History of the 474th Fighter Group Part 12 D-DAY Around nearly every English port, large or small, could be seen the build-up for the D-Day invasion. In the woods and along the roads, tent cities sprang into existence, occupied by thousands of soldiers. New roads were laid, complete with checkpoints to bar civilians. Miles of trucks loaded with equipment lined these roads, their front ends pointed toward the ports. The men of the 474th could sense the imminence of the operation. In early June, all personnel received orders to bear their arms constantly – pilots, their pistols; ground officers and crew chiefs, their carbines. Foxholes were to be dug near each P-38’s parking place. As of June 3, all personnel were restricted to base; those who had been away were recalled. The booms and wings of the groups planes received the distinctive black-and-white striping that would identify Allied planes during the invasion. The 474th adjusted the boom striping. Instead of the white-black-white-black-white paint scheme, the pilots created a black-white-black-white-black pattern that gave the bold markings on each boom a white background. The movement of tens of thousands of soldiers and their equipment had begun on June 3. The men flooded the embarkation ports in a highly orchestrated ballet that matched each unit to the ship that would deliver it across the channel. The invasion of France, originally planned for June 5, had been aborted because of bad weather in the English Channel. Many ships had set out on the evening of June 4, expecting to land on the following day; but when the weather deteriorated, they were recalled. The invasion was rescheduled for June 6, for which a narrow window of good weather was forecast. Group and squadron commanders and intelligence officers were called to preliminary meetings on June 4. There they learned of the invasion plans. Before dawn on the morning of June 5 the 474th placed pilots in warmed up P-38’s for two hour shifts on a constant scramble alert, ready to take off at a moment’s notice. Early in the afternoon Major Hedlund and Captain Nuckols, the commanding and operations officers, were ordered to Group Headquarters for a special briefing with the other squadron leaders to hear of a special mission. Each of them was instructed to select the pilots they wanted on the mission and to report back to Group at 4:00 p.m. for further orders. Arriving at the briefing room the selected pilots of the 428th, 429th, and 430th squadrons stared at a large map on the wall. The map revealed invasion-fleet assembly areas from the Isle of Wight to the landing beaches south and east of the Cherbourg peninsula. The pilots realized that since they were so close to the English Channel, they had front row seats for the invasion. The briefing ended in less than an hour. The 474th Fighter Group was to fly cover over the invasion fleet and to engage any German aircraft that might try to interfere. The 474th would be broken up, augmenting six other P-38 squadrons; the 428th would join three of these other squadrons in providing coverage. The commanding officers and selected pilots of the 428th were sequestered. They ate alone and then waited in the alert room for the mission to begin. Slipping their lines or weighing anchor in the early evening hours, four thousand ships left England’s ports, harbors, quays, bays, and estuaries for a rendezvous off the Isle of Wight. Tugs, salvage vessels, troop transports, hospital ships, smokers, barges, causeways, a monitor, colliers, oilers, fire boats, frigates, minesweepers, bombardment ships, LCIs, LCTs, LSTs, trawlers, Mulberries, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, corvettes, and a multitude of miscellaneous craft were organized into sixty distinct convoys that had converged at a point just south of the Isle of Wight called “Piccadilly Circus”. Tension mounted as the mission time approached. The usual pre-mission banter was absent as the men wondered how the Germans would respond to the invasion. Finally it was time for each man to strap on his flight gear, parachute, and dinghy. The mission started taking at 9:37 pm. Plane after plane of the 474th roared down the grass runways of Warmwell into an angry-looking evening sky. Once into formation, the three squadrons went their separate ways climbing quickly into heavy clouds at 4,000 feet. Once through they headed southeast to their rendezvous points with the other assigned squadrons. Once they met up, they dropped back through the clouds to begin their patrol. For several thousand feet all that was seen was a gray, gauzy, undulating mass of clouds whipping past the pilots windshields until they suddenly broke through the clouds. Although the sun had set at 9:17pm, there was still enough light to see the panorama unfolding before them. From horizon to horizon the English Channel was filled with ships of every size and shape. Below the cloud cover at 4,000 feet, the pilots crossed the channel toward the Cherbourg peninsula. The men tried to be on the look-out for enemy planes, but their eyes were constantly dragged back to the scene below them. Twilight came at 10:00pm. The sea darkened. Little by little, night hid the might of the Allied forces on the water below. Now it was a flotilla in the air that mesmerized the pilots. The transports that carried the American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the British 6th Airborne Division had lifted off from dozens of inland airfields. Their goal was to seize key objectives ahead of the Normandy invasion, and they began passing over Warmwell not long after the 428th had begun its protective mission. Hundreds of C-47s passed over toward the French coast. As darkness fell, they turned on their blinking green and amber navigation lights. It looked like a massive Christmas display, constantly changing as the planes crossed the channel at various altitudes. Time crept by and still the airborne armada came on, a seemingly endless display of military might. Over the darkened landmass of France, other lights began to join the constantly shifting light configurations of the airborne invasion force. Tracer shells of white, red, and orange soared lazily upward toward the masses of planes. Red and white blossoms of flak, like briefly glimpsed ornaments on a Christmas tree, appeared among the green and amber lights. Just before midnight, the 428th headed back toward Warmwell, flying above the southbound transports. When the pilots arrived, they found that in order to land, they were forced to circle down through the endless stream of transports and bombers, now towing gliders. Cautioned again to remain silent about what they had seen, the pilots headed for the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters for some needed sleep. Early in the morning of June 6, the bombers and C-47’s that had flown south began to return. Many returned to their home bases, but those that were damaged made for the nearest fields. Warmwell was soon crowded with planes that had been riddled with small arms-fire, or pierced or scorched by flak. In order to maintain the combat readiness of the 474th, ground crews cleared each arriving aircraft from the runway as quickly as possible. The runway was soon lined with torn and battered planes. The 428th was involved in only one combat mission during the daylight hours of June 6. The squadron successfully dived-bombed a railway bridge over the River Seine at Oisel. For the 430th it was a painful day. A dive-bombing attack of a road on Cherbourg Peninsula was followed by low level strafing runs in support of the invasion. Just southwest of Carentan Major Leon Temple was hit by flak and dove into the ground exploding. This may have been a case of friendly fire as one account attributed his death to 82nd Airborne troops. This was followed by “Joe” Belford going down at Periers. He was also hit by flak. The 430th flew one more bombing mission that afternoon.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 20:19:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015