By: Snapper - 23rd March 2007 at 09:33
hahaha hohoho hehehe
Missions
THE 344th Bombardment Group’s first mission from Stansted took place on March 6th 1944 when 37 Marauders pressed home an attack against targets at Conches, in France.
During one of the early missions the Group suffered its first major accident. Two Marauders of 494 Squadron collided in mid-air as they emerged from the clouds. Both planes plummeted to earth carrying all twelve crew members to their deaths.
Despite this tragedy, the rest of the crews proceeded to their target, Soesterberg, Holland and braving intense anti aircraft fire succeeded in dropping hundreds of bombs on the target with good results. Fourteen of the 52 Marauders that reached the target were damaged by enemy ‘flak’ but there were no further losses to crews or aircraft.
D-Day, 6th June 1944 was a memorable day for the 344th Bombardment Group when they had the honour of leading the 9th USAAF into action against beach defences, prior to landing-craft assaults by the Allied Ground Forces as part of Operation Overlord.
Fifty-six Marauders took off from Stansted shortly after 04.00 hrs on that historic day. The Group flew in three formations across the English Channel and dropped many hundreds of bombs on heavy coastal gun batteries situated on the Cherbourg Peninsular and nearby Normandy invasion beaches.
During the summer of 1944 the 344th Bombardment Group continued their support of the allied invasion, and moved their base from Stansted to France in September to be nearer the centre of operations.
They received a Distinguished Unit Citation for three days of action on 24th, 25th and 26th of July 1944.
The ‘Silver Streaks’ carried out 266 missions and dropped a total of some 7,000 tons of bombs on enemy targets during their offensive operations in Europe.
TOP
Aircraft
THE SQUADRONS of the 344th were equipped with Martin B26 Marauder twin-engined bombers.
The B26 was considered to be one of the sleekest shaped aircraft to see action in the Second World War.
During its early flights, the medium type bomber gained plenty of notoriety due to its poor climb performance, fast landing speed and practically non-existent single-engine capability.
The aircraft became known as “The Widow Maker” due to the plane’s alarmingly high accident rate. Design and training improvements however proved successful and the Marauder found its niche operating against targets in Europe from Stansted and other East Anglian airfields. Consequently, the Marauder survived its earlier reputation and became one of the most successful allied bombers with combat losses of less than one-half of one percent during the European campaign.
By: Carpetbagger - 23rd March 2007 at 09:21
Well, switch off after 10 minutes or so, after the B26 material is all used up.
Had to laugh that they were based at Stansted.
John
By: SINE MORA - 22nd March 2007 at 18:22
quite simply one of the worst war films i’ve ever seen, made force ten from navarone look like oscar material!!
very bad imatation germans, wooden americans and dodgy frenchies all set in a very dry californian looking “FRANCE”.
avoid!
By: PaulR - 22nd March 2007 at 12:42
A review of this film is available at the NY Times site
By: Carpetbagger - 22nd March 2007 at 12:35
This Sky+ remote record is a real boon. No missed programs and best of all, no getting home to find the missus has taped Richard & Judy instead, if anything.:)
Sign In
March 22, 2007 at 9:26 am