Briol was wifey's uncle...never knew about the diary until we happened upon it and noticed the "Briol" name (that being her Mom's maiden name).
Makes you cry how many didn’t come home, how brave these boys were. Going up in below zero temps in an unpressurized cabin, before the P-51s, having to go at it alone with no fighter escort over France, the low countries and Germany, at the mercy of the flak AAs and the wolfpacks of BF-109s and the Focke Wulf fighters. My uncle said in the pacific he rarely saw a Japannese aircraft and only a few times did he actually see a Zero fighter. Their problem was mechanical breakdowns, AA and dangerously low altitudes they flew at.