In memory of Dr. Robert D. Peterson Jr. who joined the Army Air Corps on, 8 December 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. At about 11:15am on 19 December, 1943, the flight crew of the U.S. B-17 “Lydia Pinkham” [The savior of the human race] was returning to Foggia, Italy after completing their 19^th combat mission. The target had been a marshalling yard at Innsbruck, Austria. 2^nd Lt Peterson commanded the American “Flying Fortress”. In a written account Peterson related that his aircraft was attacked by German Focke-Wulf fighters. “They hit us on the left side and inflicted some kind of damage that caused the level of the plane to start tilting to the left--so much so that the controls to level out the wings weren't strong enough to maintain level flight.” During his captivity my father recorded a personal journal of his experiences and those of his fellow prisoners. Although sometimes cryptic, his record is also very detailed, extremely revealing, and contains the names and home addresses of dozens of his fellow Kriegies. Should you recognize a relative, or some incident recounted in these pages, please contact me via email. Email Contact