Aviator diaries

[ramram]

Would enjoy hearing from any others that have original aviator diaries. I'm new to the forum but have enjoyed the wealth of information on here. I plan to share more as time allows.

I have several WWII aviator diaries: Dauntless dive bomber, B-24, B-17, B-29 (mentions smelling burning flesh at 10,000 feet during their bombing run over Tokyo). As far as WWI, I have one from the 27th aero squadron (mentioned in the Bilderback thread) as well as one from an American Naval observer who was part of the Northern Bombing Group. He flew with the RAC in Handley Pages and then flew the first American Night Bombing mission in a Caproni.

One other neat item is a Canadian soldier diary that makes brief mention of watching a big red hun plane shoot down one of their observer planes. Checking with the time that he notes and the location it is an easy confirmation that it was the Red Baron.

Rob

[BEAST]

Interesting collection! I don't have diaries, but like to pick up letter groups. I have a couple OF WWI aviator letter groups and am currently copying a WWII B-24 pilot's letters to his girlfriend. I would like to have the diaries as the letters home dodn't reveal as much about the person as a diary would. But I am happy to have at least this little glimpse into their thoughts. Here are a couple of letters that I have posted from a WWI observer: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/aviat...th-aero-15168/

[CThomas]

Rob-
This sounds like a fascinating collection. I hope we hear more from you soon.
Like 'Beast', I do not have any bona fide aviator diaries. I do, however, have some interesting letter groups (non aviation related) & a diary to a member of the 3rd Photo Section which does have some interesting aviation related content.