Posted on 06/07/2012 7:16:37 PM PDT by giant sable
Sixty-eight years ago this week, my father, Ralph “Pat” Malone, bored with being confined to barracks with the rest of the 401st bomb group, sneaked off his base at Deenthorpe, England, and rode a bicycle into the nearby village to a pub to meet a local girl he was sweet on. Hours later, as he rode back, he noticed that all of the lights on the base were on and, hidden behind a rise in the landscape, the 36 B-17s were already revving up.
Not delivered until Dec '44. Lost 16 Feb 45.
David Knights wrote in Comment #13 to the article: “I think your dad may have flown on Badland Bat II. The original Badland Bat with the 615th was lost over Berlin in April of 1944 (before D-day). Badland Bat II seems to have survived well into 1945. Here is a photo. It is the second ship in the picture, just behind the aircraft in the immediate forground of the photo.”
One Man Air Force
http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Documents/2010/November%202010/1110oneman.pdf
You can see remnants of the WW2 airstrips on Bing
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=52.50387952609947~-0.5839276313781618&sty=a&lvl=15
Compare with May ‘45..
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/Deenthorpe-28-may-1947.jpg
D-Day plannes had recognized early on that ABSOLUTE CONTROL of the air space over the Channel, landing beaches, and for about 100 miles inland MUST be accomplished if the invasion had any chance of success. To that end, they set out to compeltely destroy all German fighters based in western France.
The bombers were in effect, BAIT. And the plan was successful. Bomber losses were horrendous, but virtually all the German fighter strength was eliminated. Not one German fighter mad a sortie over the Normandy beaches.
The Nazis had considerable fighter strength left, but Hitler had long agoordered that they be based around berlin, to protect the capital, an d thus were not able to take part in D-Day operations.
Regarding the effectiveness of the Allied bombing campaign, after the war, the combined US-Brit assessment team reported that bombers struck their targets less than 15% of the time. Most bombs were wasted.However, in looking back at the real capability of the Norden bombsight, the heavy flack, Nazi fighters, often rotten weather with low visability, it quite remarkable that they managed to put bombs on target 15% of the time.
After D-Day, the Allies were first able to start inspecting their bomb hits in FRance, and they began to understand how ineffective they were. That knowledge was a major factor in the decision to switch to the strategy of carpet bombing cities. IT supposedly was to defeat German morale, but that didn't happen until very late in the war. Rather, at least the bomber crews were this way accomplishing something for their sacrifices.
D-Day plannes had recognized early on that ABSOLUTE CONTROL of the air space over the Channel, landing beaches, and for about 100 miles inland MUST be accomplished if the invasion had any chance of success. To that end, they set out to compeltely destroy all German fighters based in western France.
The bombers were in effect, BAIT. And the plan was successful. Bomber losses were horrendous, but virtually all the German fighter strength was eliminated. Not one German fighter mad a sortie over the Normandy beaches.
The Nazis had considerable fighter strength left, but Hitler had long agoordered that they be based around berlin, to protect the capital, an d thus were not able to take part in D-Day operations.
Regarding the effectiveness of the Allied bombing campaign, after the war, the combined US-Brit assessment team reported that bombers struck their targets less than 15% of the time. Most bombs were wasted.However, in looking back at the real capability of the Norden bombsight, the heavy flack, Nazi fighters, often rotten weather with low visability, it quite remarkable that they managed to put bombs on target 15% of the time.
After D-Day, the Allies were first able to start inspecting their bomb hits in FRance, and they began to understand how ineffective they were. That knowledge was a major factor in the decision to switch to the strategy of carpet bombing cities. IT supposedly was to defeat German morale, but that didn't happen until very late in the war. Rather, at least the bomber crews were this way accomplishing something for their sacrifices.
Absolutely correct about the big ships missing most of their targets. They fired their funs at too high an elevation so they missed the key beach fortifications which wreaked the most damage on our landing troops.
If someone had set up a decent Forward Air Controller spotting system, they could have corrected the guns angles and blown the German fortifications right off the cliffs, and save a lot of American lives.
Also, most bombings of these forward fortifications missed or couldn’t penetrate the thick concrete buildings.
All you have to do is to watch a B-52 raid on the North Vietnamese troops outside of the Khe Sanh perimeter to see what a good FAC/bomber coordinationg can to to the enemy.
Granted that the WW2 FAC system was very primitive, it still worked (You saw “Patton” , didn’t you?). Even Gen. Pershing used it in Mexico and WW 1.
Also, it was a couple FAC pilots at the Bay Hap River incident that provided some evidence that John Kerry’s account of the event was full of shit> See Scott Swett & Tim Zieglar’s “To Set the Record Straight” for details.
The destroyers and other small fire-support boats that attacked the cliff fortifications head-on and in-close were magnificent but have never had the public awareness of their deeds that they deserved.
My dad was Special Forces during Nam. He did at least three tours during the war. He didn’t get shot at a whole lot while he was there, due to his rank, but he had his fair share of encounters with the enemy.
That’s about all I’ve ever been able to get out of him in all these years. It’s just not something he likes to talk about, and at his age, I’m certainly not going to pressure him.
He’s written up his military memoirs in book form, and has asked me to read it when he’s gone. I’ve already read the early parts, but he’s never shown me that parts that contain his war experiences. Guess I’ll find out some day.
I love stories like this. Nicely written.
A couple of years ago I talked to a man named Chuck Bednarik who is a Hall of Fame NFL football player from the ‘50s and ‘60s. He flew these same kinds of missions during WWII. I think he said he flew 30 missions, so I guess 30 was the magic number and then you could go home.
Ding Hao!!
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