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3: Training for Combat In October 1942, the Eighth Air Force had seven bomber bases in the Northampton-Cambridge area ofEast Anglia in England. After we landed at Grafton Underwood, I walked to our new barracks , a half-cylinder-shaped metal Quonset hut. The only heat was from a coal stove in the center of a room housing twenty-two first and second lieutenants. Only a few would survive combat over Germany . A year later, only two of our original group from Muroc remained . As I unpacked my gear, I thought about the immediate future . I knew we were undertrained and lacked the expertise to confront experienced Luftwaffe fighter pilots in battle. Colonel LeMay didn't give us any time to worry, however. The next morning he called a group meeting and told us: "You are all confined to base until further notice. Our first combat missions will be against the German submarine bases on the French coast. It'll be on-the-job training. Every member of each crew is to study aircraft identification. We will have no fighter protection in target areas. Our fighters don't have the range to escort us to the targets . When you see a fighter turning into our formation, there will be no second chance. Shoot at it. You've got to learn to identify and distinguish German fighters from RAF and American fighters. "Navigators and bombardiers are to study maps of the French coastline, the pictures of the sub bases, and the surrounding areas. The weather here is terrible. It may be our worst enemy. You must learn to recognize landmarks and targets immediately. You won't have a second chance. We've got to learn to fly in fog, to navigate, and to bomb in bad weather and through holes in the cloud cover. It's going to be difficult to hit a target at high altitude, in cloud cover, over a crowded urban area. The English have barrage balloons tethered all over England as a defense against low-flying Nazi fighters and bombers. When you come back to base in bad weather you must know exactly where you are or you'll lose a wing on the cables." We started in-flight formation and gunnery training for the first time. LeMay flew in a gunner position in the lead plane. The for23 24 WITH THE POSSUM AND THE EAGLE mation flying and gunnery practice was nearly disastrous for Mac McDonald , one of our senior pilots. Mac towed a long cloth sleeve behind a twin-engine A-20 bomber. The gunners tracked Mac's plane and attempted to hit the sleeve with machine-gun fire. One of our gunners missed the target sleeve and hit McDonald in the shoulder. He made a remarkable landing with only one hand on the controls. He used his teeth to cut back the throttles. LeMay was furious at the gunner. After we landed, he ordered all crews to the skeet range. "I knew that the gunnery stunk, but I didn't know it was that bad!" he said angrily. "You guys are so lousy that I'll outshoot every one of you." He kept his word; he wasn't through. Although we were exhausted after a long day, he then led the group in formation flying. It was the first tight formation we had ever flown. LeMay rode in the top turret of the lead aircraft and issued instructions over the radio to each plane to get in as close as possible to the wing tips beside it. "We've got to circle our wagons," he said gruffly. "We won't have any long-range fighter protection. Our only chance of survival is to maintain a tight formation. A tight, close formation will concentrate two hundred guns anytime the Nazis attempt to fly through our formation ." We soon learned that the close, flat formation other groups had been using left us vulnerable to fighter attacks. LeMay devised a new staggered box formation with a lead, low, and high squadron. This revised formation had a dual purpose: it maximized the number of bombs on the target and gave us more concentrated firepower than a level formation. We also had to learn to cope with the cloud cover that concealed the targets as well as the freezing cold. Temperatures of 40 degrees below zero were a continual problem, so we wore sheepskin-lined leather jackets and boots. Oxygen at high altitudes helped keep us warm, but the...

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