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World War II Diary of Major Albert E. Hill
386th Bomb Group (M) B-26 & A-26
United States Ninth Air Force

Covering Seventy Nine Combat Missions against German Military Targets in
France Belgium Holland out of Boxted and Great Dunmow Air Bases in England.

First Mission - 30 July 1943; Last Mission - 14 September 1944

Albert E. Hill
Born - September 11, 1921 at Lockney, Texas.
United States Air Force Career Fields:
Enlisted - Weather Forecasting
Commissioned - Bombardier-Navigator
Enlisted at Lowery Field, Denver, Colorado on August 6, 1940.
Retired - U.S.A.F. September 11, 1981. Rank of Colonel.

Promotions
Corporal: May 6, 1941
Sergeant: Feb. 1, 1942
2nd. Lt.: Oct. 10, 1942
1st. Lt.: Feb. 12, 1943
Captain: Dec. 3, 1943
Major: Aug. 19, 1944
Lt. Col.: Jan. 1, 1956
Colonel: June 25, 1968

Decorations
Presidential Unit Citation
Silver Star
Distinguished Flying Cross
Air Medal + 13 Oak Leaf Clusters
Purple Heart + One Oak Leaf Cluster
European Campaign Medal + Three Battle Stars
American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal

Prologue

In July of 1941 the British Cabinet Office ordered Mr. David Butt to make an in-depth study of the effectiveness of recent R.A.F. night bombing raids against German targets. Mr. Butt discovered that only 1 in 3 attacking aircraft dropped it's bombs within 5 miles of it's aiming point. The score dropped to 1 in 10 against heavily defended targets.* Such poor results must have brought smiles to the faces of Hitler and Hermann Gooring.  Two new developments caused those smiles to disappear. First, the R.A.F. switched to area bombing in March of 1942. Accuracy was not required. The effect of area bombing on such targets as Hamburg, Essen, Cologne and Bremen was devastating. The second development was daylight, precision bombing over Europe by Air Forces of the United States, flying in tight formations and using the Norden bombsight. High-level B-17s hit the Rouen marshalling yard in the late summer of 1942 to open the 8th Air-.Force campaign: B-26s began bombing enemy targets from medium altitude (11,000 ft) in the early summer of 1943. B-26 and A-20 groups started out as part of the 8th Air Force but soon became part of the new 9th Air Force. The 9th contained eight groups of B-26s and three groups of A-20s. Bombing error came to be measured in feet instead of miles.

A.E.H.

* The World At Arms - Page 261

Oklahoma State Senator Earl Garrison; Albert and Gene Hill