Bill’s blog archive: Daily Posts

B 26 Marauder
B 26 Marauder
B 26 Marauder
B 26 Marauder
B 26 Marauder
B 26 Marauder
B 26 Marauder
B 26 Marauder
B 26 Marauder

“Flying Around Beneath the Overcast”

Sometimes the reports are sparse, despite the tremendous loss of life and damage to property. On June 6, 1944, B-26 ‘Marauders’ of the 394th Bomb Group (Medium) were among those attacking coastal batteries at St. Martin de Varreville, in Normandy, France.  As students of the D-Day invasion know, the weather was very poor that day.  In the rainy bad weather and the early morning dark, two B-26’s of the 394th collided in mid-air, in the area of Gillingham, England. The crash report...
P 38 Lightning
P 38 Lightning
P 38 Lightning
P 38 Lightning
P 38 Lightning
P 38 Lightning
P 38 Lightning

Fighter Sweep to Meiktila

Twenty P-38 Lightning’s of the 459th Fighter Squadron left their base at Chittagong (present-day Bangladesh) for a fighter sweep against Japanese Army positions in Meiktila, Burma (Myanmar) on June 6, 1944.  Two of the American fighters were downed. Second Lieutenant William C. Baumeister, Jr., reported that he talked to one of the missing, Captain Walter F. Duke, on “several occasions” during the mission via radio: Lieutenant Baumeister also witnessed the plane piloted by 1st...