Excerpt from Fogg in the Cockpit: The wartime diary of Captain Howard Fogg.
"Wednesday, July
12, 1944: Wretham
Up at 0815. Briefing
at 0930. Took off at 1110. Duplicate of yesterday’s show in every detail but flight
time. I led Olson, White, and Keesey. My #2 and #4 planes got lost in very
rough air of overcast. Picked up Kosc for #2. Homeyer flew #4 later. Encountered
heavy flak near Ruhr so everyone split up as usual. Major Shaw led. I became
Blue Flight.
We only had
eight planes out of 16 for escort duty. Never saw the ground; went from here to
Munich and back on instruments.
Couldn’t release
my left tank and it pissed me off highly. Then it fell off on my landing approach.
Sure was tired. Up
for 6 hours and 10 minutes. A long ride. Plane ran fine, loads of gas.
Damn this lousy
English weather."
March 29, 1944 photo of belly tanks. Photo archived by Char Baldridge, Historian, 359th Fighter Group Association.
Lt. John Houston Oliphint - "The Mad Rebel"
359th Fighter Group, 369th Fighter Squadron
Lt. John H. Oliphint flew with the 359th Fighter Group from April 1943 through June 8, 1944, when he was nearing La Fleche and his P-51 began to lose coolant. He continued to strafe, releasing his bombs point blank into the side of a locomotive. He crash landed, was injured, and needed medical attention, so the Maquis reported his position to the Germans. It was the Gestapo, though, who took him prisoner.
After interrogation and torture, Lt. Oliphint and several others escaped. During his stay with the Resistance, Lt. Oliphint gathered data for British Intelligence. On August 5, 1944, he was picked up by the RAF at a covert airfield and returned to England.
He served in the U.S. Air Force for 26 years, through World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, and was awarded Command Pilot wings and 43 medals including the Silver Star, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 8 Air Medals, 2 Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, Commendation Medal, Prisoner of War Medal, and numerous theater and foreign medals.
John Houston Oliphint passed away on December 19, 2011. He was a true Texan and a great fighter pilot.
June of 1944 was the month that Eisenhower stormed and breached the Atlantic Wall of Festung Europa in the greatest short-range operation of war in the history of man to that time.
In the great scheme of assault, the VIII Fighter Command, forged and tempered as the peerless high altitude fighter team of all the world’s struggling forces, was slung into the rough and tumble of ground attack. Only their airplanes had the needed range before the cannon and the tactical air forces could be disembarked, and only they could choke off support from the Werhmacht at the chosen storming place, the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy.
So simply, is the story of June for the 359th Fighter Group told. With the 14 other groups of the Eighth Fighter Command, they isolated Normandy, hacked and splayed the German plan of reinforcement and counter-attack, and held off the Werhmacht while ships and men tore open a bloody hole in Western Europe.
It was expensive, 14 pilots were lost on tactical missions, 11 of those in the first 7 days of crisis, and this was one-sixth of the 359th Group’s normal pilot strength. Yet the total casualties for the month of 17 men, 16 operationally, was below the toll of May, and was well under the depletions suffered by other groups.
These are statistics, and they did not cushion the emotional shock of the grim second week of June, when 21 missions in 7 days cost 11 pilots, when foul weather, flak, fatigue, and warring enemy aircraft raised the normal odds against ground strafing to a great and nerve racking hazard.
Excerpt from Fogg in the Cockpit, the wartime diary of Captain Howard Fogg:
Wednesday, June 14, 1944: Wretham
Good day, heavy cumulus.
One mission. Nuts!! Took off at 0615. Blue Flight led by me, with McNeil, Andy, Hammy, and Murphy. Top squadron. Flew an area escort to Brussels, Namur airfields. We encountered heavy flak at Namur but no trouble and no enemy aircraft. Flew at 26,000 to 27,000 feet in nice squadron formation. Really clear over the Channel. Back at 1000.
Foul headache. Tired. Lunch at 1115 then went to bed and slept until 1700.
I was told at supper of my transfer to the 368th and Taylor’s transfer back to 369th. I’m glad yet sorry. Good to rejoin the old outfit, but the 370th flies better and has better engineering, etc. Sorry to leave Colonel Murphy, a wonderful pilot and leader.
Taxied my ship over to the 368th, moved flying equipment after supper. Major Brown, ’40, Panama for three years, 1,200 flight hours, is the new 368th operations officer. He seems like a good guy. So I’m “home” again and it’s okay.
Moose Nose. Captain
Howard Fogg’s P-51D-5 Mustang CV-D 44-13762.
Courtesy of Ira J. “John” Bisher:
Archived
by Char Baldridge, Historian, 359th Fighter Group Association.
