Thunderbolt!: The Extraordinary Story Of A World War II Ace [Illustrated Edition] by Robert S. Johnson & Martin Caidin

Author:Robert S. Johnson & Martin Caidin [Johnson, Robert S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2014-12-13T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

MORE THAN FIFTEEN YEARS have passed since I flew that mission. Fifteen years since the most critical moments of my life, eternal seconds of flight, of roaring guns and searing flame, the horrifying sound of cannon shells and bullets flashing, seeking — me. A tumbling stream of emotions, exultation, pain and despair, the grip of terror and Death anxious and expectant. Fifteen years past, and yet every moment is still alive, still painted vividly in my mind. It is easy, so easy, to turn back the years to that warm and sunny morning at Manston...

...into the Manston briefing hut, walls clouded with maps and charts, with recognition sheets and colored symbols, the travel posters of a fighter group. This morning especially I am attentive. The words are the same as other briefings, and yet they are different. Details are vital; details of what to expect can save your life, prepare you for the worst: “...to be a maximum effort...expect heavy and determined opposition.” More words on clouds and winds aloft and rendezvous points with the Big Friends: “...protect the bombers, at all costs.” The latest intelligence reports on escape and evasion tactics, on contacting the underground, how to wiggle past tens of thousands of Nazi troops, how to work your way down to Spain. If you’re shot down, and if you remain alive. No one wants or expects to be shot down, to tumble unsuspectingly before a Focke-Wulf’s or an Messerschmitt’s guns. But we all check, carefully, our maps, chart courses, vital data, our knives and guns and escape kits.

This isn’t an ordinary mission. Too much preparation. Too much careful planning. Details usually accepted as a matter of routine are studied exhaustively; nothing is taken for granted. The Thunderbolts roar sweetly, alive and tense, seemingly as taut as their pilots for a mission everyone knows is our most important to date. There is a feeling in the air, a tenseness that crackles invisibly among the pilots, that is transferred to our ground crews. There’s little joking this morning; the usual levity is replaced by somber self-reflection.

We are tense, excited, thinking of the imminent battle miles above the ground when the Germans race after the bombers. No doubt today of a maximum interception. The black-crossed planes will be out in force, and as always flown by skillful and courageous pilots, flying fighter planes the match of those anywhere in the world. I love the Thunderbolt, glory in its power and strength, in its incredible, unsurpassed durability and its tremendous armament — but I am not so foolish as to lack a keen appreciation of the flashing speed and agility of the opposition. And they are rugged, those boys out there!

I run through the fighter’s cockpit check almost by instinct, my eyes and hands and feet moving in response to habit drilled into me. I forget nothing, miss nothing, but it is almost rote. I cannot keep my mind off the mission. I know that, more so than on previous Ramrods, I am excited and tense.

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