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By Root 956 0

desolate stands where the bombers were dispersed, pilots watched for the green flare arching into the sky, the signal to start engines. In a long procession Four of a Kind, Little Audrey, Piccadilly Commando, Miss Carriage, Liberty Belle and the rest of their exotically named silver sisterhood swung around the perimeter track on to the runway. One by one, the “Forts” and “Libs” lumbered into the air to take up their places in the rigid formations demanded by U.S. tactical doctrine. The least popular slot was that of “tail-end charlie,” “Purple Heart corner,” first target of German fighters. The crews switched on oxygen at 8,000 feet, and usually approached the enemy coast around 1000 hours. The waist gunners pulled away their hatches, exposing the fuselage to a blast of icy air which chilled every flier, even in a heated suit. Staff-Sergeant John Romine wrote of the special loneliness of the tail gunner: “The few feet that separated us from even the waist gunners seemed like a thousand miles.” Crews tested their thirteen guns before entering German airspace, then settled down for the long run to the target.

For six to ten hours, any flier doing his job properly was required to make a fierce effort of concentration. “In bright sunlight, even with dark glasses our eyes grew tired from squinting,” wrote Carl Fyler, a Kansan who flew B-17s from Molesworth in Cambridgeshire. On overcast days when they were sometimes obliged to rely upon instruments, every crew was haunted by the fear of collision. In these last stages of the war, interference from the Luftwaffe diminished dramatically, even when Göring’s handful of Me-262 jet aircraft joined the battle. The German fighters often found themselves outnumbered forty to one. “Each time I close the canopy before take-off,” wrote a young Luftwaffe pilot gloomily, “I feel that I am closing the lid of my own coffin.” But on bad days the Fortresses and Liberators fought running battles against Focke-Wulfs and Messerschmitts across hundreds of miles of German sky. Flak remained a mortal danger until the last days. There was no counter to anti-aircraft fire save luck. American aircraft were more strongly built than their British counterparts, which relied upon darkness for protection. The heavy armour fitted to USAAF planes required them to carry smaller bombloads than the RAF’s Lancasters and Halifaxes, but they could also survive more punishment. Again and again, American aircraft were desperately damaged, but some of their crewmen survived. A gunner in Carl Fyler’s squadron was hit by shrapnel which tore off his left arm and inflicted mortal internal wounds. The doomed man crawled forward to the wounded waist gunners, whose arms were broken. He buckled on their parachutes and helped them to bail out before he himself went down with the stricken plane. He was recommended for a posthumous Medal of Honor, for a display of courage and sacrifice of the kind which was often asked of bomber aircrew.

Formation-flying was an intensely demanding discipline, requiring relentless commitment by every pilot, and above all from the lead aircraft. Returning from bombing oil refineries in Rumania on 13 September 1944, Arthur Miller’s squadron were appalled to find themselves flying headlong towards a mountainside. They pulled up steeply, prompting a storm of abuse over the radio, directed against their leader. “You fucking bastard,” shouted a pilot, “trying to kill us all for shoe shines.” After a shocked pause, the colonel commanding the formation said: “This is Red Leader—plane making comment, identify yourself now.” There was another silence, then laughter, snickers, and an outpouring of fearful anger from other aircraft: “Red Leader, why don’t you go and sit in a corner and play with yourself and shine your balls, if you have any”; “You turd-eating son-of-a-bitch, you almost had your day of reckoning”; “If you had marched today and your uniform was on straight, you wouldn’t be flying into mountains, you cocksucking motherfucker.” At last, they landed in Italy to refuel. Miller was surprised to