In spite of time spent in Sicily on a “cossacking” trip and time spent in the hospital, Ang still flew 6 missions and wrote 14 V-Mails and letters in July! From July 1 through 7th Ang wrote to Betty to tell her about his trip to Sicily on what they called a “cossacking” trip - to get some fresh food and some booze when they can get it. These are recorded as “A” for Administrative flights on the Form 5. In his scrapbook he saved an article about a plane called “I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen.” He was navigator on a July 5th mission when the plane’s nose was crushed. Betty continued her work-visiting-writing letters schedule and prepared care packages to send to Ang. Saturday July 1. Up about nine—and downtown shopping. Out to Long Beach—had late dinner and talked. To bed about 12:00. Dead tired. Form 5. July 1. C-1, Combat flight as navigator, B-25J, 2:45h [See crew sheet for July 1 at "Official Documents" tab.] [FROM ANG'S FLIGHT LOG. MISSION 14.] 14. 7-1 Canneto tunnel mouths. 1st box missed-- we hit tracks & mouth. Heavy, scant & innacurate. 1 ship holed. July 2. To 12:00 Mass - but late. Didn’t do much all day. Read and talked. Took some snaps - late dinner. Home about 11:00. Tired again. FORM 5. July 2. A-2, Administrative flight as navigator, B-25D, 2:50h [I suppose this was the flight to Sicily.] July 3. Sure was tired this A.M. Worked until 3:00. Bought some things for Ang—had dinner and to movies. Bed by 11:00. July 4. Didn’t get up till about ten. Wrote Ang a real long letter. Cleaned up and out to Schrickers for dinner. Home about 10:00. Tired. Form 5. July 4. A-4, Administrative flight at navigator, B-25D, 2:55h Form 5. July 4. A-4, Administrative flight as navigator, B-25D, :40h July 5. Surely was tired today. Worked pretty hard. Out to Rowena’s & thru boxes. Wrote letters—to bed about 10:30. Form 5. July 5. C-5, Combat flight as navigator, B25-J, 2:15h [See crew sheet for July 5 at "Official Documents" tab.] [FROM ANG'S FLIGHT LOG. MISSION 15.] 15. 7-5 Ostiglia Fuel Dump Hit target. 250 lb. bombs. 8 ME 109's attacked from rear of our box. Gunners shot down two---Kresspe very excited. Two ships holed--one minor injury. Our nose wheel caved in on landing. Saw Spitzes get 2 more 109’s. [The original 340th BG B-25 “I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen” was lost to further combat with the other damaged B-25s when Vesuvius erupted in March 1944. In April the 340th moved to Corsica and received more B25s to replace those as well as others damaged in a German attack on their new airfield. One of these was named for the Kathleen lost at Vesuvius: I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen II. From what I can piece together, Ang flew the B-25 mentioned in this article on his July 5, 1944 mission. It was his 15th mission and this article says it was the 36th mission of “Kathleen”. T/Sgt Petrozzi was the crew chief at Vesuvius and later on Corsica. More than likely this article was published in his hometown paper. I have tried to track it down, but haven’t had any luck to date. I have no idea where Ang got it! Photos #1-a&b below are of Kathleen on arrival on Corsica. After the July 5, 1944 crash, Petrozzi went to work to replace her entire nose section. According to a mission crew sheet, Kathleen was back in action by July 23rd. You can view Ang's July 30th crew sheet under "Official Documents" which shows him on 6K. Photo #2 below shows Kathleen after landing on July 5, 1944. Photo #3 below shows the crew getting ready to repaint her name. Photo #4 shows Kathleen after her 100th mission on December 31, 1944. Records show that Kathleen was flown back to the States in July 1945 and was scrapped in 1946. The crew sheets I have show that Ang flew on 6K at least 10 times.] [V-Mail, postmark 7-15-44] 7-5-44 Corsica Hello Darling: I know that I’m a very bad boy—but I’ve been on a Cossacking trip—that is a pleasure & rest trip! We visited Sicily—oh well, I’ll tell you all in a long letter as soon as I finish this. I just wanted to let you know I was O.K.—and the “V” mail goes so much faster. Did you get my letter telling you about the $100.00 check I wrote—this is the trip I cashed them for. I sure hope it didn’t embarrass you too much—I mean financially. When I got back there was 10 letters for me—so I feel pretty good. All the news in long letter honey. I love you—Love, Ang July 6. Didn’t have to work so hard today. To show after work. did laundry and wrote a couple letters - am getting swamped. 11:00 Form 5. July 6. C-6, Combat flight as navigator, B25-J, 2:30h [See crew sheet for July 6 at "Official Documents" tab.] [FROM ANG'S FLIGHT LOG. MISSION 16.] 16. 7-6 Parma R.R. Bridge 1st box hit right approach. 2nd - center of bridge. No flak. July 7. Mr. L. out of office today so not too busy. Sent some packages to Ang. Also wrote letters in evening. To bed about 10:30. [Letter. Postmark 7-9-44, air mail stationary, addressed to L.A.—this letter is either mis-dated or maybe in the wrong envelope—should be dated 7-7?]
6-7-44 Corsica Hello Hon: Well, here is the long letter I promised—and the details of the cossacking trip. The boys get kind of sick of army chow—so ever so often we send a ship out to get fresh vegetables and eggs. This time I went with them—and due to “plane trouble” we had to stay four days—boy, what four days. Back home, they wouldn’t have meant anything—but a couple of months on Corsica and we can have a good time anywhere. Sicily is pretty well built up since the war wrecked everything they had. It has a couple of fairly large towns—we visited Catania. I have a bunch of post cards—but I can’t send them so will have to bring them home. I also bought a cross from one of the local monks (?)—its supposed to be hand made, but its really nothing special and looks like maybe they bought it from Woolworths. However, he said it was blessed—and I thought you might like something from one of these old monasteries(?). I’ll send it on one of these days! Now, getting back to details. As soon as we pulled into town about 20,000 kids ran up yelling “Woman, Johnny?” No, we didn’t want a “woman”! “Eat, Johnny?” Yes, we wanted to eat—so two of them led us to a small restaurant. We had to buy them a meal too—but, boy, it was worth it. We ate all our meals there—and I’ve never been such a glutton in my life—and that’s saying a lot. After all this army chow—we just went hog wild. Italian Spag—steaks—chicken—fresh vegetables and fruits. Heres what I had the first meal—and don’t think I’ve gone crazy, because the other boys had the same thing. Two big plates of Spag & Sauce—yum! One half a chicken—and a tenderloin steak. A big Dago salad—two bottles of beer—and probably two lbs of fruit afterwards. The prices are outrageous—but the cooking was wonderful, so who were we to kick. Just to give you an idea—the beer was $1.50 a bottle (quart). Now you can see why I needed the $100.00 When we finished, the kids started again. “Food bona (good), Johnny?” Yes the food was multa bona. “Hotel, Johnny?” Yes, we wanted a hotel—so they took us over. It was called the Hotel Bristol—I guess the best in town. The rooms weren’t too much—but the beds had honest to goodness springs on them—and there was actually a clean sheet on each one, so they looked pretty good to us. The rooms had a sink in them—and on each floor (way down the hall) there was a flush toilet. The hotel even had one bagno (bath) in it. Of course it was on the first floor—but it was quite a novelty. And with all this came the third floor chamber maid—“Mama”—fat—fift[y]ish—and jolly as the devil. After we came back from supper—she came in and helped us drink our vino. Mostly thru the use of hands—we managed to understand each other. She kept on telling us that she liked the Americans—and kept on warning us to stay away from the women in the town—“too much malata (you guess). She said when the Germans had control of the town, she used to go out of her way to “fix them up”—but she liked the Americans. Cute people, these Sicilians. Well, that went on for the full four days. Sightseeing—eating—drinking—eating—sleeping—eating—eating and eating. Boy, I’ll never forget that food. We did quite a bit of sightseeing—there’s a lot to be seen. Old roman ruins—an old Roman arena in the center of town—old and beautiful churches—etc. We rode for hours on end in these open air, horse drawn cabs. One night we rode for several hours thru town and along the water. The night was wonderful—and cool. The moon was as big as could be. The view—the sights—the ruins—the big beautiful church domes. Ah me, I could just see you next to me—under the spell of all that—cuddling up—Gee, a man can only stand so much—and being all married men we were glad when we got back to the hotel and Mama telling us about the “malata”. Maybe you didn’t know it—but you, at least the thoughts of you, came darn close to wrecking my nervous system. We had to do something—and we did. We ordered nine bottles of vino—and got stinko—and I do mean stinko. Praise the lord for flush toilets—twice I filled it with my insides—and still wouldn’t stop. About four in the morning—I passed out on a chair—and that’s where I was when I woke up. It’s a heck of a note when a man deliberately drinks himself into unconsciousness—but that open air cab—the moon—and my thoughts completely demoralized me—my morale had gone to hell. Don’t let it worry you dear, I feel fine now—I guess every man over here gets that way once in awhile. Well, honey, I guess that just about finishes the cossacking trip. There isn’t much more to say—except that I love you. I love you! Love Sweets, Ang
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AuthorJoni Adams Sesma, daughter of Angelo and Elizabeth Adams. Ang served on Corsica with the 57th Bomb Wing, 340th Bomb Group, 486th Bomb Squadron. April 1944-April 1945. Archives
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