A challenging day
Text: Richard Plos
Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz
Cat. No. 11181
Strong winds brush the surface of the sea, and the tops of the waves are decorated with white foam. But not even the elements can compete with the thousands of vessels heading for the Normandy shores that morning. The sound of aircraft engines makes the men on board look up. As many of them plead with God to protect them, the hundreds of planes heading for the coast will try to do the same...
The D-Day, the Allied landings in France, represented the deployment of an enormous force. This included the 352nd Fighter Group and its three squadrons the 328th FS, 486th FS and 487th FS. Their Mustangs, which the entire group had only two months earlier re-equipped to, were adorned with blue bows. They have been nicknamed the "Blue-nosed Bastards of Bodney" for them and the base from which they operated.
Midnight briefing
Early in the morning of June 5, 1944, it is clear that something is going to happen. Missions are planned and then cancelled, flight operations are scarce, and by 3:30 in the afternoon the entire base is closed. The enlisted men are ordered to guard the perimeter and man the anti-aircraft guns.
Several aircraft return from a mission over mainland Europe in the early afternoon, and the pilots learn immediately upon landing, from their mechanics, that there is an order to paint white and black stripes on all aircraft. So, cans of paint are distributed on individual stands and everybody able to pick up a paintbrush starts the work. This is about ninety Mustangs so the ground staff must do their part. In contrast, the pilots are told to rest during the day and get as much sleep as possible because a very early morning mission is planned. Rice pudding, among other things, is served for dinner. It turns out it is contaminated with salmonella, and soon several pilots and mechanics find themselves in a somewhat unusable state ...
The briefing takes place at midnight and the pilots learn what they had more or less suspected. The invasion is here! It’s obvious that it’s going to be a busy day, as evidenced by the base surgeon’s words, he tells the pilots that he’s tasked with keeping them in the air until the beaches are fully secured. Even at the cost of having to give them some “pep pills” (amphetamine). In the end, that won’t be necessary, even though the pilots will spend up to 16 hours in the cockpits of their Mustangs. The adrenaline and the knowledge of the importance of what they’re doing will help. Watching hundreds of landing craft below them is an unforgettable and highly emotional experience. They are well aware that it is up to them to protect the 160,000 men on board from the deadly attacks of the Luftwaffe, and that they must destroy as much enemy equipment and manpower as possible.
You can get an idea of what it must have looked like during the flyover of the landing zone from Piotr Forkasiewicz’s boxart for Limited kit No. 11181. It shows the aircraft of Capt. Henry White of the 328th FS and Lt. Carlton Fuhrman of the 466th FS.
Fire at anything that moves!
First combat mission of the entire 352nd FG is scheduled for 02:00 and the 486th Squadron is the first to take to the air. The next two will follow 30 minutes apart. Thus, at 2 a.m., four mustangs line up on the runway, wing to wing, with experienced pilots in cockpits taking deep breaths and moving the throttles forward. The darkness is cut by the roar of Merlins driven up to maximum revs and the first flight takes off into the night sky. Just half a minute later, the second flight is ready to take off. The darkness, to which daytime fighters are not accustomed, makes orientation difficult and they deviate from the runway centerline to the right. Lt. Bob Frascotti suddenly sees the silhouette of the newly constructed control tower in front of him. It is the last thing he ever sees, for in the next second his Mustang shatters against it and explodes. It is the first aerial casualty of the entire Operation Overlord. The resulting fire then eases the takeoff orientation for the others at the cost of this tragedy.
Most pilots fly three missions during D-Day. On the first, they fly to an area about 50 miles south of the beaches, where they join hundreds of other Allied fighters. The goal is to create an impenetrable barrier from ground level to more than 9,000 feet, preventing German aircraft to reach the landing beaches.
Then, during the second and third missions, the “Bodney Bastards” scurry at low altitudes over land with a clear mission: Fire on anything that moves and heads for the beaches. The Mustangs destroy trucks, buses, carriages hauling guns and enemy manpower. The French Resistance has told people in the area to stay indoors all day if possible and not to go out at all, and especially not to go on the roads to minimize the risk of civilian casualties.
The fighting on the beaches continues, but the work of the daytime fighters ends at dusk. Many more casualties will be needed, but nothing can stop the Allied forces. And the “Bodney Bastards” will return to their usual business of escorting bomber formations over Germany. In less than a year, it will all be over...