Casablanca

	Lt. Round sporting some of the indigenous head wear.

At Casablanca we were told to stay on the steel matting on the runway because there was water on the runway and the sides were muddy. Since Casablanca is located right on the ocean they had a lot of rain. As we landed on the steel matting, it sounded like the airplane was coming apart.

We wandered around Casablanca. Later we went to the docks to see all the ships. I purchased some metal designs and a round top hat that the natives were wearing (which I still had when I got back to the states). That afternoon we went to a house that was off limits for a steak, which was run by an elderly woman. The steak was so tough that we fed most of it to her small dog that was under the table. She had some good wine, but she would not sell us a bottle. We left the way we came in - on a four wheel horse cart. We didn't pay the driver when we got there because we were afraid he might have taken off and it was too far to walk back.

One day we took off in order to keep the airplane in shape and to see Casablanca from the air. We saw a B-24 flying around so we feathered an engine and flew about 154 feet from him in the same direction he was going. We didn't stay there long because he was going too slow for us, and we didn't want to stall the airplane. The B-24 called the tower saying there was a B-26 flying near them on one engine. The tower called us to see if we were in trouble, we told them we were just testing our airplane on one engine, the tower said OK. While in Casablanca we looked for Bogart's Club, but we could not find it.

We wondered why we were staying in Casablanca so long, but then the rest of our crew showed up by boat. Christmas Day we had a really fine dinner. I drank the coke I had put in my briefcase in Florida. The next day, with a full crew, we took off for Algiers.(Continued)