Part VII
The continent was "jumping"! Our invasion forces really had the Nazis guessing and they were on the run. Hodges was ram-rodding "Big Number One" and, of course, ole' "Blood and Guts" was really in his element as the Third Army was well into its dash across Brittany. A man called Simpson had taken over the Ninth Army and General Patch was moving his war-seasoned divisions of the Seventh, rapidly up the Rhone River Valley from southern France. The French First Army, too, was moving northward. And my, Gawd, even deah ole' "Monty" was raisin' a wee bit of a stew along the northern fringes.
Abandoned at Chateaudun this Junkers Ju 52/3m, A7+HL of Luftverkehrsgruppe (civil airline group), is perhaps one of the most photographed in our archive. Black and white photos of this wreck have been widely published...some incorrectly placing this aircraft in Mons, Belgium. By the time it was photographed here, it had been scavenged for war trophies. NOTE: The Ju 52, considered one of the great aircraft of history, started life as an airliner with Lufthansa and earned it's war-wings over Spain with the Legion Kondor. Known as "Tante Ju" and "Iron Annie", the 52 served with foriegn air forces until 1975.(Richard Kill) The Ninth Air Force had shepherded the invasion forces which had quickly taken Cherbourg and the whole Cotentin peninsula and spearheaded Patton's blitzkrieg drive out over the Brittany peninsula around and past Paris across the Seine. By the end of August the ground forces with which the Ninth Air Force was teamed even had driven the Nazis across some of their own boundaries. It was the beginning of the ending. But even so there was plenty left to be done.
As the allied invasion forces expanded their beachheads and moved deeper into France, it became evident that the 10th Reconnaissance Group must leave England and move closer to the scene of activities. Actually just eleven days after General Patton began his drive through Brittany the 34th with the 10th Group had moved to Rennes/St. Jacques airfield at the head of the Brest peninsula in France.
The 10th was now a "true" reconnaissance outfit. Russ Berg, an officer with tactical support experience had just replaced "Wild Bill" Reed as the Group Commander; the 31st and the 34th still provided the photography effort (the 30th had previously left to join the 67th Group); but we had also picked up two F- 6 (P-51's) squadrons to provide the quick visual "on-the-spot" reconnaissance now also required. the 12th and the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadrons were our new members. The 15th joined us at Chalgrove with the 12th coming aboard on the continent. And we were now operating under the XIXth Tactical Air Command.
Yes, things were movin' -- including us. Approximately ten days after reaching Rennes, our first French base, 34th advanced details were already in place at Chateaudun, and approximately ten days later the squadron in its entirety was even past Paris sitting at St. Dizier. The Third Army was driving its armor at a hectic pace and we had to keep up....after all, among other things, we were George Patton's "right flank". Reconnaissance had become an important commodity....so important we had top priority on each airstrip taken -- and they wanted us on it "then" -- not today, but "yesterday". Really believe it, Air Reconnaissance had been accepted.
One of the TAC-Recce ships that joined the 34th. Designated F-6C, this tactical reconnaissance airframe was based upon the North American P-51 Mustang. The Mustang was used for on-the-spot visual and photographic recce missions and differed from the F-5 Lightning in being fully armed. This particular ship has 5� kills painted below the cockpit. Note the circular, oblique, camera window below the national insignia at the aft end of the ventral intake. (Richard Kill) The times, the electricity in the air, the urgency for success during these days really set the stage. These were busy days to say the least and things promised to get hotter by the minute. We were stepping up our mission rate almost daily and before our replacement pilot pipeline began to function on a regular basis our original pilots on occasion were flying two and even three missions a day. Fortunately, our first increment of replacement pilots joined us at Chalgrove when needed most -- a day or two before the invasion during the heart of our "bread and butter" campaign. Eight "hotrod" fighter pilots came aboard, were immediately photo oriented, checked out and put right to work. By the time we had reached the continent they, like those that followed, were soon seasoned combat photo pilots doing a "helluva" fine job.
Our move to France was a "thing of beauty and a joy forever"...actually the main portion of the Thirty Fourth left Chalgrove, England, its "bedding-down" post for the past five months, on "D-Day plus two"-- "months", that is. Yes, it was 6 August 1944, two months to the day that our "H-hour" forces, using the 34th beach photography, opened those first important beachhead niches.
It was truck and train to Southampton for two days in the marshalling area and then a day and a night to cross the channel by liberty ship. Arriving at the "Beachhead" in late afternoon there was a quick switch to small landing craft with full packs, leggings, steel helmets and carbines swinging, "damn", if the "Thirty Fourth" didn't actually storm "Omaha"--"even got our feet wet". (I guess, according to script Charlie Lanterman should have been leading the charge, waving the flag and yelling "we have returned"). I'm not sure, but maybe it was, Charlie, who then led the troops up that two-mile climb among the "bastion walls" on that evening before our brave lads threw down their bed rolls and blankets to hit the sack for the night.
Awakening on the morning of the 10th the 34th suddenly realized they had been bedded down amid and upon German hand grenades, ammo and gobs of other "jerry" equipment. "There were literally thousands of foxholes all over the place"...and "we saw big guns, little guns...and battered tanks -- theirs and ours -- throughout the area". But then, lo and behold, someone latched on to a 500-gallon keg of hard cider...the 34th was rollin' again.
An additional two or three-mile march, cider with us, of course, and we boarded open six by sixes for a ride of about thirty miles to a rather dusty airstrip just outside Carentan--supposedly our intended designation. In fact, one of our advanced details was awating the main body's arrival there. It had arrived the night before and they had reported, "hearing and seeing heavy 'ack-ack' shelling closeby that night...and during the fireworks display a real mad scramble for helmets when 'pieces of something' began dropping from the heavens in our midst".
A great sense of relief was felt when very timely orders came through for the squadron to continue on immediately to A-27, an airfield at Rennes, France, that had just been taken intact. The truck trip through Normandy and on to Rennes was really one to be remembered. One could always read of the damage inflicted on this once peaceful "hedgerow" countryside but to really appreciate the terrible destruction of war it had to be seen first hand.
By evening of 11 August 1944 the main body of the 34th had traversed the gamut. In full battle regalia it had landed on "Omaha"; stormed the precipitous bastion walls outside St. Lo; hop-scotched from hedgerow to hedgerow through the Normandy countryside; and now rolled some 150 miles, objective in hand into A-27 at Rennes....only to join up with the Air Echelon already in place and doing business -- on a very limited scale, I might add. It was our first but definitely most dramatic of several "landings" to be on the Continent.
Once at Rennes the squadron immediately went under canvas -- this proved to be the pattern for many days to come. The base was large, complete and practically intact but the situation certainly didn't call for residential permanency.
The situation at the front was very fluid and our rapidly advancing armor had left pockets of resistance all around Rennes--we even flew some missions behind us in the Brest peninsula where elements of our Ninth Army were chasing German remnants into the sea. However, the scattered-pocket conditions undoubtedly did serve as a blessing in disguise.
In effect, from our first days in the immediate war zone the 34th was placed in a position of "security awareness". We were on our toes from the start and this definitely enhanced our planning down stream during the enemy infiltration days of the "Bulge". We did, however, suffer our first fairly serious non-combatant casuality here when in a gun-related accident James McAuly was winged across the abdomen. Fortunately he returned to us soon afterward with his great melodious Irish tenor voice "singing" the way.
In an outdoor environment, living conditions were quite nice under pleasant skies for the most part and Rennes served as a 10-day breeding period for living in the field once again. Memories and experiences of Gainesville, Texas and Lousiana maneuvers (without the mosquitoes) in the early '40s came to mind. The days of advanced details, rear details, front echelons and rear echelons were destined to mark our trail from here on out.
And speaking of advanced details we came mighty close to having a really "pre-advanced" one-man detail on the continent (presumably here at Rennes) while still stationed in England. Shortly after the invasion, Ray Beckley, flying one of our more frustrating "bread and butter" missions had been up and down so many times trying to both locate himself and his targets that he was getting the "bends". The weather conditions were horrible and worsening as the mission progressed. Finally, running low on fuel, frustrated and empty-handed, he was forced to call it quits and head for home.
Conditions didn't improve. Believing himself within range of RAF emergency radio assistance he was unable to make contact. Time and distance-wise he placed himself somewhere over Southern England and let down anyway in search of an airfield--any airfield-- and he found one. It was a large one. He had lowered his gear and was on his final approach ready to land -- believe it or not, the tower even gave him a "green light" -- when he alertly (God, only knows how or why) noticed that the vehicular traffic on the road newtork below him going about the base on the right side of the road--not the left! England?--uh--uh--not this time. He immediately tucked up his gear and headed northward finally landing safely on the Isle of Wight with about a teacup full of petrol in each tank. (Reconstruction of this mission after our arrival at Rennes strongly placed the airdrome of intended landing as the then German occupied base of Rennes/St. Jaques). It did happen.
It was also here at Rennes that we had our first encounter -- a pleasant one -- with the "Maquis", the "French Underground". While reconnoitering the surrounding area of the base Dick Wiltse, Frank Spearman and I missed a road and wound up in the "boonies" several kilometers south. By chance we ran into the Maquis area headquarters at a countryside farmhouse. At it turned out we had a most interesting two-hour session including lunch with them. Before leaving, their leader gave us proper directions and warned us of a pocket or two of Germans still in the area. With a "buss" on both cheeks he then tossed a Luger pistol into my hands -- just recently removed from a German SS officer -- and bid us adieu. Believe me, that was one rugged band. (We would fly an important mission in support of our Underground friends later on after reaching Dijon).
Until our overall field operation smoothed out, these initial days on the continent were tedious ones. The transition of field operation had its headaches -- not only for us but for the powers above as well. Teamwork and cooperation between Squadron, Group, Command and even Army was causing problems all the way up the line. But like the others we were able to cope and the transition began to fall into place.
Patton continued his race across France and it was quite evident that Rennes would be only a stopover. As soon as the airfield at Chateaudun was captured the 34th was prepared to move on. On 28 August our advanced detail had arrived at A-39, Chateaudun, France and was already in business servicing our aircraft and pilots who had just returned from their first missions of the day which had originated at Rennes. The main body of the squadron was in place and in business on the day following. On this move we even had a special detail to move a German refueling truck that the 34th had liberated along with a new engine to keep her going. Lee Wigand spotted her originally and the transportation section swung in the new engine, but it took a "borrowed" magneto from a British Lorry to finally get her on the road--thanks again to Lee and his partner in crime, Jim Hanket. The unit really paid for its trouble down the way.
