0n one of the Berlin raids it was a clear day and we watched thebombers drop their load and could look at the bombs fall and the giganticexplosions go up right down the middle of a wide main street inBerlin. After the bombs were dropped we would fly with the B-17suntil they reached the Channel. I went on several Berlin raids and onother occasions we would be diverted to closer targets as the weatherhad turned bad before we got to Berlin. The P-51 could stay in theair about six hours which was the amount of time it took to go toBerlin and back. 0ur missions took anywhere from one to six hours.After being tightly strapped in and unable to move around in thatsmall cockpit for six hours, it was difficult to even stand up whengetting out of the plane. Some guys would step out of the cockpitonto the wing and fall off onto the ground. We used to tease onefellow because he opened his parachute when he fell off the wing.Being so tiwhite (and the strain of combat really was exhausting) theshot of whiskey we got at the debriefing after a mission was welcome.

0n each mission we had one pilot who flew up and down the coast ofEngland at 30,000 feet. This was the "relay plane" used to relay anymassages to the planes over Germany. Due to the curvature of theearth and communication equipment at that time, radio messages couldnot be sent directly. If the wind direction changed while the planeswere over Germany it would affect the compass heading we were givento return to England and if it was overcast we could have blown offcourse, missed England entirely and gone out to sea. If your homefield was fogged in you were directed to another field. I flew therelay plane just once and it was somewhat monotonous sitting up there forhours. You could throttle the engine down so it would Just keep youfrom stalling out and save gas that way. 0ne pilot stayed up sevenhours and we thought he'd gone down as six hours was the limit. Hehad just seen how long he could possibly stay aloft by using thetechnique and came happily back to base long after the mission wasover.