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The 50th Fighter Group |
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The 50th FG was comprised of a group headquarters with 27 Officers, 1 warrant officer and 57 enlisted men and three P47 fighter squadrons.  The staff organization for the 50th Fghter Group would have been divided into four sections: Each squadron had 39 officers, 245 enlisted men and a minu- mum of 25 serviceable aircraft.    Total compliment of the group would have been 144 officers, 1 Warrant Officer, 805 enlisted men and approx. 75 aircraft. |
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 The Group HQ (see photo above) had a Brockhouse trailer and a marquee tent (a very large tent),both on lend lease for the operations an intelligence sections, files, maps etc. and group - mission briefings. The Intelligence Section also had use of an farm hut for debriefing pilots, that was also used as a ration store. Each Fighter Squadron also had Brock house trailers as offices for Operations and Intelligence, and used their own creativity with tents & crates to make their own briefing and pilots' ready rooms. The Group Weather Section also had a van of its own. The Brockhouse van, caravan or trailer was a 4 wheel metal sided towed rectangular trailer with doors at each end. Communications: Group HQ and each squadron had their own communications section. Group had a direct phone line to 9th Fighter Command HQ. Written orders were received via teletype. Personnel also handled a code room and radar (ground based homing and aircraft IFF equipment - (Identification: Friend or Foe). The Group message center was tied in with a local electrical power source, with auxiliary generators for backup. Each squadron's communications people rotated operating the field's CNS or Control Net System, with "three trucks, one transmitter, one receiver and another receiver with a rotating directional antenna... the homing van." The homing van was located in the middle of the main runway. Ground Services:  Lymington had five blister hangars, four which the engineering section used to serviced and maintained all the group's P-47 aircrafts. The fifth hangar's approach way was to narrow for planes and was used instead for storage, the enlisted men's movies, and even as a group chapel. Around the perimeter there was a motor pool, a bomb dump, fuel pumping area, ammo storage, supply areas and tents for living area, plus a firing butts to line up the eight 50 cal. wing guns on each plane. Vehicles used included jeeps, 3/4 ton and 2 1/2 ton trucks, bomb lift trucks, crash trucks, ambulances, bomb trailers, 2 wheel carryall and drinking water trailers, gasoline tankers (which refuelled the planes directly), tractors, bulldozers. US Army trucks delivered the armaments from Christ Church.  The Orderley Room, Supply, enlisted mens' mess hall, and kitchen were set up in each squadron areas while operations functioned in a trailer near the airfield line. A pilots assembly tent was set up adjacent to the trailer and Intelligence operated next to it. Nearby was the parachute shop.  The aircraft line was centered about the squadrons' blister hangar, communications, armament and ordnance pitched their tents conveniently close to it. Tech Supply and the Engineering office operate from within the blister hangar.  Cleveland Cletrac M2: Each squadron had two Cletracs fitted with a generator, and both high pressure air for the undercarriage struts and low air pressure for the tires. The Cletracs also had a winch on the front and carried locally made tow bars on the side. The Cletracs were also used to pull the water tankers. The ground crew also used Jeeps to tow planes however most of the time the planes were taxied to the revetment on their own power, unless they were unserviceable. To start the engines they some times used a battery, but the ground crews had energizing power plants to wind the actuator up before engaging. These were used only if there was a starting problem or in cold weather. When they were started, there was always a Crew Chief or assistant standing by with a fire extinguisher, as they would easily catch fire from excess gas. The armorers used a belt repositioning machine supplied by the RAF for aligning and positioning 50-cal. machine gun cartridges. There was also a storage area for the jettisonable gasoline tanks, made from a compressed paper composition, that were manufactured right there in the UK. Lymington's air defense was provided by an unit from the RAF light anti aircraft contingent. Other base security (guard duty) was provided by the 50th support personel and a small attach- ment of Military Police.  The five blister hangars were pretty basic, little more than a large curved steel roof which providing limited protection from the unusually cold and wet weather of early spring 1944. They, plus the fuel pump area, were the only large permanent buildings, that were built by the RAF.  Personnel were scattered around the perimeter, in tents , by squadrons, officers and enlisted men separate. Officers ate in a combined "Officers' Mess," a long marquee tent. Enlisted men were served from cook tents in each squadron area. Senior officers were bilted in Pylewell House. Pilots and other Officers quarters: were pyramidal tents which held four. They slept on fold out canvas cots. For heat they only had a small cylindrical stove about two feet high, coal fired, with a stove pipe running up through the roof of the tent which could and sometimes did char when the pipe got too hot. Latrines were waist high black "buckets" with wooden seats, behind roofless canvas screening. Exposed pipelines brought cold water into the tent area for washing. Medical: Group HQ and each of the squadrons had medical sections, with three officers including a dental surgeon at Group, and one officer, medical technicians and ambulance drivers in each squadron. The Group medical tent was used as a dispensary: pills, shots etc. |
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| The following story "Thunderbolt!", about the P-47 and its role in combat during World War II, was written by Quentin C. Aanenson. This article appears on his Web Site and is copyrighted. It is used here with his kind permission. |
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SiteBuilder Note: Mr. Aanenson, is currently busy writing a companion piece to the PBS special. We encourage you to visit his Web Site, 'A Fighter Pilot's Story', which is listed on our 'Link' page. |
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The P-47 Thunderbolt fully armed, used as intended for close combat ground support, was a formidable killing machine. A single such aircraft could change the outcome of an entire battle! They flew out of temporary airstrips just behind the front lines, with runways of wire mesh over soggy ground. Every day that he climbed into his cockpit, he knew it could be his last. Just taking off with a full load of ordnance (2 - 500 or 1000 lb. bombs, ammunition for the 8 - .50 cal. rapid fire machine guns, and, in the last six months of the war in Europe, 8 rockets) with an extra fuel tank under the belly for extended time over the battlefield, was risky. We were riveted by story after story of perilous combat missions exacting high casualties. His captain's airplane was damaged by ground fire and too crippled to return to base. He bailed out over friendly territory and safely cleared the tail, to Aanenson's relief (because several other pilots in his flight wing did not and died that way). But he was horrified as his captain's parachute failed to open. After an 8000 ft. free fall, his body bounced several feet off the ground. He was buried by French farmers. The most horrible was death by fire, sometimes following a crash on take-off or landing. The searing off of human skin is the most painful. He lost so many close friends from his original flight wing that, towards the end of the war, he refused to make friends with the replacement pilots and did not admit them into his tent. He called his tent, which accommodated four pilots, "Duffy's Tavern," after a popular radio show of that time. Only two of them were left. One of the replacement pilots, he recalled, was killed on his first sortie. Aanenson never knew his name. Close combat ground support was the most dangerous of all fighter plane missions because of the withering ground fire. Enemy airfields were protected by heavy anti-aircraft artillery at each corner so there was no safe direction for approach. A typical mission might be to attack and destroy a German supply train. He would attack the locomotive first to disable or destroy it. But the train was not defenseless. Often a boxcar would drop its side and expose a battery of 20 mm AA cannons aimed directly at the strafing P-47. Aanenson lost comrades to these cannons. Another stratagem would be for the boxcar to shoot a steel cable straight up with a small parachute at the end to slow its descent. Such a cable could cut the wing off an attacking airplane. Despite our belief that the Wehrmacht was totally mechanized, many supply wagons were horse drawn. On his first such sortie, Minnesota farm boy Aanenson could not bear the thought of shooting horses, so he pulled up and away, never depressing the gun trigger on the control stick. He watched the aircraft following him strafe the horse drawn supply convoy and saw the horses trying to get up and run in terrified agony from mortal injuries. He then looped back and returned to finish the job cleanly. After destroying a German troop convoy, Aanenson's right hand and trigger finger froze from the trauma of killing. He rested his paralyzed right arm on top of the stick. He had to use his left hand alternating between the throttle and pushing his stiff right arm to return to base and a safe landing. He still wakes up at night seeing faces on the German soldiers he killed with the horror that they, like he and his buddies, were human beings too. His soul was scarred forever by all the killing. As a youth growing up on a farm in Minnesota, he used to enjoy hunting. However, when he went home on leave towards the end of the war, and took his varmint rifle out to the field to kill a gopher, it sickened him so, that he put his gun away forever, never to hunt again. He recounted the little rituals he and the other pilots followed just before each sortie. If he returned safely, they must have worked. He had letters in his foot locker written to his fiancee and mother just in case he did not return. Everyone was afraid. Death was all around them. It was his ability to control fear and do what had to be done that kept him going. He was only 21 when he enlisted, right after Pearl Harbor, interrupting his college education. The three years, 1942-45, affected deeply the man he became. All of the killing and destruction left demons imprisoned in his soul. It was only in the recounting of all of these experiences after 50 years, at the repeated urgings of his children and grandchildren, that freed him. He skillfully interspersed still photographs from his personal camera, carefully selected photographs from among tens of thousands he viewed at the archives of the National Air and Space Museum, gun camera footage, and clips of contemporary military film of the action related to the air war over Europe from D-Day to VE-Day. He affirmed that given the same choices again he would unhesitatingly make the same decision to fight Nazi tyranny. When asked if he felt he was chosen to survive for a special purpose when so many others perished, he said, "No, I am merely their representative who is telling their story." Since the PBS telecasts in 1994 and 1995, he has received thousands of letters and telephone calls from veterans themselves, their widows, or children recounting their stories. His role has changed to become a grief and post traumatic stress counselor 50 years after the events. "A Fighter Pilot's Story," as told by Capt. Aanenson kept us at the edge of our seats, holding our collective breaths, as his reminisces and recountings were so exciting, and so filled with the deep human emotions of an intelligent, caring, sensitive man, that we were left in awe. |
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In all my years as an Army Air Force pilot in World War Two, I do not ever remember hearing a fighter pilot say, "Darn, I wanted to be a bomber pilot and they stuck me in these doggone fighters." On the other hand, I remember scores of bomber pilots who would have given up all four of those engines on his B-17/B-24 to fly behind the one on a P-51, a P-47, or the two on a P-38. Now, there were a few bomber jocks that preferred the heavies and were happy to be surrounded by kids his own age flying in those terribly dangerous skies over Germany. I think it may have been because misery loves company ...and believe you me ...those bombing raids over Germany (or anywhere else, for that matter) were miserable. But a great many of the ones who wound up in the multi-engine training bases were those who were just too large framed and too tall to fit in the confines of the fighters, or else they were just victims of the numbers game. You see, there were always more requests for single engine than there were slots open... and guess where the overage went! And, oddly enough, once these men became pilots in their respective categories, their personality began to take on radical changes. The fighter guys became the ones with the crushed caps, silk scarfs, and devil-may-care attitudes. They were loud, obnoxious, and God's gift to women (and in those days with all the home town boys gone to the military - they were!). The bomber pilots, however, were more serious, more methodical, more aware of their responsibilities to their crews and the bomber formation around them. The fighter pilots flew formation and practiced a method of taking care of one another's backsides, but when the enemy arose to challenge them, it was quite often every man for himself with planes all over the sky. The bomber boys (and most of them were boys in those days) had to fly, and hold formation within hundreds of bombers in spite of the holocaust around him. They had to push blindly through thousands of antiaircraft explosions, fight a losing battle with whatever enemy fighters managed to get through our own fighter escorts, and hold course, altitude and airspeed in the last few minutes of the bomb run - making them sitting ducks to the antiaircraft guns below. Then they had to go right back through it all to get home! Do you get the picture? I think both sides were just a little disdainful of the other. The bomber guys thought of the jocks as conceited little show-off sob's, and the fighter kids called the big bird pilots "bus drivers." But that was mainly stateside - before those kids went over to become men in combat. Once they had a few missions under their collective belts they began to gain a new respect for each other, and their respective missions. In mortal combat they were all fighting for "keeps" and didn't have time for petty differences. Not only that, they quickly came to realize how much they depended upon one another. Early on, in planning for daylight strategic bombing, the planners believed the enormous firepower of ten 50 caliber machines guns from each bomber, multiplied by the number of bombers in the formation, would be enough to stave off enemy fighters. They soon found out, however, that they were sadly mistaken. Combat experienced German fighter pilots were knocking our bomber out of the sky in alarming numbers. As losses mounted, the planners decided to send escort fighters along for bomber protection, and suddenly the two factions, the fighter pilots and bomber pilots, were together as a team. The concept worked out well, utilizing the only fighter in great enough numbers to accompany them, at that time, which was the P-47 Thunderbolt. The "Jug" pilots were happy - after all they were downing Me109's and FW 190's all over the skies of eastern Europe. But that was just it... they were relageted to that area of Europe because the Thunderbolt's range was not great enough to allow them to follow the bombers deep into Germany where the great amount of targets were located. And so it was, the bombers were still suffering untenable losses on the long range missions. Then, providentially, along came the P-51 Mustangs with their astounding range that could carry them all the way to Berlin and back with the "bus drivers." And that was when things began to change in the air war over Germany. The bomber force still suffered heavy losses, some even to enemy fighters that managed to penetrate the protective screen of escorts, but mainly it was just to antiaircraft fire, now. So the bomber pilots began to see the fighters in a different light. Oh, they still considered them arrogant sob's, but at least they were their sob's, and they dearly loved to see what they had begun to call their "little bitty buddies," making criss crossing con trails above their mighty formations. So the climate between the two factions had begun to change. Where before there was almost "bad blood" between them, the bomber crews would often seek out fighter pilots at the officer's club and buy drinks for the "sob's." Conversely, the fighters were glad to return the favor because they knew the odds were high that the generous bomber pilot would not survive to complete his 25 missions. Having seen the hell that the bomber crews went through to get their bombs on target made our fighters extremely determined that no enemy fighters get through to make it worse, so they fought like tigers to protect them. They didn't get 'em all, but they so decimated the enemy interceptor force that, as time went on, that force became less and less formidable. Now this was not all due to the fighters shooting down the enemy, because there were other factors to consider. All those raids made by the bombers, raids on aircraft factories, oil refineries, ball bearing factories, and others, had a great deterrent effect on the numbers of replacement aircraft produced, and how much fuel was available for those planes they did have. Another factor was in that as our fighters shot down the enemy, many of their experienced pilots were killed and their replacements tended to be low-time pilots with little or no combat experience - easy pickin's for our experienced "sob's." So, with each passing mission, the enemy fighters, which had been such a great force in our bomber losses before, became less and less of a factor in their losses. But, on the other hand, the respect that had grown up between the bomber and fighter pilots, and their emerging desire to coordinate their activities for the common cause, became a great factor in the ultimate victory in the air war over Europe in World War Two. Long live the memories of the days of the "Bus Drivers," and the "SOB's." |
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