From the air we could see the complete problem. Henry wrote later: “We were asked to seek out a tank or a mobile 88mm gun in or around the town of Stommeln that was holding up the column. His information was accurate: Henry picked out three panzers traveling at 500-yard intervals into town. The 3rd Armored Division controller, FORMROOM, directed Henry to a suspected tank concentration near the small Cologne suburb of Stommeln. Henry was leading another pair of Thunderbolts, each lugging a pair of 500-pound bombs. In mid-afternoon of March 2, Major Arlo C. The group’s P-47 Thunderbolt pilots attacked designated targets and warned the G.I.s of opposition ahead. While Lopez was forward with the 3rd Armored, the Hell Hawks – that was the name of the 365th Fighter Group, which included the 386th, 387th and 388th Fighter Squadrons – worked closely with other controllers accompanying U.S. “On my arrival I was the envy of the rest of the pilots, for not only had I experienced what our ground troops go through, but also had the opportunity to see the damage we had done to the German war effort, the burned out gun emplacements, destroyed Tiger tanks, gutted buildings, etc…and how grateful the GIs were that we were there to help them.” Lopez reflected on his brief stint with the front line troops: Edward Lopez, a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot who’d served with the tankers as a forward air controller, returned to the 387th Fighter Squadron, but not before procuring a few souvenirs – a fine shotgun, Nazi ceremonial dagger, and a huge swastika banner – taken from abandoned houses in the bombed city. Jones.Īfter helping taking Cologne, the 3rd Armored Division took a well-deserved break from combat. This account from just after the Battle of the Bulge is an excerpt from the book Hell Hawks!: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht by Robert F. During World War II in Europe, the German Tiger tank was a respected and feared fighting machine, but it was not always a match for the robust Republic P-47D Thunderbolt or the men who flew it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |