Subject: #1 Piston Fighter was British
From: av8r
Date: 7/1/03 2:37 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

Hi ya Art!

The 344th BG was the first group to attack Utah Beach. They bombed a
number of German coastal artillery sites. The next group over Utah
Beach was the 387th BG. Due to cloud cover, all bombing was carried out
below the cloud base. As I indicated in my previous e-mail, the cloud
base ranged from 1,650 ASL to 3,000 feet ASL. The 366th BG was the last
to drop its ordnance, just a mere five minutes before the initial
landings took place. They carpet bombed the area using 100 pound bombs
that tore up the barbed wire and explode buried land mines, both
anti-tank and anti-personnel. A beneficial side effect was that bombs
created instant fox holes. They were deep enough for the assaulting
ground forces to use yet not deep enough to hinder either the armored
nor landing vehicles.

Cheers...Chris


You said the magic words that make my blood run cold...100 pounders. (sheesh)We
carried 40 hundred pounders. 40 of the little *******s. Do you know how long
it takes to kick out 40 bombs by intervalometer flying straight and level with
your bomb bay doors open , low enough to take small arms fire?. A lifetime,
that's how long. Talk about time standing still. We used that same damned load
hitting the marshalling yards at Cologne, coming home full of small arms fire;
holes and dents. But those little *******s sure made short work of barbed wire
and railroad tracks and ties.

Arthur Kramer
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer