Читать книгу Remembering D-day: Personal Histories of Everyday Heroes - Martin Bowman - Страница 61

B-17 navigator, 379th BG, Kimbolton.

‘To be awakened about 04:00 for a mission was pretty much routine but to be hauled out of the sack at about 01:30 to report to briefing – well something unusual must be up, I thought as I groped sleepily for my clothes. The atmosphere at briefing was invariably sombre. Sitting quietly on benches dozing or languidly puffing on cigarettes that glowed eerily in the soft light of the starkly furnished rooms, there was very little talk while the fliers, officers and enlisted men waited for the CO, Colonel Preston, to arrive.

‘“Tenshun!” someone up front bawled when the CO strode in. Everyone arose standing erect, eyes straight ahead. “At ease,” the Colonel said. The men sat down quietly, tensely awaiting roll call and the removal of the cover from the huge map of Europe on which the course to and from the target had been traced. If it showed a deep penetration of Germany that meant dangerous fighter attacks and flak encounters throughout the flight; a groan arose from the dry throats of the airmen that trailed off into excited whispers as briefing continued. But at 02:30, when the briefing officer announced, “This is it – this is D-Day!” it was different; a lusty cheer shattered the quiet of a moment before. Whoops, whispers and yells echoed from the grey walls. It was an unprecedented and ecstatic vocal demonstration by the fliers who had doggedly been carrying the war to Germany for many months with considerable losses of men and planes. It was the day they had awaited to share with the ground forces and together they would assault the Nazi war machine, hopefully gaining a foothold on the mainland with the ultimate goal of driving the Wehrmacht back to the Fatherland and crushing it.’

Feldmarschall Ervin Rommel inspecting his defence forces in Normandy early in 1944. The vehicle is a 7.5 cm gun on a captured French Hotchkiss tank chassis.

Imperial War Museum 11 (H.39)