The Wild Blue by Stephen E. Ambrose

Author:Stephen E. Ambrose [Ambrose, Stephen E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: new
ISBN: 9780743217521
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2001-08-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX - Learning to Fly in Combat

THE AAF POLICY IN THE FALL OF 1944was to have the pilots fly their first five combat missions as co-pilots with a veteran and an experienced crew. McGovern was, in his words, “lucky,” because his pilot was Capt. Howard Surbeck of Washington state. He was older, twenty-four years old to McGovern’s twenty-two, “and he had circles under his eyes and he was obviously feeling the strain of combat.” He had flown twenty-five missions when McGovern flew with him. It was his tent that Rounds, with McGovern on board, had torn in half with his jeep, but Surbeck never mentioned it to McGovern.

Surbeck let McGovern do quite a bit of the flying from his co-pilot’s seat, sometimes half the mission. The experience taught McGovern “more about what it’s like to have all that gear on and to go to 25,000 feet in subzero temperatures and stay in formation and get shot at and all the other things that go with combat missions.” Surbeck “brought me along.”

McGovern’s first mission was November 11, 1944 - Armistice Day. The night before he checked and saw his name on the assignment sheet. The morning began for him when the operations sergeant came into his tent at 4:00 A.M. to wake him. On his first five missions, Rounds and Adams could stay in the sack, as they were not going. McGovern went to the mess hall for a powdered egg breakfast. Then he climbed into a truck for the drive to the group’s operations room for the briefing. At the door, an MP examined his identification and checked his name on the assignment sheet, then opened the door so McGovern and those from his truck could enter.

Inside, the 300 or so crew sat on planks placed over cinder blocks. When a staff officer announced that they were all present and accounted for, the door was locked. The group commander by the fall of 1944 was Col. William Snowden. He was in his mid-forties, a “grandfather” figure to the pilots and crews. He had gray hair but a commanding presence. McGovern said he had “the total confidence of everyone in our group. A good man and a good leader. Just the way he moved around, he was reassuring without being condescending.” When Colonel Snowden strode in, everyone stood at attention. Snowden climbed onto the platform, put the men at ease, and after saying good morning motioned to a member of his staff to pull a drawstring. Behind the curtain was a large map of southern and central Europe. The pilots and crew members saw their route and the target drawn on the map with erasable marks. When it was Vienna, or Munich, or any other target known to be well defended by antiair-craft guns, or if it was four or more hours flying time from Cerignola, a dismal groan slowly became audible, but on this occasion there were murmurs of approval because the target was Linz, Austria, not so terribly far away, without any known antiaircraft batteries to fly over, and not so well protected itself.

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