Office of the Group Historian
APO 637 US Army
4 July 1944
The 359th Fighter Group, June 1944
A miscalculation in the briefing time on 15 June led to an unholy rush. The duty intelligence officer that morning misread his table of distances in the hurried tempo of plotting, reading ‘110’ as 1 hour 10 minutes, instead of 110 minutes. Consequently, briefing at 0650 was hurried and Colonel Tacon, leading, “poured the blossom” all the way in a squadron race to rendezvous, which was reached on time, off the Ile de Ré in the Bay of Biscay. The bombers were early and were eventually picked up on the homeward track off St. Nazaire at 0925. The mission was eventful only for the magnificent weather, which gave a sightseer’s view of new country, since the route back was out across Brittany.
B-17s of the 91st BG. Note triangle on tails, which was the symbol of 1st Air Division, for whom the 359th Fighter Group would have provided escort. Photo, NIC in Fogg in the Cockpit, courtesy of Elsie Palicka, wife of Ed Palicka, 370th Fighter Squadron Photographer: Archived by Char Baldridge, Historian, 359th Fighter Group Association.
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This excerpt from Fogg in the Cockpit was selected from transcriptions of the original monthly narrative History of the 359th Fighter Group archived at HQ USAF Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The complete documents were transcribed by Char Baldridge, Historian, 359th Fighter Group Association, from reports filed from December 1943 through September 1945 by Maurice F. X. Donohue, 359th Fighter Group historian and combat intelligence officer.
Boy I wish my dad was around still...
ReplyDeleteHe was a keen model railroader and aviation nut and he would have loved to read all this.