the past he had been late to come home, only to phone from a faraway base after one of his long patrols. Some of the ground personnel and other pilots began to crowd towards them when they saw the looks on the faces of the two pilots.

Ignoring the questions the pilot with the note ran towards the operations room and rang up the nearby observation post. His shoulders slumped when the officer on the other end seemingly confirmed the Austrian note. An observation balloon had spotted a plane spinning out of control just behind the Austrian lines and near Drome 18 at about 11:00.

Outside the door, the pilots and ground crew of the 27th were elbow to elbow eager to know what was happening. Unable to talk the pilot simply handed the note to the closest man and in a few minutes the whole base knew, Major Flint was dead.

Flint and Fuches were on the field waiting for me and Flint decided to head North and send Fuches and I south to cover installations there. We made a circle run of Southern installations and then returned to the base to refuel. Our second sortee was to the south again but we saw nothing and I had to return to base due to mechanical problems. I had trouble getting the crate back on line and called it an uneventful day.

Took off late due to mechanical problems, went north to inspect friendly target, went back south and encoutered Allied 16 and winged up. We then entered enemy territory and 16 suffered mechanical problems. I went back west to CAP targets and after I bit, I meet Allied #12. We CAPed together and eventually I had to call it quits.