Building for Battle: Hitler's D-Day Defences by Philip Kaplan

Author:Philip Kaplan [Kaplan, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781526705419
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

On another memorable occasion recalled by Pinkerton, when Churchill and Roosevelt were to meet in a wartime conference, “While the president’s airplane was approaching the field, a boy in a shot-up fighter was also approaching. He could have bailed out, but he was trying to save his plane and he did save it, but in the process he cut the Sacred Cow (as we called the president’s plane) out of the traffic pattern. Well, there was a big flap about that, and Eaker was ordered to reprimand the boy. I never saw the letter he wrote, but I was told it went like this: ‘I must reprimand you for furthering the war effort by saving a valuable airplane and also your own life. By so doing you cost the Commander-in-Chief an extra three minutes in the air. Such acts as this cannot be tolerated.’”

The Eighth was commanded by General James H. Doolittle from 6th January 1944 until the German surrender in May 1945. Another First World War veteran, Jimmy Doolittle later became the first to fly across the United States in less than a day and the first to take off and land a plane by instruments. While flying in air races he broke many speed records and won both the Thompson and Schneider trophies. On 18th April 1942, he led a flight of sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers in the first American bombing raid on Tokyo, flying from the aircraft carrier Hornet. For the feat he was awarded the Medal of Honor and promoted to the rank of general. The war correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote: “Doolittle ran the Eighth Air Force. It was a grim, stupendous job, but he managed to keep the famous Doolittle sense of humour about it. He said he used to be six feet tall but had worried himself down to his present height in the past five months.”

The Eighth U.S. Army Air Force was in action 1,008 days in World War Two. Statistically, it burned a billion gallons of gasoline, fired ninety-nine million rounds of machine-gun ammunition, and dropped 732,000 tons of bombs on Germany and German-occupied targets on the European continent. It lost 5,982 bombers, more than 3,000 fighters and 146 other aircraft. More than 46,000 of its airmen were killed, wounded or captured by the enemy.

The men and planes of the Eighth and Ninth U.S. Army Air Forces played a vital role in the run-up to and the implementation of the Normandy invasion landings on D-Day, 6th June 1944, and in the days that followed, as they and airmen of British Royal Air Force continued in the Allied progress toward Berlin and the ultimate victory in Europe.

Lieutenant Bert Stiles flew as co-pilot on the Sam Newton B-17 crew of the 91st Bomb Group stationed at Bassingbourn near Cambridge. On completion of his tour of duty he transferred to fighters. Tragically, he was killed in the crash of his P-51 Mustang after air combat in which he shot down an enemy fighter. While at Bassingbourn he wrote a fine book called Serenade To The Big Bird.

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