Big Week
Page 43
8 ‘vastly superior’: ibid, p. 88
9 ‘Here over Berlin …’: ibid, p. 104
10 ‘At 1.08 this heavy …’: ibid, p. 105
11 ‘We all knew …’: ibid
12 ‘There’s a “war” on …’: cited in James Holland, Twenty-One, p. 3
13 ‘Skipper, I think you’d better land …’: Bill Byers, author interview
Chapter 9 Mustang
1 ‘Rumor or not …’: Richard E. Turner, Mustang Pilot, p. 21
2 ‘The point which strikes me …’: https://todayshistorylesson.wordpress.com/tag/ronald-harker/
3 ‘did not pretend to know …’: cited in Bill Newton Dunn, Big Wing, pp. 189–90
4 ‘Attached are Mr. Lovett’s …’: ‘Case History of Fighter Plane Range Extension Program’, Part I & II, AFHRA 202.2–11
5 ‘Overlord hangs directly …’: TNA AIR 8/1108
6 ‘Is it not true …’: ibid
7 ‘Acceleration of production …’: ibid
8 ‘It is becoming increasingly …’: ibid
9 ‘We intend to continue …’: ibid
10 ‘send every possible …’: cited in James Parton, Air Force Spoken Here, p. 316
11 ‘Some malicious tongues …’: Hajo Herrmann, Eagle’s Wings, p. 199
12 ‘I found him to be interested …’: ibid
13 ‘an infernal nuisance …’: cited in Heinz Knoke, I Flew for the Führer, p. 125
14 ‘Göring makes a most peculiar …’: ibid
15 ‘The inescapable fact …’: ibid
16 ‘We need more aircraft …’: ibid, p. 126
17 ‘It is axiomatic …’: cited in Parton, p. 322
18 ‘Went to town …’ Diary, 17/10/1943, in T. Michael Sullivan, ‘Life in the Service’, www.2ndbombgroup.org
19 ‘Ate a rotten supper …’: ibid, 23/10/1943
20 ‘Impossible to see …’: ibid, 24/10/1943
21 ‘Raid called off …’: ibid, 7/11/1943
22 ‘It cut me deeply …’: ibid
23 ‘I’m out of my teens …’: ibid, 14/11/1943
Chapter 10 New Arrivals
1 ‘exceptional’: reports cited in papers of Squadron Leader G. H. F. Carter, DSO, IWM 96/41/1
2 ‘mild sort of …’: ibid
3 ‘We were blinded …’: ibid
4 ‘Navigator bailing out!’: ibid
5 ‘Bomb doors open’: ibid
6 ‘I think if I had stopped …’: Bill Byers, author interview
7 ‘There was a shrill organ …’: Hajo Herrmann, Eagle’s Wings, p. 203
8 ‘It was cold and damp …’: ibid, pp. 204–5
9 ‘I gave thanks to God.’: ibid, p. 205
10 ‘I was impressed …’: cited in Martin Bowman, B-17 Combat Missions, p. 60
11 ‘I must admit …’: Larry Goldstein interview, National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force
12 ‘I’m not interested …’: ibid
13 ‘A loner, never seemed …’: Larry Goldstein Diary
14 ‘Where are these guys?’: Goldstein interview
15 ‘You’re my third …’: cited in Bowman, p. 62
16 ‘It was all very strange …’: Goldstein Diary, 26/11/1943
17 ‘The two most welcome …’: ibid
18 ‘I will have to work out …’: ibid
19 ‘Lucky couldn’t believe …’: Hugh McGinty, My Life, Book One: The War Years, p. 5
20 ‘The ten-man crew …’: ibid, p. 10
21 ‘I figured it would …’: ibid, p. 13
22 ‘You’re like a bird up there …’: cited in Starr Smith, Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot, p. 28
23 ‘It may sound corny …’: ibid, p. 29
24 ‘I feel sure that God …’: ibid, p. 72
Chapter 11 Fighter Boys
1 ‘I liked the idea of …’: William R. Lawley interview, AFHRA, p. 3
2 ‘So this is going to be home.’: John Harold Robinson, A Reason To Live, p. 159
3 ‘The comrades stare …’: Heinz Knoke, I Flew for the Führer, p. 129
4 ‘He cannot get over …’: ibid
5 ‘We regard life …’: ibid, p. 130
6 ‘Fellows, do you not think …’: ibid
7 ‘It makes me sick …’: ibid
8 ‘He was all business …’: Richard Turner, Mustang Pilot, p. 23
9 ‘In that case, son …’: ibid, p. 24
10 ‘Every pilot who took off …’: ibid, p. 25
11 ‘Fellas, I’ll be riding with you.’: Robinson, p. 171
12 ‘What are you doing now …’: ibid
13 ‘Well, I suppose you fellas …’: ibid, p. 172
14 ‘Which is exactly what …’: Robert S. Johnson, AFHRA, p. 154
15 ‘Just like that …’: ibid, p. 155
16 ‘Perfect! One short burst …’: ibid
Chapter 12 Change at the Top
1 ‘The enemy has been sighted …’: Margarete Dos, Letters from Berlin, p. 107
2 ‘Open up, open up! …’: ibid, p. 111
3 ‘There are medical students …’: ibid, p. 112
4 ‘No one spoke …’: ibid, p. 113
5 ‘Foggia hard hit by bombs …’: Hap Arnold, American Air Power Comes of Age: General Henry ‘Hap’ Arnold’s World War II Diaries, ed. John W. Huston, Vol. 2, 9/12/1943
6 ‘Modern battle …’: ibid, 11/12/1943
7 ‘As a result …’: cited in Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, p. 274
8 ‘kicked upstairs’: ibid
9 ‘I feel like a pitcher …’: ibid, p. 275
10 ‘Believe war interest …’: ibid; also James Parton, Air Force Spoken Here, p. 338
11 ‘My driver shook his head …’: Heinz Knoke, I Flew for the Führer, p. 131
12 ‘Not a single man …’: James Good Brown, The Mighty Men of the 381st, p. 239
13 ‘By now my pilots …’: Richard E. Turner, Mustang Pilot, p. 29
14 ‘Anything you did …’: Robert S. Johnson, AFHRA, p. 29
15 ‘The 56th was by now …’: Francis Gabreski, Gabby: A Fighter Pilot’s Life, p. 123
16 ‘Fighter pilots are more likely …’: AFHRA 168.60005-78
Chapter 13 Berlin
1 ‘The Focke-Wulf company …’: The Bomber’s Baedeker 1944, AHB
2 ‘We were all terrified’: cited in Robert Matzen, Mission, p. 140
3 ‘Landed Blazing Bomber …’: cited in IWM 96/41/1
4 ‘My little short legs …’: Rusty Waughman, author interview
5 ‘So I asked him …’: ibid
6 ‘It wasn’t treated …’: ibid
7 ‘He was a rogue …’: ibid
8 ‘Target pretty hot …’: Rusty Waughman Diary, 29/12/1943
9 ‘He just sat on the floor …’: Waughman, author interview
10 ‘You know, we can’t …’: ibid
11 ‘I had become a victim …’: Hajo Herrmann, Eagle’s Wings, p. 209
12 ‘It was a great joy …’: ibid, p. 201
Chapter 14 Spaatz and Doolittle Take Charge
1 ‘a) Aircraft factories …’: cited in Wesley F. Craven and James L. Cate (eds), The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. III, p. 8
2 ‘It is my belief …’: cited in Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, p. 300
3 ‘We’re certainly sorry …’: General James H. Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, p. 350
4 ‘The British probably since …’: ibid
5 ‘miracles are confidently expected’: ibid, p. 347
6 ‘Fighter aircraft are designed …’: ibid, p. 352
7 ‘The first duty …’ and subsequent conversation with Kepner: ibid, pp. 352–3
8 ‘There was no compromise …’: ibid, p. 353
9 ‘The most critical need …’: Davis, p. 298
10 ‘No other damage …’: Larry Goldstein Diary, 4/1/1944
11 ‘And wow! What a dive! …’: Robert S. Johnson, AFHRA
12 ‘
And today was to have been …’: Heinz Knoke, I Flew for the Führer, p. 138
13 ‘Today, war came close …’: James Good Brown, The Mighty Men of the 381st, p. 280
14 ‘To stand there …’: ibid, p. 281
15 ‘The body emerged …’: ibid, p. 282
16 ‘One must see …’: ibid, p. 283
17 ‘He was terrific …’: Robert S. Johnson, Thunderbolt!, p. 160
18 ‘The bullets tore into …’: ibid
19 ‘What are they doing?’: cited in Robert Matzen, Mission, p. 189
20 ‘We know what we’re doing …’: ibid
21 ‘F Lead to Group …’: ibid, p. 191
22 ‘The good judgement …’: cited in Starr Smith, Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot, p. 87
Chapter 15 Thirty Against One
1 ‘That put us in a better mood …’: Hugh McGinty, My Life, Book One: The War Years
2 ‘The chaplain was a very …’: ibid
3 ‘My God! There are Germans …’: cited in Richard E. Turner, Mustang Pilot, p. 38
4 ‘shoot his ass off’: ibid, p. 39
5 ‘Never mind, Dick …’: ibid
6 ‘Here I was …’: ibid, p. 40
7 ‘The startled Nazis …’: McGinty, p. 24
8 ‘The last I saw of him …’: ibid
9 ‘For sheer determination …’: cited in Rebecca Grant, ‘One-Man Air Force’, Air Force Magazine, November 2010
10 ‘I seen my duty …’: Stars & Stripes, 18/1/1944
Chapter 16 Dicing with Death
1 ‘I cannot understand …’: cited in Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, p. 305
2 ‘The weather here …’: cited in ibid, pp. 305–6
3 ‘Absolute pea-soup …’: Wilhelm Johnen, Duel Under the Stars, p. 108
4 ‘Take it easy …’: ibid, p. 109
5 ‘Herr Oberleutnant …’: ibid, p. 112
6 ‘I almost felt like patting …’: ibid, p. 113
7 ‘White Argus from Meteor …’: ibid
8 ‘Go through that again …’: ibid, p. 114
9 ‘Am putting out the shroud …’: ibid, p. 115
10 ‘Keep going …’: cited in Mark M. Spagnuolo, Mustang Ace, p. 160
11 ‘You can think …’: Don Gentile, One-Man Air Force, as told to Ira Wolfert
12 ‘Right quick …’: ibid
13 ‘Don, hold on …’: ibid
14 ‘Help! Help! …’: cited in Spagnuolo, p. 164
15 ‘And that’s what happened …’: Gentile
16 ‘It showed me …’: ibid
Chapter 17 Little Friends
1 ‘I wanted that German …’: Robert S. Johnson, AFHRA, p. 161
2 ‘After that, all we talked about …’: Bud Anderson, To Fly and Fight, p. 15
3 ‘I thought that if I …’: http://www.americanveteranscenter.org/2016/07/col-clarence-bud-anderson/
4 ‘Living close to the edge …’: Anderson, p. 61
5 ‘The 357th was off to a very poor start.’: ibid, p. 88
6 ‘I do what he does …’: ibid, p. 91
7 ‘Mustang! Mustang! …’: ibid
8 ‘Man, was my fighter leader …’: ibid, p. 93
9 ‘That morning …’: ibid
10 ‘No, sir. Most of these boys …’: Grover C. Hall Jr., 1,000 Destroyed, p. 80
11 ‘which every pilot should know’: AFHRA 168.61-3
12 ‘No. 1 is free to look all around …’: ibid
13 ‘When flying over enemy …’: this and other citations all from AFHRA 2-2906-4
Chapter 18 Waiting for a Gap in the Weather
1 ‘The German people …’: cited in GSWW, Vol. VII, pp. 287–8
2 ‘a crap machine …’: cited in ibid, p. 417
3 ‘In time, I became accustomed …’: Heinz Knoke, I Flew for the Führer, p. 138
4 ‘We are taken …’: ibid
5 ‘No. 4 Staffel …’: ibid, p. 139
6 ‘I wonder if you’ve got …’: cited in General James H. Doolittle, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again, p. 355
7 ‘That will be all.’: ibid
8 ‘Hedge-hopping in bad weather …’: ibid, p. 356
9 ‘You were right, Jim …’: ibid, p. 365
10 ‘I have reviewed …’: Richard G. Davis, Carl A. Spaatz and the Air War in Europe, p. 306
11 ‘Primary objective …’: Charles Webster and Noble Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, Vol. IV, Appendix 8, p. 164
12 ‘Overall reduction …’: ibid, p. 165
13 ‘The missions were beginning …’: Hugh McGinty, My Life, Book One: The War Years, p. 34
14 ‘Against them we are forty …’: Knoke, p. 139
15 ‘Believe me …’: Larry Goldstein Diary, 10/2/1944
16 ‘He was the finest …’: Knoke, p. 141
Chapter 19 Saturday, 19 February 1944
1 ‘Office holed …’: Rusty Waughman Diary, 28/2/1944
2 ‘It was very primitive …’: Rusty Waughman, author interview
3 ‘It was a sort of …’: ibid
4 ‘I doubt whether I can convey …’: papers of Squadron Leader G. H. F. Carter, DSO, IWM 96/41/1
5 ‘Not so frightening …’: papers of Flight Sergeant Kenneth Handley, IWM 3198
6 ‘Pretty deadly trip …’: Waughman Diary, 19/2/1944
Chapter 20 Sunday, 20 February 1944
1 ‘Let ’em go.’: Wesley F. Craven and James L. Cate (eds), The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. III, p. 33
2 ‘Awakened very early today …’: Goldstein Diary, 20/2/1944
3 ‘Men, your bomb is …’: cited in Martin Bowman, We Were Eagles, Vol. II, p. 82
4 ‘We will put up thirty-five ships …’: cited in Robert Matzen, Mission, p. 288
5 ‘Doesn’t sound too bad …’: cited in Wilbur H. Morrison, The Incredible 305th, p. 78
6 ‘Good work, Manny.’: Matzen, p. 230
7 ‘Some would groan …’: Bud Anderson, To Fly and Fight, p. 100
8 ‘January 1, 1944, finds me …’: Robert L. Sullivan Diary, 1/1/1944
9 ‘Miserable day …’: ibid, 20/2/1944
10 ‘Had a recall …’: ibid
11 ‘We had to be careful …’: Hugh McGinty, My Life, Book One: The War Years, p. 37
12 ‘Bandits, seven o’clock low.’: Robert S. Johnson, Thunderbolt!, p. 163; and Francis Gabreski, Gabby: A Fighter Pilot’s Life, p. 147
13 ‘Everything was shaping up …’: Johnson, p. 163
14 ‘We really hit those 110s …’: Gabreski, p. 147
15 ‘We hit the first bunch …’: Johnson, p. 163
16 ‘They went down like wheat …’: ibid, p. 164
17 ‘I was determined …’: Anderson, p. 103
18 ‘Thinking about it afterwards …’: ibid
19 ‘Damn it!’: Matzen, p. 213
20 ‘Get ’em, Little Friends!’: ibid
21 ‘There were quite a few …’: Goldstein Diary, 20/2/1944
22 ‘I guess we had feared …’: James Good Brown, The Mighty Men of the 381st, p. 322
23 ‘On this day …’: ibid
24 ‘It was hair-raising …’: William R. Lawley interview, AFHRA, p. 11
Chapter 21 Monday, 21 February 1944
1 ‘… in situations of stress …’: cited in James Pugh, ‘The Royal Air Force, Bomber Command and the use of Benzedrine Sulphate: an Examination of Policy and Practice During the Second World War’, Journal of Contemporary History, 17 October 2016, p. 2
2 ‘You learnt very quickly …’: Rusty Waughman, author interview
3 ‘… by February 1944 …’: flak statistics from GSWW, Vol. VII, p. 227
4 ‘You knew it took forty-five …’: Waughman, author interview
5 ‘Long trip …’: Rusty Waughman Diary, 20/2/1944
6 ‘If the Bosch firm fails …’: cited in Johannes Steinhoff et al., Voices from the Third Reich, p. 220
7 ‘You had to hold on …’: ibid, p. 221
8 ‘We would never abandon …’: Hugh McGinty, My Life, Book One: The War Years, p. 39
9 ‘It’s just that we were doing a job …’: Larry Goldstein interview, National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force
10 ‘Our morale was …’: Martin W. Bowman, ‘My Friend Larry “Goldie” Goldstein’, n.d.
11 ‘This all seems so unreal …’: Robert Hughes, www.100thbg.com
12 ‘I get as scared as you …’: John Harold Robinson, A Reason To Live, p. 265
13 ‘I don’t think I could …’: ibid, p. 270
14 ‘You can learn to fly …’: Grover C. Hall Jr., 1,000 Destroyed, p. 80
15 ‘The guys are working …’: Frank E. Speer, The Debden Warbirds, p. 51
16 ‘Failure to take off …’: T. Michael Sullivan Diary, 1–5/2/1944
17 ‘Tony went nutz …’: ibid, 17/2/1944
18 ‘Right from square one …’: James H. Keeffe III, Two Gold Coins and a Prayer, p. 48
19 ‘Brakes?’: ibid, pp. 65–6
20 ‘There was no way …’: Bud Anderson, To Fly and Fight, p. 93
21 ‘What a sight it was …’: papers of Squadron Leader G. H. F. Carter, IWM, 96/41/1
22 ‘That cost my squadron …’: Heinz Knoke, I Flew for the Führer, p. 141
23 ‘This weather has sure …’: Robert L. Sullivan Diary, 21/2/1944
24 ‘They looked like vertical …’: Keeffe, p. 60
25 ‘I watched as they …’: ibid
26 ‘Keefe, are you hit?’: ibid
27 ‘Our fighter support …’: Larry Goldstein Diary, 21/2/1944
28 ‘So all in all …’: ibid
29 ‘By now I was getting pretty good …’: Anderson, p. 94
30 ‘Finding a family here …’: Robinson, p. 285
31 ‘The bottom dropped out again …’: ibid
32 ‘Well, this black English beer …’: ibid, p. 288
Chapter 22 Tuesday, 22 February 1944
1 ‘Finally, our first …’: Robert L. Sullivan Diary, 22/2/1944
2 ‘We should be over …’: John Harold Robinson, A Reason To Live, p. 289
3 ‘Boy! It sure would …’: ibid, p. 291