Fri., Mar. 30, 1945—Moved by truck to Pisa. Unloaded equipment. Walked over to Pisa Red Cross tonight. We’re living in a building close to the Leaning Tower (Leonardo da Vinci Scuola).
Sat., Mar. 31, 1945—Planes flew up today. Ran mission tonight.
Sunday, April 1, 1945—Easter Sunday & April Fools Day. Worked all day.
Mon., Apr. 2, 1945—Worked all day.
Tues., Apr. 3, 1945—Ditto.
Wed., Apr. 4, 1945—Ditto.
Thurs., Apr. 5, 1945—Ditto.
Fri., Apr. 6, 1945—Ditto. Went to see “The Thin Man Goes Home” tonight.
Sat., Apr. 7, 1945—Worked all day.
Sun., Apr. 8, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Mon., Apr. 9, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Tues., Apr. 10, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Wed., Apr. 11, 1945—Night duty.
Thurs., Apr. 12, 1945—Night duty.
Fri., Apr. 13, 1945—Just heard that Pres. Roosevelt died yesterday. Night duty.
Sat., Apr. 14, 1945—Night duty.
Sun., Apr. 15, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Mon., Apr. 16, 1945—Went to Florence (Firenze) for the day.
Tues., Apr. 17, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Wed., Apr. 18, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Thurs., Apr. 19, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Fri., Apr. 20, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Sat., Apr. 21, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Sun., Apr. 22, 1945—Flew down to Grosseto this afternoon in B-25 to see Jr. for a few minutes.
Mon., Apr. 23, 1945—The war in Italy is really going now & we’ve been flying both day & night for about three days. Plane & crew missing on mission tonight—Fassett (pilot); Ferree (bomb.); & LeNoir (gunner).
Tues., Apr. 24, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Wed., Apr. 25, 1945—War over here is doing fine.
Thurs., Apr. 26, 1945—Collins & Chester are going home soon.
Fri., Apr. 27, 1945—Mussolini captured today by Partisans near Lake Como.
Sat., Apr. 28, 1945—Mussolini shot today by Partisans. It looks as if the war can’t last much longer.
Sun., Apr. 29, 1945—Went to Lucca today with Beetem. Nice town. Clean streets. Big crowd of Italians tried to storm a house where some Fascists & Germans were prisoners. Police turned fire hose on them.
Mon., Apr. 30, 1945—All Germans in western Po Valley surrendered last night. Truck loads of prisoners going by today.
Tues., May 1, 1945—Hitler reported dead, by German radio. Sqdn. Dance tonight.
Photo received from Bill Boizelle, 7/17/1987, and then captioned by Donald Tolle, as follows:
Leaning Tower, Pisa, Italy. 1945 (Spring)
Some 97th Bomb Squadron men (left to right):
Russell Ponder; J. Owen Howard; Bob Coven; Donald Tolle;
Dolan; (???); Melvin Doehrman;
Nyquist (Teeter?); (???); Petty Officer; Price; Tony Mallino;
K. Salsbury; Capt. Lewis Thompson; John Pollock;
Don Beetem; Rudy Nerich
Wed., May 2, 1945—Over a million Germans laid down their arms today. No more bombing in Italy. It shouldn’t be long now . . . Sissy’s 32nd birthday today. [“Sissy” was D.J. Tolle’s sister Genevieve.]
Thurs., May 3, 1945—Berlin finally captured, as reported by the radio today.
Fri., May 4, 1945—I sleep in Ops. tonight.
Sat., May 5, 1945—Went to Lucca on pass.
Sun., May 6, 1945—Collins went home on TDY [Temporary Duty]. Schnathorst got back after having bailed out over target about 1½ months ago.
Mon., May 7, 1945—Radio just announced (1600 hrs.) that the war is over in Europe.
Tues., May 8, 1945—War officially over at one minute after midnight tonight.
Wed. , May 9, 1945—V-E day.
Thurs., May 10, 1945—Went to Lucca to a dance. A pilot (F/O) & I took two sisters (Lilia & Lolita) to a restaurant for supper.
Fri., May 11, 1945—Beginning cleaning out files, etc., getting ready to leave this theater for home (I hope!).
Sat., May 12, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Sun., May 13, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Mon., May 14, 1945 through Tues., May 22, 1945—(No diary entries.)
Wed., May 23, 1945—Lots of work for past several days in preparation to leave for the States.
Thurs., May 24, 1945 through Mon., May 28, 1945—(No diary entries.)
Tues., May 29, 1945—I’m 27 today.
Wed., May 30, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Thurs., May 31, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Friday, June 1, 1945—(No diary entry.)
Sat., June 2, 1945 through Mon., June 11, 1945—(No diary entries.)
Tues., June 12, 1945—Mary Alice is 26 today. Mama & Daddy’s 38th wedding anniversary.
Wed., June 13, 1945 through Saturday, June 16, 1945—(No diary entries.)
Sun., June 17, 1945—Moved to staging area about 2 miles away. Junior is in same tent with me.
Mon., June 18, 1945—Staging area is very dusty and hot, but it’s not so bad.
Tues., June 19, 1945 through Sat., June 23, 1945—(No diary entries.)
Sun., June 24, 1945—Junior left today to board boat. I leave tomorrow. Went to church twice today.