Up at 0400 for briefing at 0500. The mission was to Karsruhe, Ger. to
bomb a marshalling yard, and we really plastered it, but what a mission it was. Assembly was to be at 7000, but we climbed to 14000 before breaking out of the overcast. It was really an instrument takeoff. We were to bomb from 22000, but ran into a front and had to climb to 25000 - it would have been impossible to go any higher in the ship we had. Even so, we got lost in the contrails and clouds and bombed with Lincoln Green #1 whereas we started out with #2. At the rally point, we got fouled up again and ended up with Horsham. Finally located our original group and squadron on the way back. We carried 10 bombs loaded with propaganda and 2/500# GPs. Saw plenty of flak, also a lot of sites in France such as airfields, ect. that had previously been bombed. Passed over Paris and Rouen and practically followed the Seine out of France. The Germans threw up something new today - balls of fire suspended on parachutes that were really weird. More about the takeoff - you couldn't even see the end of the runway because of the low clouds, mist, etc . Had our critique including the after-mission shot of whiskey, then supper and went right to bed as we're alerted again tomorrow.