Wednesday
In England, Verne is back at Station 153 from London1 . . .
01-24-45
Up at eight thirty a.m. and had breakfast. Sausage and potatoes. Sure did starve while in London. Don’t see how the British exist on such food. Guess they are used to it. Didn’t feel so good this morning. Have quite a bit of pain in my lungs. Left ear is slightly frost bitten. Got it on Saturday. Pains quite a bit. Got some passport photos taken yesterday but they turned out darned lousy. Sure made me mad. They’ve moved a new crew into our barracks while we were gone. Don’t like losing the ground crew men we had. They were all swell fellows. Another two weeks before pass. Letter from Aileen.
Notes & Commentary
1 From his entry today, it appears Verne returned from London yesterday.
2On Saturday, 21 January 1945, Verne was on a bombing raid on the marshaling yards at Heilbron. He noted in his diary on 21 January that the temperature was 58° below zero during the mission.
Wayne's Journal 
The passport photos would have been pictures taken in civilian clothing. On a mission each airman carried an Escape and Evasion kit and it contained items he could use if shot down. One of the items was a set of “passport” photos of the man. The idea was that underground in the occupied country could use the photos to create fake ids for the evader. The “story” is that some bomb groups used the same few sets of civilian clothes for these photos and the Germans could tell what bomb group a captured man was from by the clothes he wore in the photos.
LikeLiked by 1 person