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This is about James Megellas

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James Megellas joined the U.S. army in May 1942 and saw action in Italy, Holland, Belgium and Germany. He took part in some of the most famous battles of the Second World War and is one of the most highly decorated members of the 82nd Airborne Division.
After joining the U.S. Army in May 1942, James Megellas wanted to see combat as quickly as possible. In October 1943, after months of training, he joined the 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. He first saw action with this unit in Italy where he was in charge of a platoon during battles in the Apennine Mountains and the Anzio bridgehead.

Because of the heavy losses it had suffered in Italy, his regiment stayed in England while the rest of the 82nd Airborne Division jumped into France on the 6th of June 1944 during D-Day (Operation Overlord). In September 1944 Megellas and his unit rejoined the 82nd Division during Operation Market Garden. During this operation, Megellas took part in the daring crossing of the Waal river in Nijmegen. Under murderous enemy fire the paratroopers crossed the Waal river in flimsy canvas boats, suffering heavy casualties. For his actions, Megellas was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross. After Market Garden Megellas and his unit took part in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and in the invasion of Germany where he witnessed the liberation of the Wöbbelin concentration camp at Ludwigslust.

In January 1946, Megellas led his company down Fifth Avenue in New York in the big Victory Parade. After the war he retired from active army service and was active in politics. He wrote a memoir of his wartime experiences called 'All the way to Berlin'.

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James Megellas joined the U.S. army in May 1942 and saw action in Italy, Holland, Belgium and Germany. He took part in some of the most famous battles of the Second World War and is one of the most highly decorated members of the 82nd Airborne Division.

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In January 1946 James returns Home to New York safely.

Quote #10 -
"My return to the United States in January 1946..."(page 287)

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The Allies won the Battle of the Bulge even though they had causalities. Those causalities cause some challenges but they got through it.

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They are still pushing on the Germans and when they are going down a hill there are some causalities.

Quote #9 -
"As we charged down the hill, the flak wagons turned their weapons on us. We had many casualties from that encounter."(page 189)

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They are making a push with out much challenge. There are no German planes shooting at them

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This is about the Battle of the Bulge

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Called "the greatest American battle of the war" by Winston Churchill, the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium was Adolf Hitler's last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front. Hitler's aim was to split the Allies in their drive toward Germany. The German troops' failure to divide Britain, France and America with the Ardennes offensive paved the way to victory for the allies.

Lasting six brutal weeks, from December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945, the assault, also called the Battle of the Ardennes, took place during frigid weather conditions, with some 30 German divisions attacking battle-fatigued American troops across 85 miles of the densely wooded Ardennes Forest.

As the Germans drove into the Ardennes, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle's name. The battle proved to be the costliest ever fought by the U.S. Army, which suffered over 100,000 casualties. The formerly serene, wooded region of Ardennes was hacked into chaos by fighting as the Americans dug in against the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and, later, Bastogne, which was defended by the 101st Airborne Division.

"Did you ever see land when a tornado's come through? Did you ever see trees and stuff, twisted and broken off? The whole friggin' forest was like that," said U.S. Army Charlie Sanderson in My Father's War: Memories from Our Honored WWII Soldiers.
READ MORE: 8 Things You May Not Know About the Battle of the Bulge
The surprise German attack broke through the front on day one as stories quickly spread of massacred soldiers and civilians, according to the U.S. Army Center of Military History.

"For those who had lived through 1940, the picture was all too familiar. Belgian townspeople put away their Allied flags and brought out their swastikas," the center writes. "Police in Paris enforced an all-night curfew. British veterans waited nervously to see how the Americans would react to a full-scale German offensive, and British generals quietly acted to safeguard the Meuse River's crossings. Even American civilians, who had thought final victory was near were sobered by the Nazi onslaught."

Troops Faced Severe Cold

Hitler's mid-December timing of the attack-one of the bloodiest of the war-was strategic, as freezing rain, thick fog, deep snow drifts and record-breaking low temperatures brutalized the American troops. More than 15,000 "cold injuries"-trench foot, pneumonia, frostbite-were reported that winter.

"I was from Buffalo, I thought I knew cold," baseball Hall of Famer and WWII veteran Warren Spahn said in The Love of Baseball. "But I didn't really know cold until the Battle of the Bulge."

Nazis Sent in Imposters and Changed Road Signs

Another Nazi strategy was to attempt to infiltrate the Allied troops.

Veteran Vernon Brantley, a private first class in the 289th Regiment, told the Fort Jackson Leader in 2009 that his unit had just arrived in Germany from France when they were told to load up and return to Luxembourg.

"We got word that the Germans had dropped a lot of paratroopers behind our lines, and that they were dressed like American Soldiers and spoke English," he said. "... They were there to create confusion."

The Germans also changed road signs and spread misinformation.

"The Nazis were carefully groomed for their dangerous mission," LIFE magazine reported in 1945. "They spoke excellent English and their slang had been tuned up by close association with American prisoners of war in German camps. ... Under the rules of the Hague Convention these Germans were classifiable as spies and subject to an immediate court martial by a military tribunal. After brief deliberation American officers found them guilty, and ordered the usual penalty for spies: death by firing squad."

To stop infiltrators, the U.S. troops would ask suspected Germans to answer American trivia questions.

"Three times I was ordered to prove my identity," Gen. Omar Bradley recalled, according to the Washington Post. "The first time by identifying Springfield as the capital of Illinois; the second by locating the guard between the center and the tackle on a line of scrimmage; the third time by naming the then-current spouse of a blonde named Betty Grable."
Click here to watch the full episode on the Battle of the Bulge and more from WWII in HD on History Vault
Allied Air Forces Arrived on Christmas Day

It wasn't until Christmas Day that the weather conditions finally cleared, allowing Allied air forces to strike.

"It was on that bright, clear and cold Christmas morning in 1944 that the ground froze solid," Brantley told the Leader. "The tanks and air forces could finally maneuver, and get assistance to all of us who were previously blocked off. ... It was a welcome sign to see the sun come up. It meant that we were alive for one more day."

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, and Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. led the American defense to restore the front. According to the National Archives' Bloodiest Battle, Eisenhower gave Patton the Third Army, about 230,000 soldiers, and ordered him to head to the Ardennes.

101st Airborne Division Arrive in Bastogne

In the small, pivotal Belgian town of Bastogne, the Germans surrounded thousands of Allied troops. Eisenhower, in response, sent in more units, including the famed 101st Airborne Division.

"When the Germans sent a message demanding the surrender of the 101st on December 22, they got a one-word response from its commander, Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe: 'Nuts!'" the Bloodiest Battle states. "This was interpreted by German officers as a more colorful-and negative-response to their demand. The day after Christmas, units of Patton's rapidly approaching Third Army finally arrived, broke through the German lines, and rescued the troops."

Claiming victory of the battle on January 25, 1945, and the Allies headed for Berlin. The war ended less than five months later with Germany's May 7 surrender.

In all, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, 1 million-plus Allied troops, including some 500,000 Americans, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, with approximately 19,000 soldiers killed in action, 47,500 wounded and 23,000-plus missing. About 100,000 Germans were killed, wounded or captured.

"The Ardennes campaign of 1944-45 was only one in a series of difficult engagements in the battle for Europe," wrote John S.D. Eisenhower, in his 1969 book, The Bitter Woods. "Nevertheless, it can be said that the Ardennes campaign epitomized them all. For it was here that American and German combat soldiers met in the decisive struggle that broke the back of the Nazi war machine."

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Battle of the Bulge - Definition, Dates & Who Won

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The Battle of the Bulge took place in December 1944, after Adolf Hitler launched a surprise blitzkrieg against Allied Forces in northwest Europe. Caught off-guard, American units fought to stem the German advance. As the Germans pushed through American defenses, the front line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle's name.

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The battle of the Bulge took place from December 17 1944 to February 19 1945.

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"17 December 1944 to 19 February 1945"(page 183)

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This is about Operation Market Garden

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Second World War

In the summer of 1944, the Allies launched a daring airborne operation to secure the River Rhine crossings and advance into northern Germany. Although it ultimately failed to achieve its objectives, the determination and courage shown by the airborne troops and the units that assisted them made Market Garden one of the Second World War's (1939-45) most famous battles.

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Second World War In the summer of 1944, the Allies launched a daring airborne operation to secure the River Rhine crossings and advance into northern Germany. Although it ultimately failed to achieve its objectives, the determination and courage shown by the airborne troops and the units that assisted them made Market Garden one of the Second World War's (1939-45) most famous battles.

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They were taken prisoner by Germans but he was hurt so he was in a hospital before being transferred to a Prisoner camp. His POW number was 92789, he arrived in Utrecht on September 18, 1944. Willoughby (someone who was captured with him) escaped captivity on his third attempted

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Their plane was shot right before the jump zone so they were able to jump but they were still early so it didn't go as planned. James was burned a little but made it to the ground safely. They got into two house but then later were taken prisoner by Germans.

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Before Anyone even jumped on of the planes with 16 men on it was shot and caught on fire. This happened when they still had 45 minutes of flying over enemy territory.

Quote #7 -
"...enemy ground fire hit one of the H Company planes, setting the belly of the plane on fire. The plane carrying sixteen men from the platoon led by Lt. Isadore Rynkiewicz of H Company."(page 95)

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Operation Market Garden is was a very historical Airborne operation because of the size of it. People knew it would be historical before it happened so they gather in streets with flags to watch the planes fly over.

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"They were witnessing history in the making, the largest airborne fleet ever assembled, taking off for the greatest airborne invasion ever conceived."(page 95)

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James Megellas gets hurt and has to go to the 95th Evacuation Hospital. When he got there he was giving a shot, then he was told to count. He got to 100 before passing out, then he woke up and the nurse told him he was asleep for 36 hours.

Quote #5 -
"The army nurse told me that I had been out for thirty-six hours under the anesthetic."(page 69)

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Most of the British forces are retreating and H company have had quite a few casualties. The US forces are determined to stop the British and aren't going to back down; although they are still under heavy fire.

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A German dive bomber dropped some bombs and it wounded a couple and killed a few more which caused a lot of chaos. This doesn't include the German machine gunners that were firing down on them.

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This is about the Battle of Anzio

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Battle of Anzio, (January 22-June 5, 1944) World War II battle, fought during the Italian Campaign. Some 50,000 Allied troops staged an amphibious landing (codenamed Operation Shingle) at Anzio, 33 miles (53 km) south of Rome, in an effort to bypass the strong German defenses along the Gustav Line.

From Sicily to the invasion of southern Italy

After their successful operations in North Africa and Sicily, the Allies had a wide choice of directions for their next offensive. Calabria, the "toe" of Italy, was a short distance from Allied armies in Sicily and most obvious possible destination, the "shin" was also vulnerable, and the "heel" was also very attractive. The two army corps of Montgomery's Eighth Army crossed the Strait of Messina and landed on the "toe" of Italy on September 3, 1943. Although the initial resistance was practically negligible, they made only very slow progress, as the terrain, with only two good roads running up the coasts of the great Calabrian "toe" prevented the deployment of large forces. On the day of the landing, however, the Italian government agreed to the Allies' secret terms for a capitulation. It was understood that Italy would be treated with leniency in direct proportion to the part that it would take, as soon as possible, in the war against Germany. The Italian surrender was announced on September 8.

The landing on the "shin" of Italy, at Salerno, just south of Naples, was begun on September 9, by the mixed U.S.-British Fifth Army, under U.S. Gen. Mark Clark. Transported by 700 ships, 55,000 troops made the initial assault, and 115,000 more followed up. At first they were faced only by the German 16th Panzer Division. Although German commander Field Marshal Albert Kesselring had only eight weak divisions to defend all of southern and central Italy, he had had time to plan since the overthrow of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in July 1943. Kesselring had been expecting a blow at the "shin," and his counterstroke made the success of the Salerno landing precarious for six days. It was not until October 1 that the Fifth Army entered Naples.

By contrast, the much smaller landing on the "heel" of Italy, which had been made on September 2 (the day preceding the invasion of the "toe"), took the Germans by surprise. Notwithstanding the paucity of its strength in men and in equipment, the expedition captured two good ports, Taranto and Brindisi, in a very short time, but it lacked the resources to advance promptly. Nearly a fortnight passed before another small force was landed at Bari, the next considerable port north of Brindisi, to push thence unopposed into Foggia.

It was the threat to their rear from the "heel" of Italy and from Foggia that had induced the Germans to fall back from their positions defending Naples against the Fifth Army. When the Italian government declared war against Germany on October 13, Kesselring was already receiving reinforcements and consolidating the German hold on central and northern Italy. The Fifth Army was checked temporarily on the Volturno River, only 20 miles (32 km) north of Naples, then more lastingly on the Garigliano River, while the Eighth Army, having made its way from Calabria up the Adriatic coast, was likewise held on the Sangro River. Autumn and midwinter passed without the Allies making any notable impression on the Germans' Gustav Line, which ran for 100 miles (160 km) from the mouth of the Garigliano through Cassino and over the Apennines to the mouth of the Sangro.

The Anzio landings and the fall of Rome

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had argued that Italy was the soft underbelly of Hitler's Fortress Europe. While the Italian people had surrendered within days of the Allied landings, Italy's terrain was much less accommodating. By the end of 1943, the Allies had advanced only 70 miles (113 km) beyond Salerno in four months of difficult fighting. Most of that ground had been gained during September, and thereafter the rate of progress became so gradual that it recalled the attrition warfare of World War I.

Such grinding tactics sometimes succeeded, but far more often resulted in disappointment and high casualties. The Italian Campaign was no exception to this rule, and it repeatedly demonstrated that direct attack on narrow fronts commonly resulted in negative outcomes. Even a significant superiority of force rarely suffices unless there is room for maneuver, which requires a relatively wider front. The Italian peninsula is barely 100 miles (160 km) wide, and most of that space is filled with the spine of the Apennines and its ribs. Once the German Supreme Command had decided that it would not cede Italy to the Allies, the establishment of a reasonable defensive density was bound to produce strategic cramp in the Allied advance up the leg of Italy.

Having experienced a measure of success with previous amphibious operations in the Mediterranean, early in 1944 the Allies determined to launch a fresh seaborne maneuver against the long coastline in the enemy's rear. To divert attention from the landings-and with the hope of breaching the Gustav Line and launching a unified drive on Rome-the Fifth Army mounted a series of local offensives. The British X Corps on January 17 gained a bridgehead over the Garigliano but made no further progress. The U.S. II Corps (36th Division) on January 20-21 unsuccessfully attempted to force the rain-swelled Rapido. The Americans were facing the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division, one of the best German formations fighting in Italy, and the river crossing was a disaster. Hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded, and nearly 1,000 were captured when they were stranded on the German side of the Rapido.

On January 22 the Allied VI Corps landed on the beaches near Anzio, 33 miles (53 km) south of Rome. The assault force included the U.S. 3rd Division, British 1st Division, and U.S. Rangers. In 24 hours the Allies landed 36,000 troops and 3,000 vehicles and took control of Anzio and the neighbouring town of Nettuno. Only two German battalions were present in the area, and a swift dash inland could have seized the Alban Hills -covering the immediate approach to Rome-or even Rome itself. However, the Allies' plan had been based on the calculation that the Germans would immediately counter the landing. Thus, they were primarily concerned with consolidating the beachhead, while the main forces in the south were to take advantage of the anticipated weakening of the enemy's resistance there. The Germans did not react in the way expected.

When the lack of opposition near Anzio became clear, Gen. Harold Alexander, head of the Anglo-American Fifteenth Army Group, wished to quicken the move inland. VI Corps commander Gen. John P. Lucas opted for a more cautious approach, however, and no serious advance was attempted for more than a week. This allowed Kesselring ample time to switch his reserves to the scene, while he also held in check the forward drive of the main Allied forces on the Cassino sector. By the end of January, the VI Corps had been sealed in. On February 3, the 12th day after the landing, the Germans developed a powerful counteroffensive against the Allied position at Anzio. This in turn was checked, but the Allied force was left in an awkwardly shallow and narrow bridgehead.

Over the next four months, the Germans were able to deliver persistent and accurate artillery fire throughout the flat beachhead-18 miles (29 km) long by 9 miles (14.5 km) deep-and against ships offshore. The Luftwaffe also struck Allied positions and warships; some of the larger vessels were forced to move away from the shore, reducing the amount of naval gun support that could be delivered to the Anzio lodgment. Axis counterattacks reached the peak of their intensity on February 17, but the beachhead was held. During the four months of its existence, the beachhead was reinforced by the U.S. 1st Armoured, 34th, 36th, and 45th divisions and by the British 5th and 56th-the last being later withdrawn.

The bloody stalemate on the Gustav Line continued through most of spring 1944, but, in May of that year, the Allies planned to renew the offensive in Italy in a decisive fashion. The first phase of Alexander's operation comprised a fresh attack on either side of Cassino, where previous offensives had been blocked. To intensify its effect, the Eighth Army, now commanded by Gen. Oliver Leese, shifted its weight from the Adriatic to join with Gen. Mark Clark's Fifth Army in a combined blow against the western sector of the Gustav Line. Wedges were driven into the Gustav Line at a number of points between Cassino and the sea. The most significant penetration was made by Gen. Alphonse Juin's Free French Colonial Corps, which exploited its specialized skill in mountain warfare to pursue a difficult route across the Aurunci Mountains. In three days Juin's corps reached the heights overlooking the Liri valley and created a leverage that loosened the German hold on the Gustav Line. The threat eased the way both for the British to press up the valley and to outflank Cassino, which on May 18 fell to a Polish corps of the Eighth Army, and also for the Americans to push up the coast.

On May 23, 1944, the Allied force at Anzio struck out from the bridgehead. There the Germans had reduced their presence in order to send reinforcements to the south, and the Allied move was timed to exploit the weakening. On the third day the German defense cracked. Once the breakout was achieved, the Germans were short of reserves to meet the Allied follow-through toward the Alban Hills. Simultaneously with the Anzio stroke, the Eighth Army launched an assault on the Germans' final position in the Liri valley, which the Canadian Corps dislodged on the first day. The next day it became clear that the Germans were falling back everywhere. Their retreat was soon accelerated, as the menace from Anzio developed.

Within a few days the direct line of retreat on Rome up Highway 6 was blocked, and the Germans were compelled to fork northeastward up difficult mountain roads, where their retreating columns were more exposed to a hammering from the air. A considerable part of the imperiled army managed to escape from the trap by this branching move, but its chance of covering Rome was forfeited. Alexander now switched all possible strength to his left wing against the other German army and, in a week of tough fighting, loosened its grip on the Alban Hills. Once this strategic breakwater collapsed, the Allied forces quickly flooded the flat country around Rome, capturing the city early on June 5. They had gained the prize which had been so nearly within their grasp nine months earlier, when the Italian government capitulated.

Casualties and significance

The Battle of Anzio cost the Americans nearly 24,000 combat casualties and the British nearly 10,000. The Allies also suffered 37,000 noncombat casualties, an unusually high number for an engagement in the European theatre. Many of these non-battlefield losses were caused by malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases that were endemic to the marshes in the beachhead area. The Germans suffered some 27,500 casualties.

From a tactical standpoint, the Anzio landings were clearly a failure. While the VI Corps succeeded in outflanking the Gustav Line, the decision to delay the advance on Rome played to Kesselring's defensive strengths. As a result, the Allied forces were pinned in the bridgehead for four months. Within the strategy of the Italian Campaign and the overall Allied assault on Fortress Europe, however, the Anzio beachhead represented a threat that German commanders could not ignore. As a result, the 135,000 troops of the German Fourteenth Army were locked down south of Rome at a time when they could have been deployed against advancing Soviet forces on the Eastern Front.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Michael Ray.

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Battle of Anzio | Date, Significance, & Summary

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Battle of Anzio, (January 22-June 5, 1944) World War II battle, fought during the Italian Campaign. Some 50,000 Allied troops staged an amphibious landing (codenamed Operation Shingle) at Anzio, 33 miles (53 km) south of Rome, in an effort to bypass the strong German defenses along the Gustav Line.

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When the lead LCIs started to get to shore the silence broke, they started to receive fire from six Messerschmitt dive bombers. The members of H Company trying to evade fire from the dive bombers.

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"Straight out of the east with the sun at their backs, six Messerschmitt dive-bombers came in low with guns blazing, dropping bombs over the Allied landing areas."(page 50)

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H Company joined a group of cruisers, destroyers, gunboats, submarines, hospital ships, headquarter ships, and scout craft. There was 374 craft out of that there was 210 British, 157 American, 4 Greek, 2 Dutch, and 1 Polish. They assembled by the Anzio/Nettuno coastline.

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James Megalles lost his first man as the platoon leader on December 18, 1943. His name was Private Scannell who was killed by a S mine.

Quote #3 -
"...but I will always remember Private Scannell, the first man killed in a platoon I led."(page 34)

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James Megellas was assigned to the 504th Parachute regiment. Which is part of the 82nd Infantry Airborne division.

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James Megellas got orders to ship out overseas.

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"Finally, after more than three months since my arrival at Fort Benning and a little more than two months after I finished jump school, we got our orders to move out for shipment overseas."(page 18)

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This is about the history of the Aircorps

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The Army Air Corps were the U.S. military service dedicated to aerial warfare between 1926 and 1941. It coalesced as aviation evolved from a component of ground-based infantry tactics into its own branch of the military. It became the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on June 20, 1941 to signify greater autonomy from the Army's command structure. It remained as a combat arm of the Army until 1947, when the Department of the Air Force was established.

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Army Air Corps of the U.S. Military

By the end of 1941 the army air forces had grown substantially but had a long way to go. General Henry H. Arnold commanded a service of twenty-five thousand officers and men, with four thousand aircraft. That year President Franklin Roosevelt called for production of fifty thousand planes, Hermann Göering reportedly laughed at the notion, yet American industry in fact delivered ninety-six thousand to the U.S. services and Allied nations in 1944 alone. At war's end the army air corps comprised seventy-five thousand planes and 2.5 million men-in four years, a hundred-fold increase in personnel and nearly nineteen-fold in aircraft.
Eighth U.S. Army Air Force
In 1942 the ''Mighty Eighth'' came to Britain, where it experienced a lengthy, painful gestation period. Its mission of conducting precision daylight bombing of German industry was hampered, as bomber and fighter groups originally assigned to Gen. Ira Eaker's fledgling force were constantly siphoned off to support the North African and Mediterranean theaters. Additionally, a period of heavy bomber losses threatened morale during 1943, causing doubt whether the daylight air offensive could be sustained. However, by the start of 1944 the Eighth had evolved into a powerful striking arm and was growing stronger. Increasingly capable long-range fighter escorts reduced bomber losses to acceptable levels. It was among the best of the army air corps.

The composition of USAAF units was standardized by 1943. A heavy bombardment group with B-17s or B-24s had four squadrons, each of which typically put up nine planes per mission. Fighter groups had three squadrons, divided into three or four flights of four each. Thus, full-strength bomb groups flew about thirty-six aircraft, while fighter units launched thirty-six to forty-eight planes. The number of planes dispatched on a specific mission depended on maintenance, crew availability, and the nature of the target.

At the time of D-Day the Eighth Air Force numbered forty-one bomb groups, fifteen fighter groups, two special-mission groups, two photo-recon groups, and several independent units. Eighth Bomber Command operated three air divisions: the First, with a dozen B-17 groups; the Third, comprising eleven B-17 Flying Fortress and three B-24 Liberator groups; and the all-Liberator Second Division, with fourteen B-24 groups.

Fighter Command comprised six P-47 Thunderbolt groups, five P-51 Mustang groups, and four still-flying P-38 Lightnings. All the Lightnings were gone within months, replaced by Mustangs. By VE-Day only one Eighth Fighter Command group still flew Thunderbolts.

Bombers of the Mighty Eighth launched 2,362 sorties on 6 June, with merely three Liberators shot down. Most targets were German coastal defenses or transport systems, but poor weather (a widespread undercast) hampered bombing efforts.

The U.S. Army had two army air corps based in Great Britain, with operations after D-Day expected on the continent. The Ninth was the tactical air force, trained and equipped to support Allied ground forces. Originally established and based in northwest Africa, the Ninth moved to England in August 1943 and built up to its June 1944 strength of forty-five groups deployed in eleven combat wings.

The Ninth's eighteen fighter groups (plus two reconnaissance groups) operated under the Ninth and Nineteenth Tactical Air Commands, with three and two wings, respectively. Probably the most influential tactical air commander was Maj. Gen. Elwood R. Quesada of the Ninth TAC. At the time of D-Day by far the most widely flown fighter was the Republic P-47, which was extremely well suited to the fighter-bomber role. Thirteen groups flew Thunderbolts, while three were equipped with Lockheed P-38s and two with North American's P-51. A photo group and a tactical reconnaissance group flew ''recce'' versions of the P-38 and P-51-the F-5 and F-6, respectively.

Eleven tactical bomb groups constituted Ninth Bomber Command, under Brig. Gen. Samuel E. Anderson. He controlled three bomb wings of three or four groups each: eight groups with Martin's sleek B-26 Marauder and three with Douglas A-20 Havocs. As with the Eighth Air Force, bomb groups comprised four squadrons, fighter groups three.

Of direct importance to Overlord was Ninth Troop Carrier Command, with fourteen Douglas C-47/C-53 groups in three wings. Both types were military versions of the enormously successful DC-3 airliner; the C-47 Skytrain was capable of towing gliders as well as delivering parachutists, while C-53 Skytroopers carried only troops. Seventeen Skytrains were shot down on D-Day.

On 6 June the Ninth Air Force lost only twenty-two combat aircraft from 3,342 sorties: seven P-47s, six B-26s, five A-20s, two P-38s, and two F-6s.

Airborne Units of the Army Air Corps

In the fifteenth century Leonardo Da Vinci envisioned airborne soldiers, and in the nineteenth century Napoleon Bonaparte pondered invading Britain with French troops in hot-air balloons. But not until the 1940s did the technology exist to transport large numbers of specially trained soldiers behind enemy lines and deliver them by parachute, glider, or transport aircraft.

German army airborne units included paratroops and glider and transport-lifted infantry, all controlled by the Luftwaffe. Eventually nine parachute divisions were established, but few Fallschirmjaeger (literally ''parachute hunters'') made combat jumps. Nonetheless, Germany led the way in combat airborne operations, seizing Belgium's Fort Eben Emael in 1940. The Luftwaffe also made history in the first aerial occupation of an island-the costly Crete operation in 1941. However, Germany's Pyrrhic victory proved so costly that no Fallschirmjaeger division was again involved in a major airborne operation. Thereafter, the Luftwaffe parachute forces were employed as light infantry in every theater of operation. Two German airborne divisions, the Third and Fifth, responded to the Allied invasion in Normandy but were hampered by inadequate ground transport.

The British army authorized small army airborne units in 1940 but did not form the Parachute Regiment until 1942. That unit served as a training organization, producing seventeen battalions, of which fourteen were committed to combat. The battalions were formed into the First and Sixth Airborne Divisions, the latter involved in Operation Overlord. Both divisions were committed to the Arnhem assault, Operation Market-Garden, in September 1944.

The U.S. Army formed five army airborne units and divisions during World War II, of which three (the Eighty-second, 101st, and Seventeenth) saw combat in the Mediterranean or the European Theater of Operations. The Eleventh served in the Pacific; the Thirteenth went to Europe in 1945 but was not committed to combat.

Apart from isolated uses of airborne battalions, the first Allied army airborne units operation of note occurred during Operation Husky, the Anglo-American invasion of Sicily in July 1943. Subsequent operations on the Italian mainland perfected doctrine and techniques so that by 1944 the United States and Britain could integrate three airborne divisions into the plan for Overlord. By isolating the vulnerable beachheads from German reinforcements during the critical early hours of 6 June, the airborne troopers gained valuable time for the amphibious forces.

Later uses of British and American army airborne units included the Arnhem operation in September 1944 and the Rhine crossing in March 1945.

Airborne operations were considered high-risk undertakings, requiring commitment of large numbers of valuable assets-elite troops and airlift-and incurring the danger of assault troops being isolated and overwhelmed. The latter occurred on a large scale only once, when supporting Allied ground forces were unable to reach British paratroopers at Arnhem, Holland, in September 1944.

Army Airborne Units in D-Day

Because they were by definition light infantry-without armored vehicles or heavy artillery-paratroopers were laden with enormous personal burdens. Many D-Day troopers carried nearly two hundred pounds of equipment, including their main and reserve chutes, life preserver, primary and secondary weapons and ammunition, water and rations, radios or mines, and other gear. It could take as much as five minutes for a trooper to pull on his parachute harness over his other equipment, and if they sat on the ground many men needed help standing up.

Normal parameters for dropping paratroopers were six hundred feet of altitude at ninety miles per hour airspeed. Owing to weather and tactical conditions, however, many troopers were dropped from 300 to 2,100 feet and at speeds as high as 150 miles per hour.

American paratroopers had to make five qualifying jumps to earn their wings, after which they received a hazardous-duty bonus of fifty dollars per month, ''jump pay.''

The U.S. Eighty-second and 101st Airborne Divisions dropped 13,400 men behind Utah Beach on the west end of the Allied landing areas, while nearly seven thousand men of the British Sixth Division secured bridges behind Sword Beach to the east. The primary objective of the airborne troops was to isolate the beachhead flanks from substantial German reinforcement; the British were more successful than the Americans in doing so. The Sixth Division's seizure of the Orne River bridges became a classic airborne operation.

The elite of the elite among paratroopers were the pathfinders, who were first on the ground. Preceding the main force by nearly an hour, the pathfinders were responsible for guiding troop-carrier aircraft to the landing zones and for marking the target areas. Specialized navigational equipment included the Eureka/Rebecca radar beacon, which transmitted to the lead aircraft in each C-47 formation, and automatic direction-finder (ADF) radios. Holophane lights were laid in T patterns on the ground to mark each drop zone.

Owing to fog, enemy action, and the confusion common to warfare, in Overlord only one of the eighteen U.S. pathfinder teams arrived at the correct drop zone. One entire eight-man team was dropped into the English Channel.

Because of wide dispersion over the Cotentin Peninsula, only about one-third of the American paratroopers assembled themselves under organized leadership, and many landed in the wrong divisional areas. One battalion commander roamed alone for five days, killing six Germans without finding another American. While some troopers sought cover or got drunk on Calvados wine, many others displayed the initiative expected of elite troops. In Normandy the airborne was especially effective in disrupting German communications.

Glider-borne infantry regiments were part of every airborne division, and though they did not originally receive ''jump pay,'' these soldiers were still part of an elite organization. Gliders possessed the dual advantages of delivering a more concentrated force to the landing zone and providing certain heavy equipment unavailable to paratroopers-especially light artillery and reconnaissance vehicles. Gliders were usually flown by noncommissioned pilots, who, once on the ground, took up personal weapons and fought as part of the infantry units they had delivered to the target.

Army Air Corps and their British Counterpart

Avro Lancaster

The Lancaster evolved from the Avro firm's ill-fated Manchester to become one of the great bombers of World War II. With two Rolls-Royce Vulture engines, the Manchester lacked reliability for combat operations and was abandoned after limited production. However, to retrieve as much of the investment as possible, Avro extended the Manchester's wings and put four Merlins on its airframe; pilots were delighted with the result.

The Lancaster Mark I could carry a maximum load of fourteen thousand pounds, and though the average operational loadout was much less, the potential was easily recognized. Stable, easy to fly, and capable of 280 mph at altitudes above most other RAF bombers, the ''Lanc'' was loved by its aircrews.

Though not built in the variety of its Halifax stablemate, the Lancaster nevertheless demonstrated its versatility. The most famous Lancaster mission occurred in 1943, when No. 617 Squadron's modified Avros made low-level attacks on the Rhine dams using Dr. Barnes Wallis's revolutionary skip bombs. The same squadron later used Wallis's awesome eleven-ton ''earthquake'' bombs. On 6 June 1944 Lancasters participated in saturation bombing of German coastal batteries to suppress opposition on the beaches, as well as in attacks on the Le Havre river bridges.

From 1941 to 1945 some eighty Lancaster squadrons flew 156,000 sorties over Occupied Europe, dropping 681,000 tons of bombs-an average of 4,300 pounds of bombs per sortie. The Lanc's peak strength occurred in August 1944 with forty-two operational squadrons, including four Royal Canadian Air Force, two Australian, and one Polish manned. Attrition was heavy, especially during the ''Battle of Berlin'' in early 1944, but production exceeded 7,300 aircraft (87 percent were Mark I and III) from six manufacturers, including Victory Aircraft in Canada.

Bristol Beaufighter

One of the most effective strike aircraft of the war, the Bristol Beaufighter was adapted from the firm's twin-engine Beaufort bomber. The RAF lacked an effective long-range fighter when the war began, and Bristol-one of Britain's oldest aircraft companies-jumped to fill the gap.

Beginning with airframe parts of the Beaufort, Bristol redesigned the older aircraft's fuselage to include a short, pugnacious-looking nose that gave superb forward visibility for the pilot. The observer-navigator sat in a separate cockpit well aft, which proved fortuitous because it afforded ample room for an airborne radar.

The Beaufighter was a powerful aircraft in every respect. It was powered by twin Hercules radial engines, rated at 1,375 horsepower, and it was armed with four 20 mm cannon. The Mark I flew in July 1939 and arrived in squadrons barely a year later. By late summer of 1940, the AI Mark IV radar had been installed, and the Bristol began its successful career as a night fighter. A few American night-fighter squadrons also flew Beaufighters in Britain and the Mediterranean.

Wartime development resulted in several models, including the Merlinpowered Mark II. To enhance its strike capability, the Beaufighter received six machine guns in the wings, but its full potential was not reached until the Mark VI and later. RAF Coastal Command relished the Bristol's exceptional offensive punch, with rockets and a torpedo for antishipping strikes. The Mark X had upgraded Hercules engines of 1,770 horsepower, pushing its top speed over 300 mph.

The early model Beaufighters were regarded as difficult to fly; they were heavy and had to be landed with power on. Later aerodynamic improvements, such as a larger vertical fin and dihedral in the horizontal stabilizers, did much to tame the type's bad habits.

Beaufighters were part of the air order of battle for D-Day, particularly useful for attacking German defenses and coastal shipping. The type also was deployed against Japan, and 364 of the total 5,928 were built under license in Australia.

DeHavilland Mosquito

The plywood Mosquito was a serious challenger for the title of most versatile aircraft of World War II. It performed virtually every mission asked of a land-based aircraft: day and night fighter, light bomber and nocturnal intruder, antishipping and photo-reconnaissance aircraft. The ''Mossie'' accomplished each task with excellent results and was so successful that Germany attempted to build its own Moskito.

Like Bristol's Beaufighter, the Mosquito was conceived as an in-house project by the DeHavilland Company. In 1938 the lightweight, twin-engine DH-98 was regarded as a fast, unarmed bomber. The molded plywood airframe gave rise to the nickname ''Wooden Wonder,'' but the RAF was slow to warm to the concept. However, work progressed, and the prototype first flew in November 1940.

Mosquitos were produced in startling variety, with approximately twenty fighter and thirty bomber variants from 1941 onward. Throughout the type's life it was powered by two Rolls-Royce Merlins rated between 1,230 and 1,700 horsepower. Exceptionally fast, some marks were capable of 425 miles per hour at altitude, and during the V-1 ''Buzz Bomb'' campaign of 1944-45, Mosquitos were among the most successful aircraft at intercepting and destroying the speedy robot bombs.

Entering squadron service in 1942, Mosquitos proved ideal for the pathfinder mission, marking target areas for multi-engine bombers. They also performed low-level strikes against precision targets, such as Gestapo headquarters in Oslo and the Nazi prison at Amiens.

RAF Coastal Command valued the Mosquito as a partner to the Bristol Beaufighter in the antishipping role. Long-range missions against German-controlled shipping in Scandinavian waters were flown with rockets and heavy cannon armament. Mosquitos also logged combat in the Middle East and the Pacific, while American reconnaissance squadrons flew them in Europe and Africa.

During the Normandy campaign, RAF squadrons committed a monthly average of not quite three hundred Mosquitos. From June through August, seventy were shot down and twenty-eight damaged beyond repair-33 percent of the total available.

Mosquito production approached seven thousand, built in Britain, Canada, and Australia, with the last aircraft delivered in 1948. Mosquito pilots and navigators were proud of their machine, knowing they flew one of the most capable combat aircraft of its generation.

Fairey Swordfish

One of the most remarkable military aircraft of all time, the Swordfish was a biplane designed in 1933 and was still in combat in 1945. It was conceived as a carrier-based torpedo plane powered by a Pegasus radial engine of some six hundred horsepower, with a nominal crew of three: pilot, observer, and gunner.

The Mark I entered Royal Navy service in 1936 and appeared little different from most carrier planes of its day-an open-cockpit biplane. Already regarded as obsolete when war began three years later, the ''Stringbag'' had, however, the priceless advantage of availability. It proved its worth repeatedly over the next few years, including a stunningly successful night torpedo and bombing attack on the Italian fleet in Taranto Harbor in 1940. The example set by Fleet Air Arm Swordfish so impressed the Japanese navy that the Pearl Harbor operation was based in part on the Taranto strike.

In 1941 Swordfish off HMS Ark Royal torpedoed the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic, leading to her destruction by surface forces. That same year Swordfish attacked Italian ships in the Mediterranean battle off Cape Matapan. In 1942 the land-based Swordfish attempted to stop the ''Channel Dash'' by German battle cruisers and were nearly all destroyed by German fighters.

Perhaps the Swordfish's greatest contribution during its long service was in the realm of antisubmarine warfare. Flying from escort carriers, late-model aircraft with radar persistently hunted U-boats in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and northern waters. During D-Day, land-based Swordfish conducted antisubmarine patrols in the Channel and its approaches.

Nearly 2,400 of the type were constructed, and one of the many ironies of the Swordfish's career is that it outlived its intended replacement, Fairey's closed-cockpit Albacore. Even when the more advanced Barracuda monoplane arrived in fleet squadrons, the ''Stringbag'' soldiered on, in its own way irreplaceable.

Handley-Page Halifax

The four-engine, twin-tail Halifax bore a general resemblance to its more famous counterpart, the Avro Lancaster, and shared the ''Lanc's'' rags-to-riches story. The Lancaster evolved from the Avro Manchester; similarly, the Halifax began life on the drawing board as a twin-engine bomber but was altered to the multi-engine configuration. Originally powered by four 1,280 hp Rolls-Royce Merlins, the Halifax Mark I first flew in October 1939, barely a month after the war began. However, developmental problems delayed its combat debut until March 1941. The original version, as well as the Mark II and V, retained Merlins until increased demand for Lancasters, Spitfires, and Mosquitos mandated an engine change.

The most common Halifax variants were the Mark III, VI, and VII, all powered by Bristol Hercules air-cooled radials of 1,600 to 1,800 horsepower. The later models also had a different silhouette, with the original front turret deleted in favor of a more streamlined nose to improve top speed. The Mark III was rated at 277 mph.

Halifaxes dominated RAF Bomber Command's No. 4 and 6 Groups but also flew in Coastal Command and Transport Command. Like most British bombers, the Halifax was a single-pilot aircraft, with six other men completing the crew: flight engineer, bombardier (bomb aimer in the RAF), navigator, and gunners. In four years of RAF Bomber Command operations, Halifaxes logged 75,500 sorties with an average bomb load of three thousand pounds.

Extremely versatile, the Handley-Page bomber doubled as a maritime patrol plane, electronic countermeasures platform, paratroop transport, and glider tug. The latter duty was an especially important aspect of the Halifax's contribution to Overlord. In June 1944 at least twenty Halifax squadrons flew from the UK with Bomber Command while others served in the Mediterranean theater.

Total production was 6,176 aircraft, including some postwar manufacture. The type remained in RAF service until 1952.

Hawker Typhoon

The 1938 replacement design for the Hawker Hurricane was the Typhoon, probably the heaviest and potentially the most powerful singleseat fighter proposed until that time. Originally called the Tornado, following a series of engine changes it emerged as the Typhoon in early 1940.However, a difficult development period occupied the next year and a half before engine and airframe problems were resolved.

The first production Typhoon was tested in May 1941 with the 2,200 hp Sabre IIA engine. The new fighter was committed to combat sooner than it should have been, but by late 1942 it was successfully defending British airspace from Luftwaffe hit-and-run raids. Maximum speed was 417 mph at 20,500 feet.

The ''Tiffy'' earned a hard-won reputation as an excellent tactical support aircraft. Distinctive with its chin-mounted radiator, its rugged airframe was able to withstand considerable battle damage and still return home. The Typhoon's armament was optimized for ground attack, with four 20 mm cannon and underwing rails for eight rockets as well as two five hundred-pound bombs.

These rugged British planes were ideally suited for the ground-attack role, and Typhoons took a major toll on German armor and transport during the Normandy campaign.

During the Normandy and Falaise campaigns, Typhoons perfected ''cab rank'' tactics and reported a heavy toll of German transport and armor (one thousand tanks and twelve thousand other vehicles were claimed) but sustained heavy losses. From June through August, 243 Typhoons were lost in action and 173 damaged beyond repair, the heaviest loss rate of any RAF aircraft in the campaign. Hawker produced 3,300 Typhoons before the type was phased out in favor of the bigger, faster Tempest in 1944. Tempests played a limited role in the Normandy campaign, with an average monthly availability of fifty-fifty aircraft.

Short Sunderland

The Short Brothers company gained considerable prewar experience with its ''Empire'' series of transoceanic airliners, so it was no surprise that the Sunderland became Britain's premier flying boat of the Second World War. The prototype, first flown in October 1937, was powered by four 1,065 hp Pegasus radial engines. The Mark V, delivered in 1943, used American Pratt and Whitney radials of 1,200 horsepower. With as many as a dozen crewmen, the big boat had enormous range (nearly three thousand miles) and could remain airborne for more than thirteen hours, cruising at about 135 mph.

Most Sunderlands in Great Britain were assigned to RAF Coastal Command general reconnaissance squadrons, conducting patrol and antisubmarine missions. Various marks had different armament, but all included at least bow and tail turrets; a dorsal turret also was added. On rare occasions when aerial opposition was encountered, the seemingly ungainly Sunderland could protect itself against enemy twin-engine aircraft.

Prior to D-Day, Sunderlands covered the Bay of Biscay on a daily basis, suppressing U-boats and tracking coastal convoys. It was tedious, unglamorous work but an important part of the Allied effort.

The Sunderland remained in production until war's end, by which time 739 had been delivered, and it was kept in service until 1958.

Supermarine Spitfire

No single aircraft has so captured the world's imagination as the Royal Air Force's sleekly elegant Spitfire. Tracing its ancestry to a successful line of racers, the Spitfire was designed by Supermarine's chief engineer, Reginald J. Mitchell, who had produced the Schneider Trophy champions of the 1930s. First flown in March 1936, the prototype was powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin, a liquid-cooled V-12 of one thousand horsepower.

Production Spitfires were delivered in June 1938, and they equipped eleven RAF squadrons when war broke out in September 1939. Over the next year their strength increased; nineteen squadrons were available at the start of the Battle of Britain. The 199 Spitfire Ia models constituted not quite one-third of the RAF's frontline fighter strength.

By 1944 the most significant types were the Mark IX fighter and the Mark XI, a high-altitude photo-reconnaissance platform. ''PR'' Spitfires were flown by U.S. Army Air Forces units as well. The Mark IX featured a Merlin 60 engine, two 20 mm cannon, and four .303 caliber machine guns; its top speed was 400 mph at twenty thousand feet. Though considered an interim ''anti Focke-Wulf '' design, the Mark IX proved itself versatile and long-lived, accounting for one-quarter of total production of the type.

One unusual aspect of the Spitfire's career involved training U.S. Navy pilots to fly the British fighter. Realizing that naval gunfire spotting would be an important part of Overlord, cruiser-based aviators were qualified in Spitfires on the theory that it was easier to transition a trained spotter to fighters than to train a fighter pilot in gunfire support. Because the spotters had to fly over hostile territory, the Curtiss SOC biplanes ordinarily used would have been highly vulnerable to German flak.

During the Normandy campaign nearly half of all RAF fighters were Spitfires, which roamed almost at will over northern France, attacking German transport and lines of communications. Despite its potentially vulnerable liquid-cooled engine, the Spitfire was well suited as a tactical support aircraft owing to its speed, armament, and dive-bombing capability. Some 365 Spitfires were shot down from June through August, with nearly three hundred written off-41 percent of the nearly two thousand available.

Later in the war, more powerful Griffin engines were mated to the Spitfire airframe, resulting in even better performance. Additionally, both modified and specially built Supermarines were flown off British aircraft carriers as Seafires, bringing a degree of fighter performance previously unknown to the Royal Navy.

Total Spitfire and Seafire production reached twenty-two thousand units, in at least forty marks.

Westland Lysander

The gull-wing Lysander established a notable record on RAF special operations during World War II. Originally received as Army Co-Operation Command's first monoplane in 1938, it was powered by a Bristol Mercury or Perseus radial engine of 870 to 905 horsepower. Top speed was rated at 219 miles per hour. Its two-man crew comprised a pilot and observergunner, with room for a passenger in the middle cockpit.

The Lysander was designed to land in confined spaces, affording liaison between army units or the army and air force. With aerodynamically activated slats and flaps, it could be flown down to airspeeds as slow as 65 mph. Though the seemingly ungainly machine carried three machine guns and could drop small bombs, it was seldom used offensively. It was more often employed in liaison and tactical reconnaissance missions as well as target towing and air-sea rescue.

In support of D-Day, Lysanders were often the machine of choice in delivering British, French, and other Allied intelligence operatives and agents into Occupied Europe. Lysanders succored resistance forces as well.

Total production was 1,425 aircraft.

Army Air Corps and Operation Torch

Until late 1942 much of northwestern Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) was under control of the Vichy French government, totaling 125,000 soldiers in the territories, along with 210 tanks, 500 aircraft, and coastal artillery. Victory would mean clearing Axis powers from North Africa, reducing German pressure on Russia and improving Allied naval control of the Mediterranean Sea. The British-American invasion plans of French North Africa was known as Operation Torch.

Operation Torch landed on the shores of French Morocco on November 8, 1942, with Ranger (CV-4), Suwanee (ACV-27), Sangamon (ACV26), and Santee (ACV-29) supporting U.S. forces north and south of Casablanca. In all, the four flattops embarked 109 Grumman F4F-4 fighters with sixty-two Douglas SBD-3 and Grumman TBF-1 bombers. Operation Torchwas assembled and launched so quickly that many pilots had little opportunity for training. Some had not flown in two weeks-an inordinately long layoff for carrier aviators.

The Casablanca landings were opposed by Vichy French forces allied with Germany. The defenders counted about two hundred aircraft, including American-built Curtiss fighters and Martin bombers.

Things began poorly. On November 8 a flight of seven Santee Wildcats got lost and ran low on fuel. One ditched and five crashlanded ashore with one pilot lost. Ranger's Fighting Squadron Four lost six planes on its first mission, though Sangamon F4Fs claimed four shootdowns without loss. Later that day eighteen Ranger SBDs attacked harbor facilities including the thirty-five thousand-ton battleship Jean Bart, whose fifteen-inch guns posed a threat to Allied ships. She was partly sunk at her mooring while a submarine was destroyed.

When a French surface force steamed out to engage the U.S. warships, Dauntlesses and Wildcats descended to bomb and strafe. A light cruiser and two destroyers were damaged enough to be run aground to prevent their sinking.

On November 9, Ranger SBDs were back over Casablanca Harbor where Vichy antiaircraft batteries still posed a threat. Dauntlesses hit Jean Bart again, knocking out her remaining AA mounts. Meanwhile, Curtiss P-40s took off from Chenango (ACV-28), flying ashore to newly captured airfields. It was a precursor of other joint ArmyNavy operations throughout the war.

Operation Torch provided a laboratory for carrier aviators to perfect their trade. They flew support missions for ground troops, sank a Vichy submarine at sea, and engaged in air combat. Some of their opponents were combat veterans of the 1939-40 campaign. A Ranger pilot, Lieutenant (jg) Charles A. Shields, bailed out of his riddled F4F, and a Frenchman flying a Hawk buzzed him as he parachuted to earth, "wagging his wingtips and waving and laughing like hell." Still, the tailhook fighters downed twenty-five Vichymen against five Wildcats lost in dogfights.

Losses were stiff, however, amounting to nearly 25 percent by the time the fighting ended on November 10. Ground fire and operational losses were by far the greatest causes, forcing planners to allot more aircraft to future operations.

Army Air Corps: The Final Aerial Combat Mission of WW2
The following is an account of Captain Jerry Yellin, who flew the last combat mission of WWII on the morning of August 15, 1945, out of Iwo Jima. From April to August 1945, Yellin and a small group of fellow fighter pilots flew dangerous bombing and strafe missions over Japan. Even days after America dropped the atomic bombs-on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9-the pilots continued to fly. Though Japan had suffered unimaginable devastation, the emperor still refused to surrender. A full account of Yellin's war-time experience can be found in the book The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II.
The P-51s' mission that day started out well.

Cruising above the Pacific under the morning sun, the Americans had approached the Japanese coastline without incident. Jerry wondered how many more missions like this he would have to fly. They'd all thought the war was over, but now, here he was again, heading to strike a stubbornly resistant enemy.

But down below, in the nation they were about to attack, a philosophical battle was raging on whether to surrender or fight on. The "Big Six"-the six military officers running Japan-had been split by a vote of 3-3 on when and how to end the war with honor. In general, hard, passionate divisions of opinion existed among the Japanese military: some of the older officers wanted to surrender to prevent the destruction of Japan, while others wanted to fight on to the death and kill as many Americans as possible.

The previous night, while another 300 American B-29s strafed Japan again, a group of rogue Japanese officers had started a coup against Prime Minister Suzuki and Emperor Hirohito. The officers burned the prime minister's office and surrounded the Imperial Palace, hoping to kidnap the emperor, all in an effort to prevent Japan's leadership from thinking about surrendering. For these officers, and for so many of the Japanese people, surrender was not an option. There was glory in death, but only shame in surrender; Japan, for its part, had never been invaded or lost a war in its history.

Fortunately for the rest of the world, the coup did not succeed. A group of senior Japanese officers talked the insurgents off the ledge, convincing them that there was nowhere to go. Bu while the revolt ended, the war did not, and so, with the shoreline of the enemy territory coming into view and Phil Schlamberg, his dear friend and fellow pilot, on his wing, Jerry knew it was time to go back to work.

On Jerry's order, al the planes in his squadron dropped their external fuel tanks over the ocean, then started their familiar aerial trek over the great, snow-capped peak of Mount Fuji. As of yet, there had been no radio signal with the word "UTAH," signaling the end of the war.

As the Americans approached the Japanese capital, they began to identify targets. Within minutes, they swooped down over airfields and attacked despite heavy ground fire. Tracer bullets flew up from the Japanese guns as the Severity-Eighth made multiple passes at each target. Phil stayed tight on Jerry's wing, just as instructed.

After strafing the last airfield, Jerry checked his fuel gauge and saw he was still in good shape. But when one of the pilots radioed that his tank had reached the ninety-gallon mark-the amount a Mustang needed for the return flight-it was time to pull up and begin plotting the course back to Iwo Jima.

Jerry looked over at Phil, who was still on his wing, and give him a thumbs up.

Phil looked back and returned the gesture.

Confidence. Maybe it was working.

With the battle of Tokyo complete, Jerry set his course back out to the ocean and banked to the south. The three other Mustangs in Jerry's squadron returned with him. A few moments later, as they approached the coast where they would rendezvous with the navigational B-29s, they neared a cloud cover in front of them, often the case when approaching the atmospheric temperature inversions near the coast. With Phil still tight on his wing, Jerry led the four Mustangs into the cloud bank. Flying at an altitude of about 7,000 feet, Jerry focused his eyes on his navigation instruments, as the interior of the white, puffy clouds blocking his view of everything else.

But when the Mustangs emerged on the other side of the clouds, a devastating reality soon surfaced. Phil was gone. Most likely, he had been brought down by antiaircraft bullets fired into the clouds. There was no sign of him.

Jerry was devastated. When he landed at Iwo Jima, meanwhile, he learned something else: the war was over. The emperor had announced Japan's surrender three hours earlier, while Jerry and his flight were still over Japan. The code word UTAH had been broadcast to U.S. aircraft over the country, but the word had not reached the planes of the Seventy-Eighth until they landed.

It was a surreal feeling as Jerry climbed out of his plane and jumped down to the airfield, standing on a once-bloody Pacific island. Now, suddenly, it was a world at peace. The men of the Seventy-Eighth had a saying, "Alive in '45." That had been their goal, and now it was their reality. They were going home, alive.

As Jerry walked away from his plane, another realization hit him: he had just flown the final combat mission of the war, and Phil was the final combat death of the great war. One day, after Jerry had time to collect his emotions and his thoughts, the great historical significance of the mission he'd just flown would sink in. But for now, one thought consumed his mind.

At last, it was time to go home.

Cite This Article

"A History of the Army Air Corps" History on the Net
© 2000-2022, Salem Media.
March 30, 2022 <https://www.historyonthenet.com/history-army-air-corps>
More Citation Information.

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A History of the Army Air Corps - History

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Loading... The Army Air Corps were the U.S. military service dedicated to aerial warfare between 1926 and 1941. It coalesced as aviation evolved from a component of ground-based infantry tactics into its own branch of the military. It became the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) on June 20, 1941 to signify greater autonomy from the Army's command structure.

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James was accepted to be a glider pilot, so he was transferred  to Lubbock Army Flying School(LAFS). He graduated and was now in the Air corps; in less than six months James had four different service insignia's: Infantry, Armored Force, Signal Corps and Air Corps. But to become a glider pilot he had to go to a few other schools like Army air navigation school, Army Air force Glider Training Detachment(AAFGTD).

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James was transferred from Fort Knox to Fort Monmouth. In this transfer he was changed from combat arms into the signal corps school, signal corps which is military communication. James is mad because he wanted to see action and in the signal corps that was not very likely. He later graduated signal corps school and became a signal corps officer which transferred him to Fort Meade.

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James Megellas graduated college and became a second lieutenant in the United States Army

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"on the day of graduation-28 May 1942-when I walked across the stage dressed in a black cap and gown, I was given a diploma in my left hand and an officer's commission in my right. I was a second lieutenant of infantry in the U.S. Army."(page 2)

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Megellas, James. All the Way to Berlin: A Paratrooper at War in Europe. The Random House Publishing Group, 2003