Word: escorting
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When the first Spits and Thunderbolts started their escort work last spring, trigger-itchy gunners of Forts and Liberators warned them that it was hard to distinguish between friend & foe in an air battle. Some friendly fighters were shot down before fighters learned never to point their noses at bombers, as attacking Nazis do. Some bomber men had to be taught better recognition and understanding of fighter tactics...
...typical escort mission Cummings' crew chiefs readied their Thunderbolts before dawn. Then the muddy-floored briefing room filled with leather-jacketed pilots. They listened to Wild Bill's parting advice on the flight plan and tactics, took off. The crew chiefs gathered around the loudspeaker to "sweat out" their pilots and planes...
Before U.S. long-range fighters got to the European theater, R.A.F. Spitfiremen did most of the escort work, and handily, but their range was limited. The Forts and Liberators got help only at the start and end of missions...
These figures made it clear that 1) the German fighters had found ways to break through the long-range escort cover; 2) when they did, the bombers with new and improved gun turrets were well able to take care of themselves. New German tactics were unavailing. Rocket-carrying Me-210s lined up six abreast, attacked the bombers head on, peeled off to the left. Then five or six more would come...
Last week the Admiralty reported that five U-boats were sunk, three crippled by Allied warships and planes in a two-day battle. A pack of 20 subs had attacked two adjacent convoys. Land-based U.S. planes from Iceland, British and Canadian planes from England, escort-carrier planes teamed with British destroyers and frigates. After the eighth submarine was hit, the enemy kept their distance. "Ninety nine percent" of the merchantmen got through safely. Not a British warship was scratched. The British lost three planes...