Title: Diary kept by Wallace L. Wright during WW2

Identifier: 1173-b1-fa.i1   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/79399)

Description: Wallace L. Wright's personal diary with entries from June 1943 through June 1944, detailing daily experiences including combat and bombing missions in the New Guinea Campaign (Operation Cartwheel 1943-1944). Wright began entries on 10 June 1943, crossing out the printed 1944 date, and overlapped entries with a line dividing repeated days from 1943 and 1944. Capt. Wright's diary accounts for missions #1-71 while stationed in the South West Pacific Area (S.W.P.A.) specifically: Port Moresby, New Guinea, and Hollandia (Jayapura) under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. An entry dated 4 November 1943 recounts the losses sustained during a famed attack on Simpson Harbor, New Britain, mentioning Major Raymond H. Wilkins being shot down after sinking two Japanese ships, although Wright was on leave during the mission. Capt. Wright drew crosses to mark missions where fellow pilots died. Wright's entries mention that he flew B-25s (Fat Cat) and later A-20's which the 8th Squadron switched to in October 1944. Other planes mentioned include the Allied planes P-38 Lighting, P-47 Thunderbolt, and Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, and the Japanese plane Ki-21 Sally.